Erin, 27 years

A mother’s story, by Karen

Ten weeks ago my 27 year old daughter Erin rang asking me to go to the doctors with her. She had been unwell for a while and was concerned because she was struggling to breathe and was suffering agonising pain in her back.
She was sent for x-rays, which confirmed she had pneumonia and she was given a course of antibiotics. The pain in her back was something unconnected or so the doctor thought. A blood test result came back indicating something was going on with her bones and the doctor ordered specific tests. These tests came back clear; however the pneumonia wasn't clearing up.

Pain killers for her back and more antibiotics for the pneumonia were prescribed but still she was getting worse. Over the following four weeks Erin visited the emergency department for the pain, five times. It was on the sixth visit that she called me at 4am because she could not stand the pain any longer. The doctor on duty was miffed by the many visits and did a full body CT scan that revealed extensive bone lesions through the length of her spine, shoulders, pelvic bones and in various spots on her rib cage. We were told that she had 4th stage cancer, that it was aggressive and she was terminal.

Further tests revealed that her pneumonia was lymphangitis carcinomatosis and that her liver was also affected. After two weeks of bone biopsy, CT scans, bone density scans, MRI's and blood tests the doctor said that the primary cancer was ovarian.

A pain management team managed to get Erin's pain under control and she was allowed to come home with me with a referral to King Edward Memorial Women’s Hospital oncology department. Two pain free weeks went by and then one morning it was obvious she had had a major stroke and we were rushing her back to hospital. Erin never recovered from the stroke and suffered yet another one, a week to the day later. Three days later she passed away. It has been a week since I held my daughter as she died. Erin was such a beautiful brave young woman who said she was more worried about our grief than she was about her death. I will miss her dearly.

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