One last trip to the beach

THE enlightenment one feels when their days left on Earth are numbered changes how they read each chapter of their life.

Perhaps this isn’t the case for all but it certainly rings true for Torquay’s Lisa Sinopoli, a mother, daughter and friend whose accepted that, after years of unrelenting pain and suffering, her spirit will soon float among the clouds.

Ms Sinopoli was born with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries – a rare heart defect in which the heart’s lower half is reversed.

Doctors told her parents it would be a miracle if their daughter was to blow out the candle on her first birthday cake.

“Here I am praying to hit 49 next month,” Ms Sinopoli said.

“Two strokes, three heart attacks. I have eight things wrong with my heart and I’m not a candidate for a transplant due to my vessels needing transplanting, which is not considered at all.

“Now my heart has weakened, lungs filled with fluid and organs failing. I need to hit one more milestone before I stop fighting to live.”

Last Monday, Ms Sinopoli’s palliative care nurse Flos Dellebeke took her to Fisho’s using the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s Mobi-Chair beach wheelchair.

Armed with her oxygen tank, Ms Sinopoli said the trip would likely be her last.

Before that day, she hadn’t left home for more than a year.

“It was so beautiful; I wasn’t well that day but I made the effort because I was with my nurse,” she said.

“That chair also floats in the water and to have that access, to go so close to the water and get that fresh ocean air, it is absolutely fantastic.”

Ms Dellebeke (who’s been taking care of Ms Sinopoli for about a year) said her patient’s journey to finding peace in her end was touching.

“She’s very unwell but I think her best thing is this positive attitude that she has and her fantastic sense of humour, a bit of a black sense of humour,” she said.

“Younger people want to stay independent to the end. Lisa’s very honest and has very good insight into her own disease.

“I’ve often said to people when they’re younger (and in palliative care) that they’re the hardest patients to nurse because they don’t admit to pain; they just keep on going, even though they’re really struggling. That’s the admirable thing about it, and a very Aussie thing.”

Ms Sinopoli will be 49 on June 10. Her youngest child, Caleb, will turn 18 on June 19.

She said it was her wish to hold on for her son’s birthday.

“I’ve organised my funeral, or celebration. My coffin is in the garage, everything’s ready.

“We all have regrets in life but we can’t focus on them. We’ve got to love each day as if it’s our last and just love one another.

“I have no regrets; I have my beautiful children and I’m so grateful for that.”

She said in life she had learnt three things she should never have taken for granted – birds, the ocean, and the people she’s met along the way.

“You’re not like everyone else (when facing end of life), it changes every perspective.”

The views and opinions of Flos Dellebeke are her own and not necessarily reflective of her place of employment.