Tag: caretaker

Guilt

“There’s nothing you could have done.”

That was from the hospice consultant on the day Trisha died.  In the long run, that may be true, but I still have my doubts.  I can’t help but replay things over in my mind, wondering whether I could have made more of a difference.  One particular example that springs to mind is from 2016.  Trisha had begun to regurgitate food and had been referred for a barium swallow x-ray and other tests, followed by a conversation with a consultant gastroenterologist.

Actually doing the tests was a little difficult because of problems getting Trisha onto the scanning machinery (there’s a lot of accessibility work needs to be done for patients who have severe mobility difficulties and require certain types of examination; it’s not good enough to say ‘oh well, there’s nothing to be done’, but I digress…).  I was still lifting Trisha in and out of the car, and occasionally on and off the bed, so I thought this would be the best course of action to get the tests done.  It was a little more difficult because of having to reach her over to the bed part of the scanner, but we got there.

Anyway, tests done, we get to the subsequent chat with the consultant.  A man in his 70s who’d retired but was doing some locum work to help the hospital out, a fact he reminded us of throughout the appointment.  After seeing Trisha, his initial assessment was to insert a PEG tube at the hospital’s earliest opportunity.  I think my face (and maybe Trisha’s too, I can’t remember) must have gone some way to getting him to change his mind.  I knew what a PEG tube was and the idea of Trisha having to undergo surgery and have one of her few remaining pleasures – eating – taken away didn’t sit well with me.  She was already losing so much, I didn’t want this to be taken from her as well.

Trisha said she wasn’t keen on having surgery or being fed through a tube.  She liked being able to eat, too much to give it up unless she absolutely had to.  I was relieved to hear her say that.  The consultant looked at the test results again, which, bizarrely, given the symptoms, showed no or very little abnormality in swallow, and changed his mind, saying that he was happy for Trisha to manage with me helping her.  We were to contact the hospital if Trisha decided to have a PEG tube inserted and she’d be treated as a priority patient.  Looking back, I wonder if I was too short-sighted.

Should I have been more proactive?  Should I have seen what was going to come?  Ought I to have persuaded Trisha to have the PEG tube?  It’s not that I didn’t try hard enough, I didn’t try to persuade her at all.  I had the greatest influence on Trisha’s decisions.  I was the one pointing out the pros and cons of everything.  Given everything, would I have acted differently?  If I knew then what I know now…

We all have moments like that.  Crossroads where the path taken didn’t work out as hoped or has changed life for the worse, with varying degrees of severity.  You wonder what the outcome of the other path would have been.  I have loads of those too, but few of them have had such life altering – or life ending – consequences.  Maybe there was nothing I could have done in the long term to stop Trisha’s MS from taking her.  I have to trust the judgement of people better qualified to assess that.  But it doesn’t stop me wondering and wishing, and feeling guilty.

So this is Christmas.

So this is Christmas….and how are you getting on?

There’s a train of thought that says the grief that follows the death of a spouse should be kept personal.  Which is a shorthand for the fact that a lot of people can’t or don’t want to deal with the feelings of the widowed (or bereaved, in general).  Or they don’t want to hear that it’s not a clean, upward curve of ‘getting over it’ but a messy splodge of scrabbling around, trying to make sense of what’s happened whilst, at the same time, trying to find some idea of what your future’s going to be.  But people keep asking.

The real meaning behind the question is like the real meaning of Christmas: it differs, depending on the individual.  They range from “I’m genuinely interested and I’m ready for whatever reaction you have” via “I care and hope you’re not doing badly but please don’t break down because I have no idea what to say or do” to the rictus-grinned “I’m only being polite. I’m really looking to reinforce my own feelings and skirt over yours. Don’t you fucking dare bring me down”.

After years of fielding questions about Trisha’s health deteriorating, you quickly learn to spot which is which.  Most people fall into the middle category, which I can understand.  There are some notable and very much appreciated exceptions who come into the first category.  The latter category is quite easy to deal with, barring the good actors who’ve had a bit of a shock but, frankly, they get what they deserve.

So, how am I getting on?  Shit, really.  I keep searching for ways to cope – reading books and watching films about bereaved spouses to see if there are any clues I can glean.  Some are helpful, others offer an excuse for a good weep and a wallow (Mum’s List – Rafe Spall is very, very good).  I know, I know – I don’t need an excuse beyond what’s happened.  The films provide cover.

I’m not feeling festive.  Trisha left 9 weeks ago on Christmas Day.  She absolutely loved Christmas but it feels empty without her.  I’m sure anyone who is experiencing or has experienced the first Christmas after bereavement has a similar feeling, even if it varies in intensity.  I’ve put a few decorations up but it’s been a real effort.  And if I hear Mud’s “Lonely This Christmas” one more time, I am going to let it all out and everyone will just have to cope with it.

I’m tired of the fake smile.  I’m tired of trying to keep up in the jollity stakes.  Being surrounded by TV and other media images of happy couples and smiling families is particularly hard when mine is shattered.  Despite having my mother with me for the past couple of months, I still feel very, very lonely.  It’s not easy continually holding back tears.  Which probably explains the sleeplessness, panic attacks and periodic meltdowns.  Luckily, they’ve only happened at home.

This is not to say that it’s all darkness and shite.  I caught myself thinking about what kind of home I want to live in.  I don’t mean the bricks and mortar, but what I’d put inside.  What I’d put in differently from the furniture I have now.  What kind of environment I’d be happy to call home.  These are the first little bits of future-thought creeping into my head.  Despite them being tiny chinks of bright in comparison with what I’ve written about Christmas, they’re a start.  I’ll take that.

So this is Christmas, and this is how I’m getting on.  Let’s hope the New Year’s easier.  Than the one that’s just gone.

Good grief

This is the first post after losing Trisha.  Seeing those words still causes that now-familiar sting in the eyes and knot in my stomach.  Three weeks on, I still don’t know whether and how much I should tell people.  Do I get my disclosure in first, just ‘out with it’? Or should I keep quiet and wait for people to ask why I’ve a face like The World’s Most Slapped Arse Ever™?  Do I wear my grief on my sleeve or not?

Is there such a thing as ‘good’ grief?  I mean, is there a ‘proper’ way to grieve?  I have no idea.  Logic tells me there is no proper way to grieve, only a personal way that’s peculiar to each individual going through the process.  (Is it just me or does ‘process’ seem like a very unseemly word to describe the sequence of emotions and experiences felt by the bereaved?  It’s something that’s too human to have such a logic-driven, robotic word attached to it.  Just thinking aloud.)  So, why am I thrashing about, trying to figure it all out?

I’ve started to search out all things grief-related.  Books, films, TV programmes, newspaper articles, websites, people on social media in similar circumstances….right now, I’d take runes and tea-leaf readings if I felt they’d help me find my way (I don’t, but as I get more desperate, watch this space).  I’ve become a grief addict.  Hell, I’m even watching Sleepless in Seattle as I write this.  I daresay I’m looking for answers.  The only answer I have for any aspect of life right now is “I don’t know”.

I don’t know where I want to live – as we live (live…lived, whatever…) in a rented bungalow specially adapted for people with disabilities; I can’t stay here, someone who’s been on a waiting list for goodness knows how long will need it.  I don’t know about Christmas, I don’t know what I want to do in life, I don’t even know who I am (I’m the Bourne Widower!).  For sixteen years, I was part of a whole.  Now, I’m a part that’s adrift.

I don’t have any answers.  I don’t even know what the right questions are.