We had hospice take my dad to a hospice unit in a hospital, where they were better staffed and equiped to care for him. I believe that my mother felt so much better and relaxed that he was being taken care of, she just let go of her own struggle.

I spent the afternoon with my dad the next day and brought him a nice picture of mom. My sister and I saw he was suffering so much we told him mom went peacefully in her sleep and it was time for him to let go and be with her. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Hours later he took his last breath.

He was cleaned and turned on his side when we visisted him, however when I asked when the last time he got his morphine was they responded 10:30 that morning, it was after 1:00 in the afternoon. When I pointed that out, the hospice nurse said he was resting comfortably. The man was given no food and water and could not speak or hardly even moan. He was far to weak to move even a finger.

I told her that just because he can’t tell you he’s in pain doesn’t mean he isn’t and she better go get some morphine for him unless she wanted me to do the scene from “Terms of Endearment” where Shirley McClaine has to scream for her daughters meds. She immediately got the meds and administered them to him. That made me wonder how they cared for him during the long night when we weren’t there. His mouth was so dry and cracked from lack of moisture. He couldn’t swallow they said but he could have someone wet a cloth and wipe the inside of his mouth and lips. We did it for him while we were there but what did they do? I don’t know, I’ll never know.

The truth is that every doctors office I have ever gone to uses nurses for assistants. People that take these classes upon graduation find themselves at least ten thousand dollars in debt to the school and the only jobs that they are offered or can get are Certified Nurses Assistants, or CNA’s. To further dash the hope of a great career, most hospitals I know do not hire CNA’s, A few years ago many of them even stopped hiring Licensed Practical Nurses or LPN’s, and only want Registered Nurses or RN’s.

This only leaves one place that I know of that hires CNA’s and those are nursing homes. I don’t want to make it sound like CNA’s are worthless. They are not. I have worked with the most helpful, wonderful, and caring CNA’s ever. I believe the difference between the good ones and the bad ones is that the better ones knew what they would be doing on the job after graduation. The bad ones believed the commercials and are somewhat bitter about wasting all that time and money so they could end up making minimum wage for the dirtiest and most thankless job around.

Nursing homes themselves are partly to blame because in the owners desperation to earn the almighty dollar they not only pay very low, but they will only schedule whatever the minimum ratio of aides to residents are. In my state it’s one aide to every ten or eleven residents.

On a skilled care floor or unit, you have all the residents that cannot do even the simple daily tasks, like going to the bathroom, dressing, showering, or feeding. The aide is put under a lot of pressure to sometimes clean urine and feces from the resident and the bedding, then to shower and dress the resident and assist in feeding, helping them transfer from bed to chair to toilet and back to chair and bed. Multiply all that by ten or eleven. Now imagine that those resident needs are ongoing and just because you have finished one does not mean they no longer need you just because you’re doing that all over again with another resident.

The point is simple.

• You’ve got to love caring for the elderly and the dying.
• You need to know before enrolling in a school what your real job options will be.
• Nursing homes that are owned by individuals must pay more and add additional staff where needed.
• Those that find themselves stuck in a job that they hate must either find a new job, or go back to school, a real school to better their situations.

One woman with a failing heart could no longer wait for a transplant so they attached this device to her to keep her blood pumping. Artificial hearts are no big news but what happened here is wonderful.

As a result of this pump taking over the heart function, her heart was not only able to rest, but after some time it grew stronger, healed, and was able to resume it’s duty without the pump.

The second woman had two arteries to one side of her heart burst at once, she would have been dead if not for this new pump taking over. She cannot do anything strenuous but she gets around and functions almost as normal.

Care has to be taken of course. Batteries must be changed several times a day and the area where the tube enters the body has to be watched for infection.

This pump offers hope for many who are waiting for transplants.

We’ll be tackling the tough issues of Universal Health Care, elderly care, baby boomers, and importantly enough … how to pay for it all.

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