Posts by Alexander Castillo5

My mother passed away the day before yesterday. Her final days were incredibly difficult... death brought her relief, which I must focus on. But for us, there is only an emptiness and grief for all the future moments we won't be able to share with her...

Many thanks to Angela Wright and brisklynx62 for the responses. I hope no one else has to endure what my family and many others facing serious illness go through. Stay strong, brisklynx62.

I am writing because I no longer know how to handle what my family and I are going through. My mother (61) is in the terminal stage; she fought pancreatic cancer for two and a half years. She stopped chemotherapy this summer. Since May, she hasn't been walking, and her condition has worsened significantly over the last month. She has lost an incredible amount of weight and is at most 40kg. She eats nothing, looks pale, and can barely keep her eyes open. She receives occasional IV fluids. Everything hurts her. For weeks now, she has been bedridden (until last month we used a wheelchair to take her to the bathroom), and we are using diapers. But as soon as we lift or move her, she cries out in pain. It is unbearable. My father and I are her caregivers. It is agonizing to watch her suffering and agony. Lately, Mom has difficulty breathing, speaks incoherently, and begs us to give her something to end her life. She told us to pray that she passes away soon because she cannot go on like this. I am also worried about my father; he went through a previous illness, and I see how much this situation is affecting and destroying him. I fear this will break him too. Sometimes I truly wish for her torment to end quickly, because that would mean the end of the suffering for my father and for me. This morning, I spent an hour listening to her beg us to shorten her misery. She literally eats nothing, her ankles are severely swollen, and the rest of her body is just skin and bones—unrecognizable. Does anyone know how much longer a state like this can last?