Mine: My Mom was in the hospital dying of cancer. She was so ill that she couldn’t move her legs. They were swollen. She couldn’t move her body without being turned, she had pneumonia, various infections in her body, she was skin and bones except for a tumor the size of a football that made her stomach feel like stone. Then there was the malignant Ascites. Malignant Ascites is an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity.
Generally, patients suffering from malignant ascites have a poor prognosis implying a median survival time of 1–4 months, depending greatly on the underlying type of tumour and its stage.
Six litres of fluid where pressing on her lungs. She could barely breathe even though she was on full oxygen. We were waiting on one doctor to come and drain the fluid. We had to wait for 4 days. Four days of watching fight for breathe. The 3rd night, she took a turn for the worse and we thought that she wouldn’t make it through the night. There are four kids in my family and I am the youngest. We had to take turns and sit in with her (in her hospital room) through the night. When it was your turn, the others went to rest.
My turn: I walked in and saw her there all hooked up to the oxygen. The mask covering a good portion of her face. She hadn’t slept in days, as she was working like crazy to breathe. You could see the muscles in her chest working so that she could breathe. She was exhausted. I held her hand for awhile and I was scared. After awhile, I decided to let her rest and stood at the end of the bed. At one point, I caught myself rocking back and forth (from side to side), it was as though I was trying to comfort myself.
I try not to think about it. It was scariest time of my life.