Update on Karen´s Mum

I wanted to thank you on behalf of dear Karen, for your prayers and comforting words during this difficult process she is going through with her mum. (see my previous post) She wrote an email yesterday and I thought it would be good to share it with you and solicit your prayers again...thanks!

........" Today the doctor attempted to extract liquid from Mum’s lung to be able to analyse it and diagnose what the swelling in the lungs is. Unfortunately, she was unable to extract any liquid at all and is reluctant to try with a thicker needle. She has requested another chest x-ray to check on the amount of liquid in the lung. There is a danger of an infection returning if the liquid remains there for too long.

They are now hoping to discharge her this week, but she will need to be on oxygen at home and will continue to use the inhalers. Today we encouraged her to walk a bit further (she can’t go too far as she is attached to the oxygen on the wall) and she ventured out into the corridor, turned around and walked back to the chair. She did this twice.

She has now had the catheter removed so we are attempting to retrain her bladder and bowels – she was not incontinent during the day before hospitalisation and only of urine during the night. The staff don’t seem too confident that this is possible as she has been in diapers for five weeks now. This makes it difficult as we are constantly struggling with them to at least try. It would obviously be much better if we could get her retrained in this area before coming home.

Once discharged, Mum will come to my house and a physiotherapist will visit her for rehab. I will have to try and get a GP assigned to her at the local health centre to follow up her progress.

There is also the question of the possibility of the lung cancer having returned. At the moment, Mum is not in any condition to return to the UK and see her specialist there and the waiting list in Madrid for a specialist is very long. I am going to try and get the hospital to assign her a specialist before we leave, although I don’t know whether this is possible. It also means putting Mum in the picture about the cancer possibility whereas at the moment we haven’t told her but are concentrating on getting her mobile enough to come home.

So it is still very much up and down. I don’t know how I am going to cope once she is home, even with the help of a dear friend who has offered to come every morning to help get her up, washed and dressed. It will obviously mean a tremendous change in our lifestyle and for an indetermined period. We can only trust the Lord in all of this and look for His provision. We are all very tired but appreciate all the practical help we are getting from friends and family.

With love,

Karen "