Hospice begins

Thought I'd spiff things up with a new look!

Anyway... it's been a busy week. Hospice intake nurse came on Sunday and was here for about 2 hours... we went over Glen's entire medical history, medications, behaviors, etc etc. She talked to Glen, asked him questions, took his vitals, etc. She decided that it would be better to have the nurse come in 2 times a week instead of just one. We have someone come in to do shower, beard trim, teeth cleaning, etc 2 times a week also. We have a social worker that will come twice a month to check on ME and see how I'm doing. At some point the hospice chaplain will come by for a chat. All medications are now covered by hospice, with no co-pay. Apparently there will also be a physical therapist that will come in once a week. All of this is covered by Kaiser. I am impressed so far.

Our case manager/nurse is Gail. She's awesome, she's not afraid of my dogs, she's very down to earth and easy to talk to. She came Monday for the first time, said Glen's lungs sounded pretty good, that the mucus was mostly in the upper part of his chest, and ordered some Mucinex (the kids melt strips, so he doesn't have to actually swallow medication.) David the Shower Guy came for the first time too... so we spent a lot of time finding the right stuff.. a temporary chair for the shower, things like that.

Tuesday was Club day. Almost as soon as I got home from dropping Glen off the medical equipment place showed up with: another over-bed table and a shower chair. Wednesday I woke up to strange gasping sounds coming from Glen's room... went in and he was sitting on his bed with an apple in his hand gasping and shaking like a chihuahua puppy. Took the apple away, got him calmed down and back to sleep. When Gail came later in the day, she said his lungs were definitly noisier and yeah, he'd probably aspirated apple. I also learned from David the Shower Guy that the shower chair had been put together backwards and I should call Apria and have them fix it. I'm thinking I'll probably just fix it myself. Glen was pretty agitated all day... Kev & Rushi were in Santa Cruz, Gail and David both came by, they picked up the bobcat from the backyard.. any one of those things could set him off.. all of them together made him difficult to live with. He went to bed around 7. About 9, I went to lock the front door and check in on Glen.. and found him on the floor. He'd gotten up at some point and fallen, but not made enough noise for me to hear it nor called for help. I called Kevin, who happened to be on his way to Fremont from Santa Cruz. He and Rushi and their friend Brian detoured to come help. In the meantime, I just covered Glen up with a blanket, gave him a pillow and curled up on the floor with him until Kevin got here. I CAN get Glen up from the floor if I need to.. but I do pay for it a few days after. It was nice the kids could come help. They then took Brian home, and came back here to sleep. Have I mentioned enough times how awesome they are?

Today I found there's a leak in the bathroom upstairs... Glen had to have been standing in the puddle on the carpet this morning but mentioned nothing to me. I'm glad I went up there for something. I've told him he really needs to not go upstairs any more for any number of reasons.. but I need to get a baby gate for the bottom of the stairs to make that happen.

He was coughing a LOT during the night. He is choking at almost every meal, sometimes even on pureed food. These aspriations are what will most likely cause pneumonia at some point. The signed treatment.. or really lack of treatment.. orders are on the refrigerator.

Of course.. each step makes me feel the urgency to get this landscape project done. And of course every time I think we're there.. something else. The loan company needs proof of his disability income. So in my free time, I need to go through records and find that.. keeping in mind that our disability income comes from 4 different sources! Wish there could have been a simpler way to do this. Trying not to go there.