Karen´s Mum

I just wanted to let all of you who have been praying for Karen´s mum, that she sadly passed away today at 3:00pm (15:00) in a hospital in Madrid.

The last few weeks have been very tiring for Karen with her mum being in and out of hospital and all that that entails both physically and emotionally. Karen and her sisters/family will continue to need your prayers as they walk through the mourning process.

Sadly, Karen lost her Father barely two years ago, so these have been very intensive months/years culminating in her mother´s passing. I´m sure she would greatly appreciate your prayers and comments of comfort and support.

Thanks so much to all of you.

Another update on Karen´s mum

Just a quick note to those who haven’t heard yet that Mum is back in hospital. The GP thought it would be good to rule out the possibility of a blood clot on the lungs and sent us to A&E yesterday. They decided to keep her in as she has a lot of liquid in her lungs, low oxygen levels in the blood, and is very tired and short of breath. The emergency doctor said the worst thing at the moment is her heart.

She has been put on the Medical Oncology ward and will have another CAT scan on Monday and a test to see whether she has a blood clot on the lung, although they don’t think this is likely.

My sister Suzanne arrives here tomorrow evening with some documents from Mum’s chest specialist in the UK. Marilynn is due to arrive next Friday, but is wondering whether to change her flight and come earlier. It is difficult to know really.

Love Karen


THanks for your continued prayers and support.

Update on Karen´s Mum

Here´s an update from Karen´s Mum:


My Mum came home form hospital on Friday evening. She has had a bad cough over the last week and the Dr said she would be better off at home as she could catch a bad infection at the hospital. This afternoon she was breathing much better.

It has been very tiring looking after her so far, and initially I really felt I couldn’t cope. It isn’t just the practical side but also the emotional as she keeps saying how bad she feels, which then makes me wonder whether it is the cancer. On the last day in hospital I saw the oncologist, who was not very encouraging. She has looked at Mum’s CAT scan and informed me that there is fluid accumulation and swelling of the lymph glands in the right lung and fluid in the pericardial sac (around the heart). The oncologist’s initial diagnosis is that it looks malignant and Mum’s current state of health would rule out chemotherapy. However, in order to correctly assess the situation, the oncologist needs a complete case history with copies of the scans and x-rays. Specifically she needs to know what type of lung cancer was initially diagnosed and why chemotherapy was ruled out. I have to try and get all this information from the UK.

The oncologist did say she thought it would be better for Mum’s own specialist to see her, but given the other circumstances I don’t know that this will be possible – i.e. that she needs to do physiotherapy to regain mobility after the hip replacement op and that in the UK she was living on her own, which at the moment would be impossible. Also, she is still on oxygen so I would imagine that would make travelling difficult even if her general health would enable her to travel.

She has been through a lot these last five weeks and the Lord has been gracious and has spared her life. My prayer is that His purposes would be fulfilled in her life and that she would be truly aware of His presence.

Thanks again for your continued prayers, Karen.


Thanks guys for keeping Karen in prayer... she has greatly appreciate your support and comments....

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 "

Please Pray

I can not believe that I havent considered doing this before now...but as the proverbial saying goes... "better late than never!"

Karen, a dear and beloved friend to me, has been really going through a tough time lately, (click here for more details.) and I wanted to solicit your prayers for her.

Her mother, who normally lives in England, was visiting her here , but has been in hospital for almost one month! As you can imagine this has placed a tremendous stress on her and her family. There was one day when the doctors gave her mother just hours to live.

Now she is doing much better and those of us close to her have been helping out by making food, visiting and spending the nights with her mother to give Karen a break. Nonetheless I would like to ask you to pray for her and to encourage her by dropping her a comment on her blog. I am sure she would so greatly appreciate it. After all that is what the Body of Christ is for... right??