Hospital visits

8 visits to the CyberKnife surgeon, over 100 visits to the oncologist, mum's main physician, over 60 visits to the neurosurgeon...

Records do not lie. They reveal the unbelievable extent of mum's visits to the hospital in the course of the last six years. Brother went to the two hospitals where mum received her treatments to collect all the documentation necessary to file insurance claims. And the records prove that over the span of six years, mum has undergone such an ordeal. Her will has been so strong, she has been so brave, but the cancer is stronger. Too strong and now she is much weakened and close to defeat...

In and out, in and out, and in recent months more time has been spent in the hospital than outside of it. Appointments, checkups, indices, scans, blood tests, consultations filled with hope of treatment, and consultations filled with dreadful diagnoses and expectations of the worst to come. It has been such a long, long and difficult journey. One that mum embarked mostly on her own.

And it is perhaps coming to an end now that the hospice agreement has been signed. From now on, it is just a matter of treating the symptoms, soothing pain and reducing suffering.