Hospice

[nlbarber]

My father moved to hospice yesterday at VistaCare at Wesley Woods. He was losing ground to the infections even when on 2 antibiotics, hasn't been able to gain nutritionally in part because of the energy it takes to fight the infections, has right-side heart failure, fluid around the lungs, and on and on.

He's fairly comfortable, with occasional periods of agitation--some pain-related, some perhaps bad dreams. He is still recognizing us and speaking a few words, but he's sleeping more and more as is to be expected.

The doctor says probably hours to days.

Comments

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that he is not improving. It is very hard, but Wesley Woods is a good place.

My mother-in-law spent her last few years there, going back and forth between assisted living and VistaCare (but I don't think that was what it was called then). Good people, nice place.

Paul Newman and his wife were big donors there.

[nlbarber]

My grandmother was at Budd Terrace on a nursing home floor for the end of her life, but that was a while back. VistaCare, I gather, is a Big Corporation, and has subcontracted to run a hospice on the 6th floor of Budd Terrace. We don't particularly care if it's BigCorp if the care is good, and so far I'm pleased. Oh, and they have to use Emory doctors, so that keeps us linked to the previous care at Emory and Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital.

The issue I didn't predict is getting an autopsy. We want one, for our own knowledge and because we'd like to help them to figure out what went wrong with the cryosurgery. If we were at an Emory Healthcare facility, I think it would be automatic--certainly if we were still at the university hospital it would. VistaCare just isn't set up for it, and is suggesting I call local medical examiners. That's not what we want....those guys are forensic-oriented. We're still working on how to get it done at Emory, and now it's the weekend. Grrr....timing.

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

Yes! Budd Terrace is the place, but they didn't have hospice available then (she was there 1983-1986).

Autopsies have a lot of baggage, even for the medical personnel, and part of their baggage is assumptions about your baggage. I, too, think that more information is good, and "what went wrong with the cryosurgery" is not the same thing as trying to place blame.