Tag Archives: family

Palace of Care – No Surprises

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When I first met him he was still trying to be as independent as possible. He could’ve rung the bell and asked for water but instead, he walked to the family kitchen area to get the water himself. He refused to use the walker deigning to use only a simple cane. It took him 20 minutes to walk outside for cigarettes but the nicotine and his willpower continued to push him along. This was despite severe pain which was worsened by movement. He was determined to do things his way, the way he had always done things. Why should he change just because he had a terminal illness? He knew he was unwell and time might be short, he wanted to continue fighting as long as he could. He knew he might die but he would try his best not to. He was more worried about his partner. He had been trying to persuade her to see the counsellors but she was reluctant and wanted to concentrate on work. He was worried that she wasn’t aware of how unwell he was. He was still trying to look after her and wanted to prepare her for all possible outcomes, even the ones where he wasn’t around.

When I next reviewed him, two days later, he looked terrible. His pain had worsened, he had developed a bad headache, he was having fevers and couldn’t catch his breath. I was worried about him and I wasn’t sure if he would recover from this major deterioration. There seemed to be too much going on at once. Everything pointed towards worsened progressive disease. I talked about my concerns and that I would treat all of his symptoms aggressively. I told him that I would try my best to reverse things as much as possible but no matter what happened I would aim to make him comfortable. I offered to talk to his partner and I needed her to come in.

When she arrived I talked about what had led to his admission into hospice and updated her on his worsening situation. “Things keep on changing, the illness continues to worsen. I will try to reverse what is going on but I am worried that things might not improve. If things continue to deteriorate there might only be days to weeks left for him to live. We always work on a no surprises policy here.” He reached out his hands as he looked into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry love.” They hugged each other and the tears flowed.

I was asked back later when their closest family members came in. I met each of their siblings and their siblings-in-law. Their core support team throughout his whole illness. I shared the bad news with all six of them together. They asked about the rest of the family, some of whom were overseas. They asked, “Should we get them to come back as soon as possible?” I replied, “I’d rather people come and see you too early rather than too late. Working in hospice I see too late far too often.” They said they would make some calls.

Palace of Care – Fields of Gold

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I heard that he actually had children but there had been a falling out some years ago. I never found out what the details were but it sounded as if there was no way to mend these relationships. It was as if he no longer had children, it was something that we couldn’t talk about. His speech became less easily understood if the topic was raised at all. The closest family he had was his niece. She was devoted to his care and visited regularly, as she had done when he was at home.

Everything had become a struggle before his admission to our inpatient unit. We provided basic nursing care with only a small amount of medical support and he had responded well to being looked after. He accepted he could no longer live alone and his family found him a hospital-level care facility close to where they lived so they could easily visit. On the day he left our hospice for his new home, I wished him well.

Just over a month later he came back for a visit. This time he brought his closest friends and family, including his two children. I’m not sure what had happened but they were all there together. There was warm friendly chattering going on in the lounge. Food was being shared while he held court. He was in fine voice and he enjoyed entertaining everyone who had gathered. Many of his guests said thanks to him for all that he had taught them over many years, in some cases a lifetime.

His daughter had prepared a song, and decided to sing it to him while he could still hear it. She played backing music with her smartphone and sang “Fields of Gold” the Eva Cassidy version. Everyone in the room was moved by her song, as her father sang along. Sometimes healing can occur at the end of life.

Palace of Care – Making the most of it

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After the death of her younger relative, she did not expect to be in the hospice again. She had been impressed by the care provided for the family. She was surprised to be there one month later. This time she was admitted as a patient for end-of-life care. She accepted this with no fear, she had been unwell for three years with her heart and lung issues. A previous gut issue had recurred and could not be overcome. She knew that she was dying and in some ways, it was an escape from her years of struggle and further suffering.

Returning to the same hospice, with the same family members less one member. Not the same as the last time she had been there. The perspective on the other side of the bed was different. She accepted her situation, she had been expecting that something like this would happen soon. In some ways, she had already prepared herself. Her world had been shrinking for some months because of her physical frailty. She was glad she had deteriorated whilst she was still visiting and staying with her family. If this had happened at her own home, she would have been alone, and far away from her support network. Instead, she had spent weeks with her favourite and most loved family members.

The lunch she was served was the best thing she had eaten all month. The hospital food and service just couldn’t compare. She asked if some of her family could stay with her overnight. This would be no problem at all. She fully intended to enjoy the next few days recounting family stories and looking through photos together. A chance to say goodbye before the inevitable happened. She was going to make the most of it.

I think therefore I am? – Natural Order

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Her first experience of the hospice was when she came to visit a younger family member. Someone important enough to travel over 1000km to see, despite her poor health. Her life had become a struggle over the last three years. Her lung failure had caused heart failure. Shortness of breath made even walking difficult. Leg swelling caused leg heaviness which made walking torturous at times. Over the years she had collected health problems but managed to continue with her life. Her relative had only been unwell once, and the illness was taking her life away. A sad time for the entire family, especially the elders. It is against the natural order of life for a child to die before a parent, but when you are elderly already it must be so much worse.

Palace of Care – Travel Plans

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A few days before discharge he told us he wanted to go back to his hometown, many thousands of kilometres away. He wanted to see his relatives and friends one last time. He said that if he didn’t do this he would die with everlasting regret. A final visit to where he had grown up, a chance to taste his favourite foods again, in his favourite eating places. We thought he had a window of opportunity to successfully make the trip back home. We estimated that in the next months, he would become too unwell to travel. We encouraged him to make travel plans as soon as possible and offered to talk to his son. He declined our offer and wanted to discuss it with his son personally.

He said he would have to convince his son. His son wanted him to have further treatment as soon as possible. Our patient wasn’t convinced that the therapy would be effective, but he had tried for the sake of his family. The treatments had been hard to handle, with lots of side effects. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t want any further treatments, but his son still needed his support after a relationship break-up.

Over the next months, our patient didn’t go home but had more cycles of treatment. As his overall condition worsened he still talked about making his big trip home. Eventually, long-distance travel stopped being an option. The window of opportunity had slammed shut and even car trips around the country seemed too risky.

We received the news that our patient had been on a trip to another city when he suddenly deteriorated. He ended up dying in the local hospital, far from home. Making the return trip back of hundreds of kilometres would not have been easy for his family.

We wish him safe travels on his next journey.

Palace of Care – Nice To Meet You

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Hi, nice to finally meet you too, Doctor.

No need to apologise for the colours. My wife has always loved bright colours. When she couldn’t walk around anymore I planted extra plants to brighten up her views. From our bed, she could see all the different flowers that I had planted outside the window. She liked to sit in our living room and from her wheelchair, she could see all of the flowering winter plants I had planted for her. The colours of your scrubs are very welcome here.

How did we first meet? After university, I went to work for a large steel company. All the company workers and their families lived in the company complex. It was like a city, 50,000 people lived there. In this area, there were 45km of railway lines. I lived in one of the buildings for single males, in a serviced apartment. We were well looked after. We didn’t have to cook, all meals were provided in the company dining halls. I liked to play the card game Bridge and I joined the company tournament. During one of the first matches, I beat my opponent by 25-0. If you know Bridge that is the highest score possible. I must have impressed her with my Bridge skills or maybe it was my long hair. Whatever the reason, my future wife started to ask me out.

My wife’s family worked for a subsidiary of the company. She was born in the city, went to the company school, through university and then was employed by the company as well. We had good times working there, but we wanted something different for our children, which is why we moved to New Zealand.

My wife is amazing, she’s so strong and has lived with her cancer for over seven years. She’s had so many treatments and some of them were so hard to go through but she was so determined to stay with us. Things have been tough at times but we have been happy. During these years our eldest child was married and now is a parent of our three beautiful grandchildren. Last night I missed out on a party. The family were singing my wife’s favourite songs. They were using a banana and a hairbrush as microphones. They had a good time and were all laughing so much.

Thank you for your time as well, and it was a pleasure for me to share our story. Good memories.

Yes, my hair is naturally wavy. I decided to grow it long again, while I still can, just like it was when we first met each other.

Thanks again for all your help and care. See you later.

Palace of Care – Special Request

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Things keep on changing every day.

Nod.

Do you know what is going on?

Yes, she is getting worse.

Yes, the cancer is getting to be too much for her. It’s made her fall asleep.

Yes, the other doctor told us yesterday.

Do you guys usually go to church?

Yes doctor, but she hasn’t been for a long time because she’s been so sick.

Would you like a priest to come over.?

Yes, doctor, we have arranged for our pastor to come over.

Will he come with church members?

Yes. Doctor, can we please have a bigger room?

I’ll see what we can do. I’ll have to talk to some of my colleagues. I’ll do what I can.

Okay.

The things that have been making her uncomfortable are going to get worse. Her breathing is going to change. She’s going to get more sleepy. She doesn’t have much time left, she is dying.

Yes, Doctor, can we please have a bigger room? We are a big family and there are a lot of us who want to come in. Do you think you can help us doctor, please.

I will get onto it right away. In the meantime I’m going to review all of her medications. We want her as comfortable as possible. She’s had too much pain causing suffering.

Thank you Doctor.

You all take care.

It took a bit of negotiation and flexibility but the patient and family were moved into one of our bigger rooms. This allowed three generations of the family to spend the afternoon together with our patient. She died short hours later in the presence of her family.

Palace of Care – Family Vigil

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I know you want to try to be with him the whole time but it is taking its toll on you.

Yes, my sons are worried about me, they don’t want me getting unwell too.

Yes, your husband would be worried about you too. He knows you have been here with him throughout this whole time. He might not be able to respond to you, but he knows you have been looking after him.

That’s what my sons and friends keep telling me too. I just want to be with him as much as possible, I think I can hold on a little longer. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m a light sleeper. Every time he made any sound I woke up.

Yes, you’ve been looking after him well but you look exhausted.

When his breathing changed last night I really thought he was about to die. I called my son in and he stayed with us. Then the breathing settled down and I told our son to go home and sleep as he had to work the next day. He went home at 2am. My other son is going to come back tonight.

That’s a good idea, to take it in turns. Your sons are looking after both of their parents. They can spend some time with their Dad too. If we see any signs that he is about to die we’ll call you back in, we always try our best to do so. Sometimes we don’t get any warning, but we’ll keep looking for signs.

Okay, it’s good that you will call.

Some people do wait until there is no-one left in the room before they go. That’s what happened with my Aunty. Our whole family made sure that she was never alone in the last two days of her life. She was only alone for five minutes when my other Aunty went to the toilet and that’s when she died. She was still trying to look after us all. I’ve seen it happen with so many families over the years. He knows that you’ve been with him all this time, deep in his heart he knows you’ve looked after him well. If you don’t enough rest he’ll be worried.

I’ll talk about it with my older son when he comes in later. He said he would stay tonight.

Okay, you try and get some rest.

In the early hours of the next morning our patient’s sons called the nurses in when they couldn’t hear their father’s breathing. The nurse confirmed that our patient had died. His wife wasn’t able to be with him at the time of death but she was picked up by her son and came in to help change him into his selected clothes.

Palace of Care – It’s Not Fair

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Awww Dad it’s not fair.

What son?

Nanny.

That Nanny died?

No.

What’s not fair?

The doctors.

The doctors?

The doctors. They spended more time with Nanny than I did.

Spent more time.

She stayed with them for ages at that hospice place. We had to go home every night.

You liked it there, your cousins were there too.

Yeah but they made Nanny tired, she kept on sleeping. She didn’t play with us like she used to.

You guys always had a good time with Nanny, eh?

Yeah, I miss playing with Nanny. Can she come home with us?

Yeah buddy, for a couple of days, so we can say goodbye properly.

Yay, Nanny’s coming to stay.

Palace of Care – Out of Character

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He’s been telling me off, he’s never done that to me before in all of our time together. He was grumpy and demanding. He wanted to get up and wanted me to lift him up. I can’t do that I’d hurt my back, he’s too heavy. I’m worried he’s going to fall over. He just won’t listen to reason.

Yes, I’ve noticed a big change. He was joking with us just the other day, now I can’t connect with him at all. I want you to know that he is talking strangely and it is out of his control. I don’t want you to take what he says to heart. It’s the illness talking not him.

Is it the medication change from yesterday?

I don’t think so. I think it probably is his cancer getting worse and making his liver fail. We’ll change his medication to see if it will make a difference, but it might not improve his condition.

A doctor friend told us that when people get closer to dying they become confused. Is that what is happening?

Yes, your friend is correct, that is something we see in our patients as they get closer to dying.

How long do you think he has left? Weeks?

I think he might at most have weeks. With the changes we’ve seen so far I would guess he only had days to weeks left to live. Things can change much faster as we approach the finishing line. He might have much less time than weeks left.

Our older son is taking me to the funeral director to make arrangements. My younger son is coming over but I’m not sure if he can handle looking after Dad. I’ve asked a nurse friend to come over to support my son.

That’s a good idea. I’m going to change your husband’s medications now, to see if we can get him thinking more clearly. His thinking may or may not clear up, no matter what happens.