Feels like the beginning of the end

It feels like the beginning of the end of a long journey for my partner (F/50). She has been fighting stage 4 appendix cancer with goblet/signet cell. It metastasized to the peritoneum, where it ran rampant for a year and a half. She's had a HIPEC, two resections, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, and surgeries that I'm probably forgetting. She did nearly a year and a half of chemo, which she thankfully tolerated well.

Recently, she took a turn for the worse. She was in the hospital for 5 days for a suspected bowel obstruction that ended up being a distended colon between the resections. Since then, for the last week, she has eaten barely anything and only sips ice water and occasional juice. She spends over 18 hours a day sleeping.

Her personality has also changed. She was once the emotional heart of our family and an extremely sharp conversationalist. Now she's nearly emotionless, and it's difficult to talk with her. Tasks like finding a file on her hard drive or responding to a question are very challenging.

I knew she would start to decline. I just didn't think it would be so sudden. Just a few months ago, she was still playing tennis, traveling, and eating normally.

We are going to see specialists on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and get a second opinion in a week and a half, but I fear there is little they can do. They won't recommend surgery or chemotherapy for a patient who isn't eating and in poor physical shape. We have arranged for hospice care. If there are no treatment options, that's what we must do. It just breaks my heart that this is her fate.