17 July 2012

Drama at bedtime. The carer arrived at usual to prepare me for bed, last evening, and then took one look at the hoist and confessed that she was not familiar with the sling. Did the green loop go through the yellow loop before the blue loop etc , although she believed she had been shown how it worked, some time ago. After 15 min or so struggling with the sling I insisted that she went and found another carer who was more familiar with it. I certainly did not want another incident of dangling in the air upside-down. We are very fortunate in that we live no more than 100 yards from the Ross Nursing office, so the carer was able to rush over the to find someone who knew what they were doing.

This we did and all was well except that, no doubt, there would be an internal inquest of this incident to ensure it does not happen again

If you read the 14 and 15 July entries you might have wondered if there was something missing.

They concerned our reader, Penny de Quincey’s husband Stuart, last days. I had printed the original contribution as a comment to the entry which had prompted it. I subsequently agreed with Penny that I would publish a special Memorial Contribution, to Stuart, as the way Penny describes Stuart’s care and his last few days, should be an inspiration to us all who find ourselves in a similar position. I have now recaptured the original comment and placed it where it makes sense in combination with the other two smaller contributions that Penny made, the whole now being Stuart’s Memorial Contribution. I urge readers to go back and read 14th and 15th of July entries again, which I trust will now make sense.

Coincidently I received the following comment on my blog from one of my regular readers in the USA, and have forwarded it to Doctor Margaret Saunders of the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge. Coming right after Penny’s contribution for husband Stuart, it is useful exercise for us to compare what sort of end we can expect.

Comment:

This is valuable info. I volunteer here in the U.S. with an outstanding organization (Hospice of Lancaster County, PA). The training was an afternoon each week for 12 weeks. When a patient is accepted (home care, Nursing home or hospital) it is a team approach to care for them and augment their existing resources. This includes nursing, social worker AND palliative care by specially trained nurse/physician pairings

A case status meeting by the team takes place weekly and grief counselling and other support extends to the patients family, even after the death of the patient. When a patient needs it there is a hospice center there for them and their family to stay, cook meals, etc 24/7. Sometime a patient spends a week or two at the Hospice Center and returns to their home. This is according to need of both the patient AND the caregiver.

Well, Stuart’s Memorial Contribution seems to have started some sort of discussion and I will be delighted if this is picked up by readers in other countries to share with us what they can expect from their Hospice organisation, that is, if such a thing exists in the country.

I finish today with a bit of triviality. This concerns three Irish drinking in a bar observing men, across the street, going in out of a well-known brothel. Click here to see the reason why it took the IRA 40 (?) years before we could get a tenuous peace agreement.