This time last week was the worst time i have ever had to face. I am 26 years old and i have lost my Dad , 57 to this evil disease.
On November 29th Dad was diagnosed with Oesophageal Cancer after having difficulty swallowing. The doctors offered him Chemo treatment which would last about 6 months to shrink the tumour. When Mum told all of us we were all very positive as we know that Dad was a clever man and had great fighting spirit. He had his first round of Chemo on 3rd Jan and felt very positive and much better after it. When he was due to go to his 2nd Chemo treatment he was told his blood count was low, therefore had to have a blood transfusion instead of the Chemo. After his blood transfusion he seemed to feel much worse, spending his days in bed , having no energy and feeling very unwell. On Thursday 9th Feb my mum took him into his routine meeting with the consultant. He walked into the hospital and fainted as he came out of the lift. He was taken to the Oncology Day Unit and was given a bed whilst they waited for the doctor. He was in this room for over 5 hours without any fluids or any sign of a doctor. He fainted again whilst in this room and then was taken to the Oncology Department on a ward. Me and mum stayed with him until about 10pm to let him get some sleep and to come back in the morning.
My mum recieved a call at 6am on Friday 10th Feb saying that Dad had sufferred a major bleed that night and had to be ressucitated. We were all told that the tumour had a catastrophic bleed and he lost an enormous amount of blood. He spent two weeks on the Oncology Ward with various other CT scans, blood tests, observations. On Valentines Day the doctor got all of us together ( he had 4 kids) and told us they were not going to continue anymore treatment and that the Chemo is not working.- I will never have Valentines Day again.
On Thursday 23rd of Feb he was discharged on to come home on Pallative Care. He was on various pain releif and medication so was quite sleepy most days, but we managed to get glimpses of him now and then. His condition deteriorated on Tuesday 28th Feb and no longer felt like eating and became more and more confused. He developed a rattling chest so we called the nurse out and she gave him something to stop the secretions.
On Wednesday 1st March ( St Davids Day) my dear dear Dad passed away with mum lying next to him telling him how much we all loved him.
I just cannot get my head around why it was him that had to go, he was too young, he will never see his grandchildren and will never walk me down the ailse. He was a talented man , an artist and illustrator , he had so much more to give. His life was so cruely taken away from him and we had no time. Many of the stories i have read on here are about older people, by no means does that make it easier. I just need to make sense of why my Dad? Why this young?
