PTP (Purely Technical Post)
    Over at The Dailies I just posted a rundown of what is contained in our Hospice Comfort Pack, as explained to me by our visiting Hospice RN yesterday. The immediately previous link will take you to it, if you're interested. Please note, as I also mention in the post: The explanations are not extensive. I wasn't looking for a PDA explanation...merely a thumbnail sketch of why we have them and how we might use them. The RN underlined that before using any of them, at least for the first time, I should always contact Hospice for approval and direction, and, of course, I will.
    Fairly good day, yesterday, for Mom, although we continue to have a problem with edema, even after the 10 mg furosemide I gave her night before last. I talk about it in yesterday's Dailies post. I also discuss my concern over her continuing fairly high BGs in that post. I don't consider either of these huge problems, though, so, for the time being, I'm following my instincts on how to address them and not treating them as emergencies in need of immediate Hospice RN consultation.
    I've been corresponding with Dethmama of Dethmana Chronicles, lately, because I am so impressed with her stories about her experiences as a Hospice Nurse. I like that her writing is simultaneously irreverent and dignified and that she writes to our dirty curiosity about death, rather than our clean, mannerly curiosity. Although the death and pre-death stories published in books such as Final Gifts and Final Journeys are certainly explicit, when reading both I got the feeling of being offered these stories after they had been dusted with a crisp, monogrammed linen handkerchief. Not so Dethmama's stories. She is just as apt to describe a startlingly provocative after-death visit with a survivor as she is to divulge the stark detail of how dysfunction can run riot through the next-of-kin's reaction to the death of a loved one or how the approach of death can unhinge a patient. Anyway, during our recent correspondence she mentioned a blog to me, The Good Death that isn't specifically about Hospice but is about death, in all its aspects. I've scanned a little of it. The author is following her investigative instincts regarding communication and death but the blog is wide ranging, including political information and commentary about death in our society as well as pop culture references, counsel and suggestion and miscellaneous musing about how our society, in general, and people (and animals) she knows, in particular, think about death and prepare for death. Despite its peripheral connection to Hospice, I think I'll include it over there in the Honorable Hospice Blogs section and retitle the section "Honorable Hospice & Death Blogs".
- posted by Gail Rae @ 11:17   email  this post