Anne accompanied Dad to dialysis today to make sure that it's as comfortable as possible for him, but they had (are probably still having) a long wait for a chair. She's been talking to a woman from a hospice service, and they called me on speaker phone to talk to me. I was inclined to brush her off, as I had already selected a hospice facility in town so that Margaret could visit as often as possible. But it turned out that what they do is offer additional care, whether in the nursing home or at home, even if the patient continues dialysis. And it's a government benefit, with no additional charge. Obviously, we don't know if after dialysis today, Dad will keep insisting that he wants to quit dialysis. If so, there's little point, and I should still try to move him to the in-town hospice facility. But given that constraint, I said (as I'm sure Anne had) Yes! Yes! Yes! Sign us up!
I was thinking of telling her they should consider a name change, since "hospice" means something specific already. I think what they're talking about would better be called "additional palliative care." But whadda I know?
No comments:
Post a Comment