My father passed away Dec. 1 (4 dayIs ago) from pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed 3 weeks ago. His decline was so unbelievably quick. It's like a freight train came barreling thru all of our lives. I will describe what the last month of his life was like and maybe it will help identify if it's truly the end for the person you know who is currently suffering. My dad lost 60 lbs in one year. Then in the last month gained 15 lbs in just fluid from malignant ascites. He looked 9 months pregnant. He had one round of chemo but on e the cancer was found he was already too weak to handle the treatment just from the cancer alone. I should mention he had mets to his liver and lungs. His liver was really effected. He became jaundice. After he decided to decline further treatments, we called in Hospice. They were absolutely wonderful. We were so exhausted from constantly lifting and maneuvering my 200 lb dad because he could not get comfortable at all. It was nice for them to come in and give us meds to help with dilerium. However the meds put him in a drug induced coma so we had to trade in him being able to communicate with us in his last few days for his comfort, which was hard but the right thing to do for him. I highly recommend hospice if you know you've reached the end of the road. It is not pretty to watch and it is very unfair for the person going thru the cancer to have to deal with the discomfort and constant pain. They made my father so comfortable and he went in his sleep.
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My father passed away Dec. 1 (4 dayIs ago) from pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed 3 weeks ago. His decline was so unbelievably quick. It's like a freight train came barreling thru all of our lives. I will describe what the last month of his life was like and maybe it will help identify if it's truly the end for the person you know who is currently suffering. My dad lost 60 lbs in one year. Then in the last month gained 15 lbs in just fluid from malignant ascites. He looked 9 months pregnant. He had one round of chemo but on e the cancer was found he was already too weak to handle the treatment just from the cancer alone. I should mention he had mets to his liver and lungs. His liver was really effected. He became jaundice. After he decided to decline further treatments, we called in Hospice. They were absolutely wonderful. We were so exhausted from constantly lifting and maneuvering my 200 lb dad because he could not get comfortable at all. It was nice for them to come in and give us meds to help with dilerium. However the meds put him in a drug induced coma so we had to trade in him being able to communicate with us in his last few days for his comfort, which was hard but the right thing to do for him. I highly recommend hospice if you know you've reached the end of the road. It is not pretty to watch and it is very unfair for the person going thru the cancer to have to deal with the discomfort and constant pain. They made my father so comfortable and he went in his sleep.
December 5, 2012 - 6:53amThis Comment
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