Life is so short....

Date:  Jan 30 2010...she falls in the wee hours of the morning...gets up and once again falls....when her husband rises to seek her out...he finds her on the bathroom floor unable to get up...he helps her up amidst her screams of pain and realizes that this means a trip to the hospital.
Date:  Mid February 2010....after 2 ct scans, numerous series of blood work, x-rays etc., the family is advised that she now has to contend with lung cancer...too much to let go...but at the age of 75...she decides that the offer of chemo and/or radiation is denied...she will try to survive the deadly disease
Date:  Late February 2010...family is advised that she is not healing as well as expected...the pain is still severe, efforts to get her up and moving come on deaf ears....suggestion to apply for long term care facility as the option to send her home is not on the list of even remote possiblilty...she talks to her husband and they discuss the options...she does not want to go to "a home"....
Date:  Early March  2010...the option of returning to her home is out!  Suggestion to move her to paliative care....which may take 2 days to 2 weeks...this is the decided choice.
Date:  2 days later...time...9pm...he is notified from the hospital that she has attempted to get out of bed and has fallen....no serious injuries but they are moving her immediately to paliative care...
Date:  Mid March 2010....she is declining quickly...now placed on oxygen full time, she cannot move out of bed without assistance.  She spends most of her time in slumber, and in a "awake state"...she talks about cleaning the room, hearing animal noises which are not being heard by anyone else...
So....is this quality of life.  I say not....the family is aware of what will eventually happen...she will decline food or water, she will spend more time sleeping, oxygen saturation levels will increase and then one day...she will drift off....
Yes I say life is too short, but at what time to we say....this is not quality of existence....when do we decide enough suffering is enough...for both the dying and the family....
I wish that time comes soon....for not to say goodbye to that family member....but to ease the pain and for the family to begin the process of mourning...to accept the loss.....