My mum is 81, 82 this coming July. She first showed worrying symptoms last July - weight loss, breathlessness, exhaustion, very pale, and this worsened in January. My husband and I have been trying to get her to come and live with us for months, but she has refused steadily. It’s about a 2.5-3 hour drive between us. Last Friday my husband went up by train to see her, and found she had collapsed on Thursday afternoon and been lying on the floor for 12-15 hours. He called me, and we decided to bring her to our home, in case it was just a case of good nutrition and sleep. However, on Friday morning it was clear that she needed hospitalisation. We moved to Luxembourg last summer, my mum has been in Belgium for 15 years. She swore black and blue that she had been seeing a doctor but this turned out to be a lie.
On Saturday, they gave her two blood transfusions and put her on a drip. Scans revealed at least two tumours plus bloods showed acute anaemia. These two were around her appendix in large colon, and were removed on Monday in a 3 hour op. We saw her on Tuesday, and she was looking better, although still frail. Wednesday, she was on liquid drip, painkillers and antibiotics. They were taking her for a big scan that evening, but we still haven’t had results. Medics believe she has further lesions on bladder and lungs, but we are not sure, and it has been May Day holiday, so the hospital is on skeleton staff and no one available to talk to us yesterday or today.
Yesterday, we came in to find her back on blood transfusion and with nasal drain to remove fluids from upper intestine, as she has another blockage there. Today, she has also been put on potassium drip. She was very weary. Tuesday and Wednesday, she could joke and be grumpy, but yesterday and today, could hardly keep eyes open while we were there.
My common sense tells me we are counting down her time, but it is frustrating not to be able to have any discussion with medical team or to know if we are talking days, weeks or possibly months. Any advice?
