In my mother's name I wish to give a testimonial and history of her illness to the Journal, so that the readers thereof may profit by it as she did by those that appeared in our periodicals.
About last April my mother was taken to her bed. Thinking it was an attack of her frequent headaches, which in turn acted upon her heart and stomach, we did not pay much attention to it, and thought it would pass off in a few days.
There seemed to be no improvement, however, and we sent for the doctor. He did not think it serious. Contrary to our expectations, new complications set in. My mother could not keep anything on her stomach, she was failing fast because she could not eat. Her heart beat rapidly, sometimes thumping and pounding, then fluttering, and again normal. These palpitations were followed by enlargement of the neck, which the doctor diagnosed as goitre. The doctor called daily; he was very kind and did all he could to relieve the suffering. A new symptom appeared. Insomnia was beginning to show itself. My mother could not sleep; she tossed and turned all night. The doctor, thinking to relieve her, administered hypodermic injections of morphine. This had the desired effect, she fell asleep, but the doses had to be stronger and more frequent to be effective. Matters did not mend any, and we called in a specialist. His diagnosis coincided with that of our family physician. A change of surroundings was suggested; we took our mother to the hospital. Here she remained five weeks, she was kept on a prescribed diet, everything being given with hot water. Medicines and drugs were given about every two hours. She could not sleep, morphine was administered constantly and very often produced horrible dreams, which left her in a very nervous state. Not showing much improvement and tired of the hospital she insisted upon returning home. Conditions were about the same, directions from the doctors were exactly followed. The doctor suggested more morphine and gradually the habit was becoming dominant. At first my mother realized this and fought against it bravely, but at times she became so irritable and despondent that she fairly begged for it. She was given so much that her brain was perceptibly affected. Her mind, always so bright, would wander at times. All things had a gloomy outlook for us.
