The Kindness of Strangers

My dad is an avid lifelong supporter and shareholder of Portsmouth Football Club and as our long time followers are aware my dad also has Alzheimer's

 The other day dad broke his favourite cereal bowl which he's had for years and got really upset, it was his much loved Portsmouth FC cereal bowl that he uses each morning to start his day

It may sound like such a small thing to get upset about, but to dad this cereal bowl holds so many of his precious memories about Portsmouth FC

With so many of dads memories disappearing as each week passes, this bowl was important to help keep his memories alive of of his favourite football club

As a surprise I went to order dad a new bowl off the Pompey website only to discover

What a Week!

Sunday

At 0245 I was woken from my slumbers to a phone call from Care Line, the phone call I've been dreading for some time now, one of my parents needed help

I was informed my dad was suffering with chest pains and that an ambulance was on its way to him, I quickly got dressed and drove straight to my parents house

As I pulled up I was relieved to see the Abulance crew were already on site and had everything under control, they were just getting ready to pack up their equipment and take my dad to the A&E at Guildford Hospital and I was to follow along behind

Once dad was admitted into A&E and had some tests done it was soon established that his sodium levels were really high and that he was very dehydrated, so he was immediately put on a drip to rehydrate him

After a while dad was taken down for a CT scan to

Rollercoaster Ride

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs, we made it to the end of dad's radiotherapy treatment for esophageal cancer. Even the snow didn't stop us, who'd have thought that 4 weeks could be so long and stressful, now we wait for everything to heal before scans can be done to find out if dad's in the clear

We celebrated by walking The Boys which dad really enjoyed, he's a massive dog lover and has really missed seeing them these past 4 weeks with everything that's been going on

Flagging Heavily

Only six more radiotherapy sessions left to complete of twenty, dad is holding up really well and amazingly is experiencing very few side affects apart from a bit of a cough and needing a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin was getting low

Me on the other hand I'm flagging heavily with driving fifty odd miles every day to the hospital and back, I've been so busy ensuring mum and dads prescriptions were filled and with getting dad to the hospital every day, I completely forgot to renew my own prescriptions

My Wonderful Dad

Well that's it, dad finally had his last scan done on Friday, the consultants are getting together tomorrow and will work out which treatment plan is best suited to his fight with Esophageal Cancer

Everyday dad seems to be getting frailer and frailer before my eyes, my big strong dad who's always been my rock is fast disappearing into the shell of a person I hardly recognise because of Dementia 

We're still waiting on the exact diognosis of what type of dementia he has since his brain scan which was done about 6 weeks ago

His wit and sense of humour is still there though, usually at the most inappropriate moments which always cracks me up and we laugh together

Good Riddence 2022

Good Riddence 2022 it has not been nice knowing you!

I'm sure some good things must have happened but I honestly can't remember them over the 💩 you've dealt us as a family

2023 is also going to have a tough start, especially for my dad as he starts his fight against Esophageal Cancer

My mum is living in her own world these days due to the Vascular Dementia caused by her stroke in 2021 which is tough on everybody, what little empathy she ever had for others which wasn't much, has now completely disappeared

My uncle was finally laid to rest in Cyprus after we weren't informed of his death until several months after the fact