Mum seemed to be doing well in January and in February celebrated her 70th Birthday. But, at the beginning of March, things took a turn and Mum started getting breathlessness and was rushed into hospital. Mum kept having to have fluid removed from her breast area. Eventually, my sister learnt how to do this and Mum was allowed home and doctors arranged for an MRI to see what was causing the problem.
The results came through, and it was not good. The Sarcoma had spread so quickly, and it was this that was causing this fluid build-up. Mum was discharged from the hospital on the 20th or 21st March. Community Nurses came around to drain the fluid each day, and they arranged for a delivery of oxygen as Mum needed assistance to breathe.
We also had an appointment back up at the Royal Marsden in London on Monday 25th March. Mum dramatically went downhill on the Saturday before, and after an emergency call to the doctor’s service, I drove off to pick up a Morphine prescription.
Mum decided she still wanted to travel to London, so made all the necessary arrangements and headed into London.
Mum was so weak and almost as soon as we arrived my sister had to get Mum to a room to do another drainage quickly. The consultants gently told us that Mum was far too weak to undergo a Drugs Trial programme. The best thing we could do was to get Mum home to Devon.
We went back to Devon that night, getting her home around midnight. The doctor came on the Wednesday having to ask horrendous questions about do not resuscitate, and the nurses came from Macmillan & Rowcroft.
In the early hours of Thursday 28th March, I lay on the bed with Mum, holding her. I will never forget the moment she passed around 9 am.