Aug. 27: 12:20 pm. Our Hospice nurses and social worker have recently left, and I finished making some initial phone calls, so now it’s time for a web update. And the update is that we are going to hold tight.
The nurses and our social worker talked to us quite a bit about what has been going on over the last couple days. They also did an examination of my mom up in her room. At this time, they don’t feel like she has any care needs that aren’t being attended to here at home.
After last night’s events, my dad is feeling really overwhelmed and like she needs greater, more 24 hour care than what we are able to provide here at home. Right now, though, Mom isn’t interested in moving from the bed at all and declined several suggestions that we move her to the Hospice center.
At the moment, Dad and Terry and Michael have gone out to get some lunch, Maretta is holding down the fort at my house, her fiance, Kyle, is on the way down to see her from St. Paul, and Joe just arrived with his friends from their multi-thousand-mile-trip to Bowdoin. Mom has been sleeping for the last seven hours or so.
So we’re in a bit of a holding pattern. We have someone from Hospice coming by early this afternoon to help Mom do some self-care. Then we have another nurse coming by this evening. Michael and Dad and I are going to figure out a way of doing shifts so that someone is able to respond to any of Mom’s needs throughout the night while the rest of us get some rest.
The nurses seemed to think that in the next 24 hours or so we would be able to tell if Mom has hit a plateau of sorts or if she is going to experience more of a decline. In terms of care, the entire emphasis at this point is on keeping her comfortable and safe. Feels like it’s been a big day already!
I’ll continue to update as the situation moves forward.
~Althea