There is nothing scarier than when a doctor tells someone you love there is a mass inside them and they don’t know what it is.
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Your mind leaps often to the worst possible diagnosis and then you have to keep telling yourself to look at the facts and not deal with the “could bes”.
This has been my mother’s journey for the past month. Three weeks in hospital with test after test, scan after scan and finally a biopsy.
Not knowing what might be around the corner for someone you love is so frightening. I lost my dad when I was 19. He spent the final eight years of his life in a hospital.
And now here was my strong and amazing mum in terrible pain with a cloud hanging over her head.
However she was exceptionally cool and calm despite constant poking and prodding.
My state of mind was not quite so calm, but for the best part of this medical adventure I actually did okay.
Except when trying to find parking near our major hospital … And when I say near, that’s exactly what I mean.
There was no expectation that I could park my car right outside the entrance, but I was hoping to park at least within reasonable walking distance.
But on many occasions this was simply not the case and I quite often spent at least 20 minutes before striking it lucky.
Usually I ended up a number of blocks away in the suburban streets of South Launceston.
As I trudged through the autumn leaves making my way through the side streets and up the hill, I began to wonder how elderly people who were visiting their loved ones coped with this.
How on earth were people not quite as good on their feet as I might be, making this trek every day over long periods of time?
Feeling so worried about my mum, the struggle to find a parking space somewhere became a really stressful part of my day.
I just wanted to be with her, take her the things she needed which often involved bags of fresh clothing and a few other supplies.
So how would someone who did not qualify for disability parking, but was simply a little more fragile, maybe just because they were in their more senior years, manage this?
We are so fortunate to have this major hospital in the centre of our community, but it’s family and friends who surround you at such times that make all the difference.
And it appears we have not made this particularly easy.
I have no idea what the answer is but let me tell you, I was more than relieved the day my mum came back home.
The 20 minutes I spent each day for the past three weeks just trying to park my car is now spent having a cup of tea and a cuddle.