Jazzy's Final Hours
Jazzy
started complaining of headaches on Monday the 9th
of February, 1998. At first we didn’t think much of it,
but the headaches continued. By Wednesday night the vomiting
began. Up until this time Jazzy was still happy and playful.
We even had her on the swings at the park at 8.00 PM on
Wednesday evening. Jazzy was scheduled for a CT scan on the
Thursday morning at 11.00 AM. Jazzy was laid on the scanning
table and the scan began. I was in the scan room with the
radiologist as the pictures were appearing on the screen. It
was plainly obvious, even to me, what the problem was. The
tumor in Jazzy’s frontal lobe, which had been reduced by
75%, just two months before, had grown back and was now about
5 CM in size. The tumor was causing major Hydrocephalus, and
this was responsible for the headaches and the vomiting.
Jazzy was then given morphine, which would continue unabated
until the end, it relieved the pain instantly.
She was then hooked up to an IV via her port and fluids were administered. Jazzy was fine for about two hours but she then went to sleep. The doctors came in to our room about two hours after the CT, and told us that Jazzy had only day’s to week’s left to live. Little did they know? Zofran was then administered IV to try and control the vomiting. Unfortunately it continued all night.
Jazzy had a very bad night, at one point Helena was changing her nappy and Jazzy spoke the last words we would ever hear, she said "Thank you Mummy".
The next morning the Oncologist’s changed the anti nausea medication and the vomiting stopped. Jazzy slept all of Friday, on Friday afternoon Kale leaned over to give Jazzy a kiss, and just at that moment Jazzy had her first seizure. I had never seen a seizure before and it scared the hell out of me, you can imagine what it did to Kale, who is only five years old. Throughout Friday night and into early Saturday morning Jazzy continued to deteriorate rapidly.
By 3.00 AM Jazzy was having seizure after seizure. The nurses were trying to control them with anti seizure medication but they just kept happening. I should emphasize at this point that at no time did Jazzy appear to be in any pain, however Helena and I had had enough of watching the most precious person in our lives being put through this, and we asked for it to be ended.
The nurses and doctors said that they would administer the anti seizure drugs until they stopped, but that we had to realize that this could affect Jazzy’s ability to be able to breath. We were both prepared to accept the consequences. The seizures finally stopped at about 4.00 am but Jazzy continued to fight on. Her breathing was extremely labored and rattled, and it continued to deteriorate into Saturday morning. By 11.00 am we knew Jazzy would not last much longer, so we began making plans to bring her home to die.
Jazzy had been lying in Helena’s arms all morning, so we decided to lay her on the bed for a while. When Jazzy was put on the bed her breathing stopped and we thought she had died. We were all leaning over her, crying and kissing her goodbye. This went on for about two minutes, when all of a sudden Jazzy took a huge breath and came back to life. The doctors told us that this was they way this would progress, and over the next hour and a half Jazzy continued to pass on and then come back again. I told Helena that she was probably running over to the gates of Heaven, ringing the doorbell and then running back to us, just to make a nuisance of her self.
At 12.45 PM the labored, raspy breathing changed to a normal quiet, beautiful breath, then a break of about twenty seconds and then another breath but half the volume of the first. Jazzy took three more small, quiet, peaceful breaths and then passed peacefully though the gates of heaven.
It was an honor and a privilege to see my beautiful daughter pass in such a magnificent way.
Jazzy’s brothers and grand parents were present at her death. Helena, the boys, and I then undressed and washed her.
We then dressed Jazzy in her favorite clothes and laid her on a bed surrounded by her favorite toys. We then spent the next five hours talking to her, kissing her, reading her favorite books and even eating a magnificent Thai lunch.
At 6.00 PM on February the 14th 1998, St Valentines Day, the funeral directors arrived and Jazzy was taken from us to be prepared for her final journey..