Another Look At Hospice
I’ve had a fist hand look into hospice and want to change my opinion from my last post about the subject.
My father is laying here with me right now in a hospital bed which was just put in his living room.
He is out of it, with the severe pain, the morphine, and the vicadin I am giving him. He’s with it enough to know it still hurts and that it’s me he’s yelling at for making him move and take the medicine.
He was let go from the hospital while he could still speak rather easily and eat a little. Now he cannot eat anything and hasn’t. He is severly (in my opinion) dehydrated. His lips are cracking badly, and try as we might we cannot turn him over so that he doesn’t get bedsores.
Hospice is only coming for a short visit twice a week. We are unable to take care of such a sick man. I’m going to find out tomarrow when the nurse comes about upping his dosages of pain meds and getting him an IV to at least keep him hydrated.
I know hospitals are overcrowded, but how can they send someone in his condititon home like this? He needs real medical care so he can have an IV,and be turned every two hours. He’s been combative with us, and my sister and I are almost at wits ends. I am measuring out morphine, watching oxygen, and trying to make him as comfortable as possible and he is fighting me the whole way. I thought that hospice was going to help, but how can they help when their not here?
I believe my mother said she would have to pay out of pocket for a hospice nurse to be here almost all the time, and she can’t afford it. So am I to watch him dehydrate and starve to death in severe pain? I don’t think he should be home like this. We’re doing the best we can but it’s beyond difficult.