[BigSalParticipant]

Thank you Emma, Eva, Dai and David so much for your good wishes. I wish you and your loved ones good health and courage!

Sal x

[BigSalParticipant]

Thank you Grayham, Jean, Mavis, Tom and Jill for your kind replies. I think we are all a little in shock at the speed of everything.

I would say that the nursing staff at the hospital were very good at explaining to us the Liverpool Care Pathway – which has had a lot of bad press – and that it seemed to make sense once he had said "no more treatment". I had read that they "withhold" food and fluids, but that's not the case. He could have anything to eat or drink that he wanted. But I now understand that if you give intravenous fluids to someone whose body isn't processing them, this isn't a good thing.

Just hope this is of some help to anyone in the same sad situation.

Sal

[BigSalParticipant]

Hi Emma,

Thank you so much for your reply – it's so good to know that there are others out there going through the same things. Glad your mum's kidneys have improved, but sorry about the hip!

My mum reported dad had a better night last night. They have changed his pain medication from morphine which was giving him hallucinations – made him paranoid, poor thing. Now he is on a synthetic morphine and something else that I wrote down somewhere… so many drugs! Anyway fingers crossed that these suit him better.

Sal

[BigSalParticipant]

Hi Tom and thank you for your good wishes.

Dad is in Derby. He's not able to take thalidomide so was started on Velcade plus 2 other drugs (not 100% sure which). He's had one cycle but unfortunately has a weak heart (heart attack 2 years ago) and we were shocked to learn that he has had 2 more heart attacks since he has been in hospital. So they may not continue with the chemo, it's going to be reviewed.

However he is going to have 5 days of radiotherapy on his back – it's apparently possible that this may help his acute pain, but not guaranteed.

The medical staff have been very helpful but I get the feeling that they are not sure what to do, given his age and state of health. Worrying.

[Author]

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