So, it started
today, officially: Hospice. I got a call this morning that our new social
worker was coming to meet my mother today at 1. I arranged to be there.
Shortly after
Guay’s visit, Charles, our new head nurse arrived. Both are amazingly interesting,
attentive, caring and, well… cool people. Guay is thin and stylishly dressed;
and she was clear, honest and direct with my mother. Charles is tall, lanky and
longhaired. He was great: very respectful, very polite and very gentlemanly.
Guay told me that
she could see that my mother is clearly demented and living someplace in the
past. She questioned her and was gentle, but responded honestly to my mother’s
concerns about how she is being treated by Alice and me. Guay said, “You are
weaker now than you were before, and less able to do what you used to do. I can
tell that you were an independent woman, and I understand that this must be
very hard for you.” Later Guay told me that she is here as much for Alice and
for me as for my mother. Yay! AND, she offered to call my aunt for me and speak
to her about the Hospice program to address the resistance to Hospice that I am feeling from her and from my mother’s other relatives.
Charles all but
kissed my mother’s hand upon meeting her. He was very attentive and polite, and
my mother was honored. He gently
checked her physically, carefully asking permission before he listened to her
breathe, took her blood pressure and examined her feet, among other things.
Charles will visit
about once each week. He will be in touch with Alice and with my mother’s
doctor about her medications, her sleep and her progress. We are to call
Hospice if we have ANY questions or concerns, any time of day or night.
The Hospice team
meets every week and every other week
they will discuss my mother’s case. She will be cared for by a neighborhood
team: the social worker, the nurse and the spiritual care counselor.
I love the team
approach, I love the respectful demeanor of the staff and I love the feeling
support that I now have.
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