Saturday, April 14, 2012

I watched

I watched my father-in-law die today.

He was 84 and had been in a rest-home for a while. Had a GI tract upset over the past couple of weeks, not helped by large doses of iron tablets. Complained of gut pain but otherwise his normal cheery self. But very weak.

This morning the home rang my husband. It was urgent. An ambulance was called. I received the message and bolted to A&E with tissues and juice and hair still dripping from the shower. That was about 10am.

Met husband, mother-in-law and eldest stepson in the resus-room. My husband's ex-wife's-Mum brought the other 2 kids in.

The doctor explained that they suspected he had ruptured his lower aorta, but after ultrasound checks decided it was more likely to be either a ruptured bowel or clot preventing blood reaching the bowel.

FIL couldn't talk and he was having lots of trouble breathing. The hospice nurse was called and she spoke of "changing focus".

FIL was given more fentanyl and later morphine for the pain.

He passed away at noon, surrounded by love.

We are ok. Very sad, but grieving positively. There have been floods of love and support from everyone touched by this.

4 comments:

  1. my condolences. I hope everybody gets peace.

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  2. I am so sorry. May the floods of love and support keep on coming.

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  3. Hi,

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  4. I'm so sorry for your loss. I haven't been around much, thought you had stopped writing for a while.

    Don't know if you remember me or followed me over when I switched blog platform. Anyway, I'm former Cattiz (colours of cattiz) gone marwil :)

    ReplyDelete