THE WAR VETERAN

Roy was a man with multiple myeloma, he had a poor prognosis. He was a DVA patient & had been a POW in the Second World War. He had deteriorated recently, & as a community nurse I was visiting 1-2 times a week to see how he & his wife were fairing at home. On this one day I was sitting there listening to Roy & all of a sudden a change came across the right side of his face – it grew dark & disfigured. I had to get out of there, I needed some fresh air. I said my goodbyes & that I would see them next week. Roy would receive some devastating news soon after, scans revealed that he had further osteolytic lesions (bone destruction), they were to the left side of his head. Roy died a few weeks later in a repatriation hospital.