My dad was diagionised with stage 4 oesophageal cancer with secondary’s in the live and lung back in March. Started chemo a short time after, and too look at him you would not have known that anything was wrong. In fact friends were saying how well he was looking, so much so that dad felt he was a fraud and that he was not as ill as the Dr had told him.
Then bang… second CT scan and the Dr confirms that the chemo has not worked as the tumour in the oesophageal has not shrunk as much as they had wanted and that there were more secondary’s in the liver.
As such the plan was for dad to start five rounds of Taxol. The side-effects have been terrible, loos of his hair, loss of felling in his fingers, loss of energy, unable to eat or drink, being sick (black), so ended up back in hospital and required rehydrating and topped up with vitamin B6 and Magnesium, followed by a platelet transfusion.
To make matters worse, dad lives in Cyprus, so not even a car journey down the road. The Dr appears wonderful, but the palliative care that is on offer is next to nothing, no equipment to support with living at home, and no care staff to call and support both dad and mum at this very difficult time.
It sounds like the road that dad is going on is only heading one way, and I am at a loss as I do not feel that I am able to offer dad the support that he now needs.
Where would we be without our wonderful NHS and palliative care teams, including the hospices that offer so much support to families up and down the country?
