Story
On 6th June 2015 my grandad passed away. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in April and given between a few weeks and a few months to live.
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I have written out the events as they transpired for people to read if they wish.
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On
Monday, 13th April my Granddad, Cyril, was taken into Epsom Hospital.
He was found by his carers in the morning half collapsed out of bed. He
said he was getting up as they arrived and lost his balance. When he was
assessed at the hospital they found that he had a yeast infection in
his mouth, a chest infection, and a urine infection. He was put on
antibiotics, a food drip - nil by mouth, and a drip for hydration. The
doctors wanted to do a CT scan as they thought that he had had a small
stroke because his speech was slurred and he had loss of balance. If the
CT scan was negative they wanted to do a MRI.
He
had the CT scan today. He has a "massive midline brain tumour"
(doctor's words) in the middle of his brain. My father (his only
remaining son and next of kin, Peter) and I will be talking to the
doctors tomorrow about surgery and how to proceed. We are also going to
decide whether or not to tell him. The doctors want Peter to sign a DNR
on behalf of my granddad. The brain tumour is the reason for his slurred
speech, and bad balance. At the moment we are unsure how long he has
had the tumour.
My granddad turned 90 this year.
21st April 2015.
The doctors estimate weeks - months possibly for him to live. He will probably have at home palliative care and steroids.
The
hospital will get carers for him on the NHS, but it could take a few
weeks. They will start steroids now to see if it reduces the swelling of
the brain caused by the tumour. It is causing him to not be able to
swallow at the moment, he can't go home with the food line in his nose
in case it moves and the food goes into his lungs. If/when he goes home,
he will probably have to live downstairs in a hospital bed because as
it progresses he will become more bed-bound. Due to his age and current
condition the neurologists at St George's hospital do not want to
operate.
At the moment
he doesn't not know about any of this, he kept falling asleep when we
were visiting today, we tried to wake him when we left but we couldn't.
It has been decided that we won't tell him outright, but if he asks
questions we will answer honestly. The consultant said that people only
ask questions that they want to hear the answer to.
23rd/24th April 2015.
He was told about his brain cancer.
About 18th may he went into a care home.
28th May 2015.
The
care home say he has deteriorated rapidly. He is on low dose steroids,
but it is obvious that he has a lot of pressure on his brain. My dad
went to visit him this afternoon, my grandad didn't recognise
him. Yesterday he told my dad that he heard my grandma speak to him. She
passed away June 2009.
31st May 2015.
The
care home are now saying that my granddad is deteriorating very
quickly, they are calling in the doctor tomorrow because he is hardly
eating or drinking. He keeps asking where Audrey (his wife who passed away 8th June 2009)
and Alan (his son who passed away when he was 9/10 years old) are. We
should be expecting a phone call from the care home, sometime between a
couple of days and a couple of weeks most probably.
5th June 2015.
His
breathing is raspy, he is on higher steroids, which at first helped him
to recognise us. He is also on pain killers as he looks in pain, but
cannot express himself. He clutches at his face, rubs his head, tries to
move himself. As expected, he is still deteriorating.
6th June 2015.
The care home called this morning to say that he is getting worse, and that they have given him more painkillers.
4.40pm The care home called to say that he has passed away. They checked on him at 4.15pm and he was OK, they came back 5-10 minutes later and he had passed away.