The End

The worst year of my life, I was devastated by the sudden death of my Mother earlier in the year, Mom fell over Christmas 2016 breaking her hip, she had a hip replacement operation in January a day after her 84^th birthday this being her 2^nd hip replacement in 4 years.

All seemed well as Mom was back on her feet a day after the operation and wanted to come home asap, after being home a few weeks she ended up mostly bed ridden from swelling ankles, Mom had heart surgery 30 plus years ago, doctors are careful what medication they give her, always delaying the process, a few weeks passed and Mom seemed less coherent than her normal bright self. Doctors thought maybe an infection, she had been diagnosed a year back with a stomach disease Diverticulitis, so a course of antibiotics was given then another and another.

As normal I check Mom first thing in the morning if she hasn’t called me, she was fast asleep which was good to see as Mom hardly slept more than a few hours each night, I checked back a few times and still asleep, very unusual I thought, after a few hours she came around but wasn’t making sense and her words all mixed up and confused, at this point I said to my Dad I think I need to call the Doctor.

The Doctor requested and ambulance and Mom was whisked off to our local hospital a few miles away with me following in the car, early diagnosis was they had no idea what was wrong with Mom maybe a stroke or an infection which was also causing the Aphasia – difficulty in conveying thoughts through speech.

Over the weeks she was moved from ward to ward and was going downhill fast, still making little sense when she was trying to communicate, at one point she refused all medication and wasn’t eating, she said she wouldn’t be coming out of the hospital. Obviously we had a lot of faith in the hospital as it’s not the first time Mother had been near death in her previous 84 years, after many calls and talks with the hospital staff they told me Mom need and operation on her stomach, unfortunately by the time they had found the proper specialist to see her she was beyond help, they found a big mass of impacted faeces blocking her bowel with a 10% chance of survival, the morning of the 14 April 2017 Mom passed away, her last words to me – help me!
These two words haunt me daily.

It’s been a very difficult year for my Dad and I, having the motivation to do anything is virtually impossible and trying to communicate with people even more so, they say time heals, this is the first time I have been able to write anything about this, I’m only mentioning this now as most of us take life for granted unless we have gone through some traumatic event ourselves,  so please, contact, call, message or even better go and hug your family and friends immediately and don’t leave it till another time as there may not be another time …..

2018 is just around the corner, keep it in mind that you live only once, life is shorts, rules are meant to be broken and having fun and creating memories are all that counts.

Wishing you a happy and magical New Year. Hope it brings you lots of joy and happiness. All the best
Adrian