Malcolm Cowen's Pages

I am a fraid to say that today Malcolm lost  his battle with cancer. He passed away at 1.35 this afternoon.

The family had been with him since 10 p.m. last night and it was lovely to reminice with him and play some of his own songs and also to play The Moldau by Smetna his favouiritre piece of music.

He was a wonderful  honest gentleman whom I married 47 years ago. Neither of us had any regrets and he died a completely  fulfilled man ready to meet  with God.

I will write one more blog after Chrsitmas to let you know dates and times of his funeral and celebration service.

Safe in the  arms of Jesus. As our eldest son said  he is now a foot taller with no scoliosis or cancer or arthritis.  Goodnight my love.

First of all a message from Malcolm

The hair has grown longer and stragglier so now I have to reluctantly say it looks good. Some peope even say I am a punk Peter Capaldi.

We heard today he is to have a stent fitted in his abdomen  onFriday. If this works he has a chance and could even  come home soon. But not for Christmas so we shall divide Christmas between eating at home and seeing Malcolm. His ward will be strewn with paper as we re going to take our presents  with us to open together.   If it does not  work ————-

Still on a drip poor love but came off oxyen today to see if he needs it.  He had 12 visitors yesterday and  3 more today. One came  a 3 hour drive to see him and stayed all day. The staff are amazed  how popular he is.

I trace the  rainbow through the rain.

Tiredness has kept me away from the blog lately. 7 hours visiting a day even not always talking but reading or doing cross words can be tiring. Especially as  I appear to have ricked my neck and am in pain myself at present. Any way enough of me.

News re Malcolm is still a rollercoaster as we are given conflicting reports re diagnonosis and treatment. Today he was put on 48 hours nil by mouth  and is on  a hydration drip to rest his digestive sysytem.  I helped him wash today and change his clothes and he had 8 other visitors today which was lovely and he cheered up quite a lot . 2 of our visitors came in dressed in red shiny  wigs which were amazing and gave way to a lot of hilarity. Quite confused the ward and staff as well.  Great fun. Why be sad all the time.  Lets laugh. We did.

He is now very tired and so this evening he slept most of visiting time  and I did crosswords. I like  word puzzles but not the cryptic ones. I am not that clever.

Any way we wait now until Monday when he gets looked at again. Tomorrow is a special day. All our grand kids are coming to the hospital for a special visit and photo with Taid  in the conservatory at Chrsities.  It is the right time to see him. Afterwards he will need to sleep again I am sure. But it will be worth it.

And so to bed.

I am sorry to say this new  fight is a losing battle for Malcolm. The cancer is in the stomach lining and cannot be treated. The consultant said if he was strong enough they would consider chemo after Jan but that gives him a year. Without chemo need I say more.

Yesterday he was spaced out on morphine and  annti nausea tablets and antibiotics and he was falling and unable to  eat . He did not know where he was and was confused. We  were worried. Today on the phone he sounded more with it but that was before they gave him pain relief.

Our family have been great. Engineer son spent 2 days at hospital with me and the others were on the phone almost hourly.

On a lighter note as visiting times are restricted on his new ward I went to a panto rehearsal. One of the songs I have to sing is “I want to be Happy” There’s irony for you. But I felt better for being there. Life goes on.  It must.

More later.

I’ve not posted because I’ve been inside again (no not Strangeways – I mean hospital).

I got a call from the Christie doctor who saw me. She had seen the preliminary scan report, and there was something odd about the kidneys, so she wants me to come in to her clinic on Monday.  She seemed to be thinking infection or chemo damage rather then cancer.  She added that if my abdominal pain got any worse, then I should ring their hotline. Continue reading »