Mom and Nursing Home

[ERLover]

Under Hospice rules she can go there for 5 nights to give me a break. Too late tonight to go through the last 5 days night mare. I will go there in the AM, just be glad most here are not there, and if you have a loved one on the brink, be there to over see there care and Meds!!!
I thank God, my Bro in CA, a Physicians Assistant, and his wife is a RN, took hold of the problems this week end.

[JPG]

Under Hospice rules she can go there for 5 nights to give me a break. Too late tonight to go through the last 5 days night mare. I will go there in the AM, just be glad most here are not there, and if you have a loved one on the brink, be there to over see there care and Meds!!!
I thank God, my Bro in CA, a Physicians Assistant, and his wife is a RN, took hold of the problems this week end.

Hospice @ home = OK.

Hospice @ a hospital

Do tell re @ a nursing home.

[charlese]

My heart is with you EL! Take care of yourself!

[skou]

Lover, my mother went out, in her home, THANKS to Hospice!

I was not there, at that time, but me and my Brother
visited as often as we could. She was in Las Vegas, and we
live in the greater Phoenix Arizona area.

We were on the road to go and see her, when our sister called,
and said Mom had just expired. Went home, and later went up
for the closing ceremony. (Mom donated her body to research,
about brain cancer, which got her.) So the "funeral" had no guest
of honor. (Strange, for an LDS funeral.)

Hospice was the "shining lamp on the hill" at this event. And,
will ALWAYS be a light in our lives.

steve

[skou]

Under Hospice rules she can go there for 5 nights to give me a break. Too late tonight to go through the last 5 days night mare. I will go there in the AM, just be glad most here are not there, and if you have a loved one on the brink, be there to over see there care and Meds!!!
I thank God, my Bro in CA, a Physicians Assistant, and his wife is a RN, took hold of the problems this week end.

Hospice @ home = OK.

Hospice @ a hospital

Do tell re @ a nursing home.

2 thumbs up!!!

JPG, better words haven't been written!

steve

[Ed in Tampa]

My daughter is an RN and a Hospice nurse.
You have to understand what Hospice is for.

It is not in home nursing care.
It is not trying to make the patient live longer.
Hospice nursing homes is not for long term care or recuperative care.

Hospice's purpose is to givie care to make the transistion from life to death as painless, comfortable and loving as possible.

Hospice is always confronted with people that expect them to be in home nursing care, around the clock nursing care to bring loved one back to health and miracle workers that cure the incurable. Or a nursing home where they can place their loved one.

To me her job is heart breaking, she meets people that she connects with and has to help them transistion to the next life,all the while trying to get loved ones to understand their loved one is passing. I can't imagine being able to do her job. Needless to say I'm very proud of her.

Her most heartbreaking case was a young woman dying of cancer with young twin boys and nobody to leave them to. I really thought our family was going to increase by two. But a few weeks before the woman died they found a cousin that wanted kids but could not have them and jumped at the chance. The woman was able to die knowing her twin boys would be loved and cared for.

[tomsalwasser]

My mother left the hospital and went to a nursing home for a few days of hospice care. The hospice nurse was very helpful in keeping her comfortable, explaining the stages she was going through and answering our questions. We were all very appreciative of how hard the nurse worked for us and told her so. She also reminded us to call clergy for last rights and had a number for the local priest, as mom and dad had been away in Florida for many years, where dad passed. As the time grew near she said it will only be a few hours now and everyone was called. Mom's kids and grand kids and their spouses gathered around and made quite a group of 20 or so to see mom off to her reward. It was peaceful and beautiful. The only sad part was, the nurse said it was so nice to see such a large group. She said in her experience, many others are all alone at the end.

[ChrisNeilan]

One of the often overlooked aspects of hospice care is the care and comfort given to family members during a very uncertain and emotional time. Hospice workers, nurses and support staff are there for the whole family, not just those in end of life stages. They are unbelievable people.
ERlover, you have my thoughts and prayers.

[ERLover]

Mom choice Hospice because she has Congestive Heart Failure and does not want to prolong her life when the time comes. She is in no pain, is ambulatory, pretty much fully functional.
Where she was the last few days is a nursing/rehap facility. She was there most of Sept after getting out of the hospital for rehap. I had her there for 5 days in Dec and again over the weekend plus a few days. Her Hospice is through the same organization, The Franciscan Sisters/Nuns.which owned and operated the care facility. Sept everything is way good there, then they stopped managing it, you could see the change in service in Dec, less help, then this visit they have sold it and minimal staff.
Moms room was about 24x 18ft with its own bathroom. Tide to an O2 tank with a 5ft hose for 3 days before getting a longer hose. They supply all your meds, mom has Glaucoma and needs 2 different eye drops twice a day, for years. They know this, it was all in there records and the med list was supplied to them over a week b4 she went in. It took 3 days to get them after she was admitted, and that was after my brother got on the phone to someone in management on Sunday and raised hell. Plus some smaller issues that were unacceptable.
My brother has said for the last few years that you have to manage your own medical, you can no longer trust your Health Care system/providers to do it for you.

[Ed in Tampa]

Erlover
First know this my heart goes out to you, and I will keep you and yours in prayer.

Hospice care is for people whose doctor says death is eminent usually within a 6 month window. Since Hospice care is usually paid by Medicare the government is enforcing the rules that Hospice is not to be used as a substitute to patient/family/Medicaid funded nursing support.

There is also severely reduced funding to Hospice. Belts are being tightened and what you are seeing is just some of the effect of Obama care. Money that once went to Hospice is now being used to provide health care to those that refuse to work, can't work, refuse to take personal responsibility for their care.

Health care for everyone sounds good but the fact is the money pot is so big and unless something is done to make it a lot bigger, the money in the pot must be spread to thousands more. That is what is happening money is so tight and the easiest way to reduce cost is spread employees thin. I won't go into details but it is sufficient to say the tightening is being felt by all. Thank you Obama!

Your son is right we all have to stay proactive in our own and our loved one's health care.
Between serious budget cuts, cries of medicial groups to increase profits there is no one left to be a patient advocate except the person or family.

The condition is heartbreaking to most healthcare workers and many are getting out of the field, retiring or taking jobs in other aspects of healthcare industry that isn't effected by the turmoil of Obama care. The situation unless major changes are made is going to become critical.
The situation is so bad that it reduces my daughter to tears every time she talks about it.