Stealing Food To Feed the Worms

I don't need no food, no water, Lord, cuz I'm running out of time|Fighting, killing, wine and women going to put me to my grave Uriah Heep, Stealin' I'm happy when one of my hospice patients in impoverished nursing homes steals food. There's life in him yet! Double portions anyone? I doubt he'll eat twice … Continue reading Stealing Food To Feed the Worms →

On Nurses Taking Fake Vacations

No hospice nurse on my team is visiting their patients this Monday, the busiest weekday. I see several want visits because I'm reading work emails. I read work emails when I'm not scheduled to work despite being reminded not to. Also, I read the text messages that come from my patient's families. One rigid guy … Continue reading On Nurses Taking Fake Vacations →

Dying, Procrastinating, and Other Provocations

What, contemplating mortality again? Oh, please. Leave that to the sad Ancients. They had no internet, TV, 24/7 ramen delivery. Consider their literature? Come on, no one outside of Academia is reading Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, or even secondhand sources like Montaigne. Could you imagine something from Marcus Aurelius in an election mailer? Political Trash … Continue reading Dying, Procrastinating, and Other Provocations →

An Idea Is Not A Practice

Ideas get us into trouble. Even good ones. From this blog's subject file, I find several ideas that have caused and continue to cause me trouble once I reach out to realize them. Consider ideas about love, marriage, physical fitness, or weight reduction. What about meditation, representative democracy, hydrocarbon, or tech dependency? Or consider economic … Continue reading An Idea Is Not A Practice →

DVTs: One Good Leg To Stand On

"Surgery is past and medication is finished. The only things to preventing blood circulating blockage now is exercise and compression stockings. Or, once a clot comes (typically, at one leg), slowly help move the blood along and treat for pain and pray no strokes or lung clots." I texted this to somebody whose mom is … Continue reading DVTs: One Good Leg To Stand On →

On Body Shame: When You “Would Rather Die!”

How Seeing Leads Sneeches To Desire I stand and assist on the clean side of a 90-year-old woman with late stage 4 cancer who, in her home hospital bed, is being turned toward me. Meanwhile, I try calming her 70-year-old son who is swearing. His curses string along, and they come out loud. He is … Continue reading On Body Shame: When You “Would Rather Die!” →

Part 2: Prognostic Indicators of Specific Diagnoses

I've got your diagnosis right here, buddy. It's on your permanent record. Chicky thinks his Diagnosis is a frame job First, what qualifies us for hospice? What are the Criteria, or General Guidelines, for being hospice certified and recertification? Above all, the patient should be exhibiting a "terminal condition" based either on that big fat … Continue reading Part 2: Prognostic Indicators of Specific Diagnoses →

Informed Consent? Second Thoughts About Hospice

Making a perfectly-informed decision is impossible, but making a good decision is one we can live with. And then die without regret of having made it.

Hospice Grows as Family Shrinks

Sometimes hospice workers are called honorary family. That sounds good to say after times of great intimacy during our demonstrations of what seem extraordinary efforts to bring needed care. These efforts illustrate what the family considers real evidence of fidelity, and even love. But hospice is a business. And its workers are not family, even … Continue reading Hospice Grows as Family Shrinks →

Caregiver Training: Because Things Change Without (Much) Warning

So, you want to take home your spouse, your partner, your child from the hospital, the rehab, the skilled nursing care facility. Wherever they are, sure there's no place like home. At first everyone's mood is buoyed -- the transfer went without incident; the mechanical bed and over-bed table is ready for them as you … Continue reading Caregiver Training: Because Things Change Without (Much) Warning →