Coping with Loss of Wife,Best Friend and Soul Mate

Hi, 

I have been with my beautiful wife for 30 years, and we have 3 beautiful teenage daughters.

My wife has been fighting breast cancer since 2009, with numerous Chemotherapies, natural rememdies, surgery and radiotheraphy - after 4/5 years she was in reammission, and then 9 months later in 2015 it came back harder and faster - she has daily lung drains, and was put on various chemotheraphy drugs and in April 2017 she was deemed stage 4 as it had spread to her spine, liver, kidney, both breasts, neck etc - We thought the worse.

I took 9 months off from work to care for my wife, and in that time I studied Chemotherapy treatments, wrote to Pharmecetical firms, and went through weekly blood results in order to do anything I could to save my beloved wifes life.

With my research I was also able to push the Oncologists and talk to them on a 1-2-1 level (even my wife said it was like 2 Oncologists where in the room !) - and I was the one who discovered why my wife had rejected the Chemotherapy in the first place due to her Albumin levels where very low.

Armed with Blood results every week, checking white cells, B12, Albumin I was able to tailor my wifes diet and she was able to have the chemotheraphy week on week.

Working together we managed to keep her alive for another 9 months, however sadly it caught up with her and she died in December 2017 just after Christmas.

Althought this is still very raw, I miss her every day, and have 3-4 breakdowns a day, constant crying, longing, and yearning for my wife - I wear her perfume and jewellery and still sleep with her dressing gown and have kept the house exactly as she left it so ther are no changes "when she returns home"

In 30 years we were together, we were only away from each other for 2 weeks, and we were more than Husband and Wife, she was my soul mate, best friend, we were a unit, we held hands, told each other we loved each other everyday, and I wanted no one else - she was my everything and the only thing in my life I was ever afraid of losing.

I still cry in pain that this could happen to someone so beautiful, and I have had the phases of grief doubt, and anger.

I hate the cliches, "be strong for the children" but how can I when I am not strong for myself, and the girls are teenagers, they are in their rooms talking to their friends, or boyfriends, and I am left on my own - the girls will grow up and I will walk the rest of my time on this earth without my beloved.

I particularly like the "it will get better after the funeral" this I can tell you is ********* ! it has got worse - I have more crying breakdowns, even when I go to places that me and my wife visited I hyper ventilate and freeze on the spot.

Yes I have couselling, but everyday the pain intesifies as does the emptiness and hollowness inside.

I am told I did all I could for my beautiful wife, and I would give everything I own just to have her back with me again.

I wanted to share my story, with others and I read a statistic once that said "75 men a day under the age of 50 are made widowers" and now I am in that statistic.

I am finding it hard to cope everyday, and it feels like my head is caving in with all the tears and emotions - I assume I am not alone

Simon 

Parents
  • Hi Simon my wife of 26 years passed away on the 3rd April this year to metastatic pancreatic cancer we were told in January that she had a tumour and it was inoperable and that she could get chemotherapy to help.We honestly didn’t think that it could get any worse and solely relied on the experts to give us hope/help/answers and because the appointments were infrequent and biopsy results were not immediate we thought there was no cause for concern.How wrong could we have been Andrea who was only 49 years old appeared ok but she complained of pains in her stomach the Macmillan nurse wasn’t in any rush for treatment.But Andrea was admitted to hospital after feeling unwell.The Doctor told us because of the cancer there was a block on her bowel and that she would have an operation to try and unblock this to ease the discomfort.Andrea rang me the next day to ask me to come in early as she needed to see me.I duly did this still blissfully unaware of anything.Andrea told me to sit down and told me that an operation was not an option then my/our world would never be the same again.Andrea told me that she had been told that morning that she was terminal and given 6/8 weeks to live.But she was so calm she said she’d known this was going to be the outcome and that we should plan for the inevitable.How!!!! Had we gone from hope to hopelessness Andrea came home and was fitted with a morphine drive pump  I was given the emergency out of hours numbers for the district nurses and Marie curie nurses a service which we used most nights to  help with Andreas pain along with daily visits from them.Andrea then appeared “ok” but what we thought was ok was far from it.Andrea had an Ng tube fitted to drain the fluids from her stomach. I was out one morning collecting meds for her when the doctor rang to tell us that Andreas condition would be better managed in a hospice.I was allowed to sleep overnight in a chair next to her and go home the next morning to wash and get things together.Andreas meds’ were changed each day to manage sickness and pain.I told the doctors not to give me a timescale and that I would take it from day to day I preyed to god for extra time not years or months just extra weeks we aimed at Mother’s Day and got it we would go out in the grounds and chat I would push Andrea in her chariot and we would talk.Andrea said to me Ray how did we end up like this, I kissed her on her head and said I don’t know my pet.The next target was our 26th wedding anniversary on the 9th of April 2020 Andrea passed away on the 3rd a skeleton of a fine beautiful woman who didn’t know who I was towards the end.Because of the Coronavirus I was told I couldn’t visit but could say my last goodbyes to her on the Thursday morning.I rang the hospice to check on Andrea But was told she’s sleeping and may not wake up .The next night the phone rang to tell me my our world was shattered and life would never ever be good again.Im broken now and blame myself for Andreas death that bloody word death I hate that word.Be strong for the family Andrea said but how? Can I when I dread every morning waking up the loneliness is my torturer now and by god is he making me suffer

  • I am so sorry for your loss, my husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2017, he was so looking forward to going away in the motorhome to France in September with myself and his friend but was advised not to go by his doctor due to secondary liver cancer diagnosis found at ultrasound scan. We didn't find out until October that it was primary pancreatic cancer, I looked up the diagnosis but he didn't. Throughout his chemotherapy he seemed to be doing well, he couldn't understand why he had been given a blue badge and felt he didn't deserve it. In October 2018 we were both in hospital together, him with so much pain in his back and myself with pneumonia, he came out of hospital before me and promised we would go out for a meal when he felt better. It was never to be, he was kept in hospital when he went in for chemo on November 15 due to the pain, we were told and thought he could have a nerve block for the pain but after the Ct scan on Nov 19th was told there was nothing they could do, he ended up having to have 2 syringe drivers one with ketamine just to try and stop the pain. He never made it past the 27th November, died on his sisters birthday, will never get over this

Reply
  • I am so sorry for your loss, my husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2017, he was so looking forward to going away in the motorhome to France in September with myself and his friend but was advised not to go by his doctor due to secondary liver cancer diagnosis found at ultrasound scan. We didn't find out until October that it was primary pancreatic cancer, I looked up the diagnosis but he didn't. Throughout his chemotherapy he seemed to be doing well, he couldn't understand why he had been given a blue badge and felt he didn't deserve it. In October 2018 we were both in hospital together, him with so much pain in his back and myself with pneumonia, he came out of hospital before me and promised we would go out for a meal when he felt better. It was never to be, he was kept in hospital when he went in for chemo on November 15 due to the pain, we were told and thought he could have a nerve block for the pain but after the Ct scan on Nov 19th was told there was nothing they could do, he ended up having to have 2 syringe drivers one with ketamine just to try and stop the pain. He never made it past the 27th November, died on his sisters birthday, will never get over this

Children
  • Thanks for reading my post I hope your pain of your loss ,forgive me what am I talking about I’m breaking our unwritten code of what not to say.From my own experience of loss there are times of the day I dread .The guilt I feel for not pursuing and beating on every door to get answers for Andrea but it happened so quick Andrea being not so bad one minute to being terminal the next and then just a blur ,but she told me well before we were told of the horrible news Andrea said to me this is my last Christmas with yous but whatever I’m facing I’ll fight it to the end.And if I need chemo I’m cutting my hair well before it drops out and Im picking my own groovy bandana s she also said I’m not getting like my mam was I’ll take my own life rather than suffer like she did.Well my sweet and beautiful wife cancer the murderous selfish pig it is pulled all the strings and it dictated it’s murderous plan for you.When we were told of the 6/8 weeks timeline and the make all the memories special cliche we didn’t have time because you were so ill .The cancer demon heard that you had that time but it thought no way are they getting that your getting just 4 weeks of pain .Well my pet your 50th birthday is in August so come to it we’re all missing you.Sorry if reading this and think he’s lost his mind well maybe my days and nights aren’t good.Sorry horsewithnoname take care and id like to give you my love and all people who are grieving xx