"What a difference those angels have made"

My mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 heart failure, she was given nebivolol and furosemide, she ballooned in size dramatically. The GPs said there was nothing else they could do for her and that she was going to die any day, she was so very poorly, she couldn't walk as her legs like everything else, were so swollen. She sat gasping for breath all day and night. She felt so ill she stopped eating completely, her face and hands and feet were an awful purple colour. She has always been a strong women all her life but here she was, tears constantly streaming down her face, she kept saying she wished the Good Lord would take her soon as she couldn't take much more. It broke my heart to see her suffer so much..

Then, Mel and Kelly from the heart failure team, cardiac support services, Exeter came to see mum. Within a few hours mum was in a bed on a ward in the hospital, she was put on a saline drip, put on oxygen, given intravenous diuretics and had her legs bandaged more appropriately (her shins were covered in water blisters that leaked constantly).

She was soon losing appropriately 2 litres of water a day, via a catheter, after a few days she could breathe normally without oxygen. She started eating, her legs began to heal.. within a few weeks she was completely transformed! She was able to walk properly, had a good appetite, no problems breathing, she had shrunk to a normal healthy size, she was laughing and chatting to the other patients in the day room, and after four weeks she came home!

She was able to get herself up, washed and dressed, when I came over to mum's one day with her lunch I found her hanging her "smalls" on the washing line! We're planning a trip to our local garden where they supply wheel chairs, it'll be great pushing her round all the lovely plants and we're hoping if she's not too tired, to stop there and have cup of coffee or maybe even a bit of lunch! Now I'm fully aware that mum is still a poorly lady and that our time with her is short but what a difference those "angels" Kelly and Mel from Exeter Heart Failure Team have made to all of our lives...

We'll never be able to truly express our deepest thanks and gratitude. Hopefully now, when mum's time does come, it will be with peace and serenity. God bless those girls.