Margaret’s legs caused her so much pain. I took these photos at A & E on Friday 9 June 2023. There was little that the hospital was able to do about the legs – or about so much else.
Margaret was dying and her death could not be prevented.
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Blog 232 finished with extracts from my diary entries for Thursday 6 July 2023. This Blog continues my diary entries from the point where Blog 232 finished.
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Thursday 6 July 2023 Blog 232’s diary entry finishes this way. [Marg falls asleep as we try and watch tv. She cannot sit in the sofa but can sit in a kitchen chair. As exhaustion conquers her, her head slumps forward and she is in danger of falling. I sit in a separate chair beside her. I love her and I am losing her. I must keep going. I persuade Margaret we should go to bed at 10.50 and I get her into bed by 11.15 pm. Tonight she has taken two Panadol for pain plus one Oxazepam to help her sleep..] **** Friday 7 July 2023 The diary entry for 7 July 2023 continues. She wakes at 1.57 am on Friday 7 July. She is confused but not as much as on the previous night. She insists that she needs to wriggle her body around on the mattress and that if she does, this will help with the shocking pain she is in. I try to help her move her legs and eventually persuade her that she can go back to sleep. Marg wakes again at 2.50 am and I ask her for a cuddle before I very carefully help her into the bathroom for a pee. I feel her bones across her body. There is no spare flesh left on Margaret. She is unable to sleep after the pee and I help her use the walker to get into the living room. We talk about her impending death and what I will need to do to restart my life once she is dead. She is completely lucid and not at all confused. Margaret talks about saying good to the staff at Lift after the Palliative Care team make contact on Monday. I am very doubtful she will still be alive on Monday 10 July, but she may be because the in-home hairdresser Zofia is due at 10.00 am and perhaps Marg will hold on to her life until her final hair tinting is complete. I promise to personally visit Beckman Deli this morning and thank the staff there on her behalf. At 4.25 am I bring the scales into the living room from the bathroom. Wearing her dressing gown and with slippers on, Margaret weighs 40.8 kilograms.; her dressing gown weighs about the same as mine. I weigh myself with and without my dressing gown on. My dressing gown weighs 1.1 kilograms. Margaret’s weight without the dressing gown and slippers – and the slippers have very little weight – was about 39.7 kilograms at 4.25 am today. I wonder if Margaret will die today. I hope so. She has suffered far too much. The hissing of the universe is back. Margaret is asleep with her head slumped on the table. I took a photo. It is now 6.58 am. Margaret is still slumped on the table asleep at 7.26 am. I hope this is the end; please let it be the end. No more suffering, please. I wait and watch. I have got dressed, not bothered with a shower. Margaret woke at 7.50 am and insisted I go to the bakery and then to the barber for a haircut. I am permitted to return home after the barber to help her to the bathroom. After that I am to go to the supermarket. I go to the bakery and the barber and return home to help Margaret to the bathroom. She is still in great pain but insists that I go to the supermarket. I am on the way home from the supermarket at 12.30 when Jameson rings. He says he is unable to come to our place at 1.15 as arranged because he has a work shift. I had no idea he was supposed to be at our place. Two minutes later, Maurine rings and asks how far away from home I am. I say I will be home in five minutes and she says she will meet me there. Maurine arrives at the same time as I do. Jim arrives five minutes later. Margaret is in the living room and in extreme pain. She has decided that she needs to go to hospital. She puts in a call for Dr Bishnoi while Jim rings for an ambulance. The ambulance arrive about 20 minutes later. Marg tells them she would prefer to be taken to Ashford. For 1 ½ hours the ambulance crew try to find an A & E in a private hospital that will let her come in. No A & E in any private hospital in Adelaide will accept any additional patients. Yoga teacher Robyn rang at 2.13 pm while the ambulance crew were attending to Margaret. I didn’t answer the call. I couldn’t. I rang Robyn back at 2.26 and told her that the ambulance was present and that Margaret would be taken to hospital but that I did not then know what hospital. The call lasted 5 minutes 18 seconds. At 2.59 pm I received a text from Heather. The text left no doubt that Heather had indeed blocked my phone number on her phone. Having received a call from Robyn, she had unblocked me so she could send me the text. This is Heather’s text.
Then the ambulance crew check the situation in the public hospital A & Es. At this point, Queen Elizabeth Hospital has the least wait for getting into A & E, so Margaret agrees she should be taken to QEH. Margaret is still in extreme pain when she is carefully manoeuvred into the ambulance. Before moving, the ambulance crew again check which A & E is currently moving patients more quickly. The RAH is now the best option, so we go to the RAH. By this stage it is about 6.00 pm; it is dark and it is raining. There are eight other ambulances in front of us, waiting to be able to take their patients into A & E. The ambulance crew senior member goes into A & E to talk to the triage nurse. When he returns ten minutes later, he has extraordinary news. The triage nurse has agreed that Margaret should be admitted immediately into A & E. |
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A brief explanation about the text from Heather.
Heather had cancelled me and Margaret and had refused to come anywhere near our house after January 2021. I had tried to keep her informed about Margaret but never received a reply. I presume she blocked my number to make sure she could not be bothered by getting any calls or texts from me.
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