In a nutshell, most likely the worst of my 43 years so far.

The whole thing started off with a car issue that turned very sour, where a KIA dealership was ready to install a key electronic component back into our vehicle simply because they did not want to admit they were wrong.  By doing do they were ready to put the security of my family at risk,  needless to say I fought hard and strong and finally won my case.

Less than a month later, my mother was diagnosed with ALS, after a routine visit to her doctors to follow-up on an upcoming knee replacement surgery she was never able to return home, stayed over 30 days at overload wing of the emergency room at our local hospital to then be transferred to a senior home.  Both my parents lived together and she was actually caregiver to my father who has dementia / Alzheimer and can’t stay alone.  In that same time frame, I needed to manage to get my father also placed in a senior home  so that he can receive proper care.

Both of them not returning to there home, I also managed clearing out their apartment,  Managed the paperwork, attended to there immediate needs and set up a whole new life routine that would now revolve around them.  Did I mention, I also have a house, 2 kids, a dog and a loving wife.  The summer months around the corner was yet another challenge, Air conditioning is not an included option in senior homes in Quebec.   You have to rent out a unit and trust they will provide service.  Early June a heatwave was around the corner and still no a/c into my mothers room.  Yet another hard fight to have them supply service we agreed to pay for.

Now comes September, early in the month my mothers condition has taken a turn for the worse, her lungs are now affected from the disease and her legs are completely paralyzed.  She takes the hard decision to transfer into a palliative care unit, reasoning is that the nurse to patient ratio is much lower so she should be able to receive better care.  A few day go by, she has a minor breathing condition.  Immediately the doctor in place who I now reference has Dr. Doom, starts to initiate talks of palliative sedation to my mother.  Within 2 days, her fentanyl patches are raised from 6mg to 50mg and she is given morphine shots on regular intervals.  She will have been into palliative care for only 9 days before her hearth gave out to this overdose of opoids.  I agree to the fact that her living condition was really not the greatest but in my mind I strongly believe that if the proper care in regards to ALS had be given to her she would still be here now (2 months later).  She did not want medical aid to die but she was led to death in a clinically accepted way. 

A month goes by, we are still grieving her passing and slowly trying to regain a normal life.  Late October our beloved Yorkshire who’s been an integral part of our family for 8 years now is showing signs of aging, a visit to the veterinary clinic shows us that she has a heart condition and that her days are counted.  On Halloween night we took the heartbreaking decision to end her suffering as she had really feeling bad and there was no viable or optimistic resolution to her condition.  It’s at those times where you realize how much space they take into your lives. 

My family and myself are completely crushed with all that has happened so far this year.

Praying for nothing more bad to occur and that we can slowly move on.