Appreciate the time you have

Unfortunately a bit over a week ago (and only 3 days after officially starting flexible working) things took a turn for the worse. My wife ended up going back into hospital over the weekend, with breathing difficulties - her 4th visit this year. They gave various treatments to stabalise her, then sent her for a CT scan before admitting her. Unfortunately on Monday morning her oncologist reviewed the CT scan and said there were no more treatment options available. She had fought so hard throughout - taking all the different treatments (surgeries, radiotherapy, multiple different chemotherapy treatments). Therefore getting this message that there were no more options really hit her hard and she went rapidly downhill from that point. By Monday evening they gave her drugs to make her more comfortable and said that it was time for any family to come in who wanted to say their goodbyes. By Tuesday morning (1 week ago) she had gone.

I was well aware of the ultimate outcome of the disease (even if my wife did not want to talk about it), however I still expected us to have a few months (or at least a few weeks). In the end it was all so sudden it was a shock and we are still coming to terms with this. Even 12 hours before her death she was still able to walk a short distance and change her pyjamas (with assistance) which makes it seem so unreal. 

I certainly appreciate how hard caring for someone is, both physically, mentally, as well as not being able to plan for the future. However please try to appreciate and make the most of the time you have (even when things are tough) as you never know how long or short this may be...