I Wanted to Say, Don’t Even go There
Al was admitted to the local hospital this morning. I was told that since most medicationsthey use…
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I Wanted to Say, Don’t Even go There
Al was admitted to the local hospital this morning. I was told that since most medications they use have the reverse reaction for Al, they wanted to admit him so he had a bigger team to work with on getting the right combination of medications.
I just called up there to check on him. The nurse says he is very anxious. She was getting ready to go in and give him something. The hospice nurse is trying to talk me into having Al admitted to a nursing home after his stay at the hospital. I refused. I told her I had done that before and it was not a success because of the large lack of understanding and recognizing MSA.
She then tried to tell me it must be too much for me since I was saying I was too tired. That maybe a nursing home would benefit him. I got very offended. Of course I am tired. For two days he has not slept, so neither have I.
Getting the right combination of medications makes it easier for him to relax enough to sleep and then I get some sleep. Would I like to have more sleep? Yes, who wouldn’t? But I can go on fewer hours per day but I can’t go on two days with none.
I have an excellent helper who happened to have today off. I had asked Hospice for a volunteer to come sit with Al so I could sleep. I was told that volunteers can not change him or give him medicine, so I passed on that suggestion. I would have to stay a wake.
To me this all boils down to Al is contracting causing more pain. When the pain is out of control he is going to be more restless and less sleep. But I look at it as a temporary thing that can be fixed.
So no, I am not placing him. I am a good sister and a good caregiver. With my helper I will keep him at home until he passes. The nurse told me Sunday she thought he was passing. She thought he was having restless syndrome which is right before the death.
The nurse today told me she sees no signs of Al passing. That he was just upset because he was hungry. She said he may have a few months to go. I wish they would stop. Just stop guessing. My mind has no other route but to follow what the nurses say. To hear that he was passing automatically set my mind to thinking, oh my gosh, our time is so limited.
Then you hear he may have a few months. Oh good, he will be here for Christmas.
I want my brother with me for as long as possible. But if he is constantly going to be in pain, then of course I would rather have God take him home. Al was holding his arms up to the ceiling last night trying to grab someone’s arms in heaven. There is a big part of Al that wants to die, but I think this stems from the huge discomfort he is in. The other part of him is scared to die. But the other part of him is begging anyone who will listen to give him a shot so he can die.
The whole thing is very upsetting to watch him go through. But one thing I know for sure is I am a good caregiver to him, and I won’t change my mind about it.
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26 Hours And Still Awake
Hi my friends. I have now been up for over 26 hours with dozing in between. It is not me only doing…
26 Hours And Still Awake
Hi my friends. I have now been up for over 26 hours with dozing in between. It is not me only doing this, it is Al too. Hospice says it is a restless syndrome right before the dying. I don’t know what it is and I can’t identify it any other way than fidgety.
Yesterday I posted but then I deleted it. It was a post on my feelings at the moment and not the entire scene. I guess I don’t do well when I have no sleep. I am crabby and can be short-tempered. I cry and I feel guilt at not being able to help Al in any way.
He is in God’s hands now and all I can do is make sure he is dry. Comfort is not something I can give him it seems. No matter what position I place him in he is not comfortable. I can sense his fear of dying but no matter what I try to say to make it feel better, it doesn’t work. Once again I think this is between him and God.
I guess when I am weak I become fearful, and this is why I deleted the post. I kept thinking afterwards, what will my friends think if they learn of me being angry, frustrated and sounding whiny.
Al sleeps about twenty minutes out of a couple of hours. He is on very high doses of medications but they aren’t working. Hospice was here for several hours today. The Hospice minister dropped by to see Al. Al had requested my son to come by a few times. I asked my son to please come over and he did.
The Hospice team, the Doctors and the Pharmacist are all working together and by Monday sometime there is to be a new medication that will enable Al’s body to go into a deeper sleep to help him pass into the dying process.
Al had been begging the Hospice nurse to give him a needle or a shot to end his life, but of course it is illegal here and the nurse told him she could not help him out. This only agitated Al more and this in turn caused more agitation from him.
Many times today I have cried out to God, what are you waiting for? He wants to come home, help him. I can’t sense a God here in our house, or even in Al’s bedroom. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a God here, it just means I feel nothing but tiredness and I feel almost numb anymore.
I have seen Al reaching up to the ceiling with his arms trying to leave. Talk about a tear jerker. It bring tears to my eyes instantly as if I am watching in slow motion a movie that is playing out and I have guessed the ending but have yet to see it.
I am not sure what I am running on. I can only imagine what Al is running on. It must be burnt fumes of earlier energy. Al is wetting extremely heavy. Almost every fifteen minutes he has soaked a brief. He is still drinking and eating but not very much. He has some sort of brown colored stuff that is coming from his mouth.
I keep dabbing it clean with toothettes. His mouth is dry but I imagine part of it is the medicine he is on. He sweats and then he freezes. He stares at me with those big blue eyes and when I asked him what do you want to say, he says nothing.
Rhino the cat will come in and jump on my lap and put his paws on my face or give me a kiss. I know without knowing cat language that Rhino feels the emotions running throughout the house.
I am ready to let Al go. I can no longer stand to watch his suffering and I have told Al many times to please go see Mom and Dad. Al has told me several times today that he loves me with all of his heart. When Randy, my son came to see him, he told him goodbye.
This tore at me so bad I broke out crying right there in front of Al. So life here at our house is its own living hell. It includes a lot of love, heartache, anger, tears, sleepiness, restlessness and any other emotions you can think of.
I will try to post once a day for now. Al does not like to be alone. He can be asleep and as soon as I tip toe out of the room he is wide awake. I love all of you, my friends and I think of you often.
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Take My Love With You When You Know It Is Time
It is almost one am and I need to get some sleep. But before I can I want to thank you for all of…
Take My Love With You When You Know It Is Time
It is almost one am and I need to get some sleep. But before I can I want to thank you for all of your support and your great friendship. I couldn’t possibly have done any of this without either one.
It has not been a good day. It seems so many changes happen and I just about can’t keep up with them they come so quickly.
Last night I recognized a certain breathing Al was doing. With prior experience taking care of patients nearing the end, the memories swiftly returned as I watched and listened to him. It didn’t stop there.
This morning when I woke him for his shower, he looked at me like he had no idea who I was or where he was. Two ladies appeared at the front door and between them and Al I sat here at my computer in awe as I was forced to hear the rude comments coming from Al’s mouth.
He was angry and mouthy. He was definitely not himself. After the shower was complete, both ladies look exhausted. I knew in that moment the showers were over. It was bed baths from now on. When they brought the topic up for the next shower day, I wasted no time in agreeing with them. I do not want these nice gals getting hurt over Al’s weakness.
Al went off to Day Program as planned but when he arrived home there was no looking up at me as he usually does. No wave from his hand. There was only nothing. The bus driver kept giving me the look as she lowered him to the snowy ground.
I could tell that she wanted to tell me something but could not because Al was right there. I wished her a good weekend and took Al inside to a nice warm living room. I quickly took his outer wear off and looked at his communication book and saw that there had been issues during the day.
The comments were Al was very weak. Two staff had tried to help him with the bathroom duty but Al’s legs didn’t move. The two could not hold up the dead weight and Al slid down to the floor, so they would not drop him.
With extra help they got him back in his chair. He has a blood mark where he was injured and a report was made on this.
I had surprised Al when I went out to get groceries and stopped at his favorite restaurant and picked up supper. I nuked the food and started to feed Al but he wanted nothing to do with it.
It seemed that he was slipping a way from me. No emotions, no movements. I called Hospice and told about the incident from Day Program. She came over and checked him out.
His blood pressure was high. His heart beat was too high. He was not well. She and I looked at each other and we both knew we could not lift him to put him in bed. She called the fire department and within minutes five fire fighters arrived.
I know this is hard to believe but with one of the guys in charge of removing the wheelchair away once they had Al up, it took all four of the others to put him in bed. When there is dead weight involved, what they weigh in reality seems doubled.
The nurse noticed some changes in his feet. Cold and a little dark. She was so nice. She helped me get Al’s clothing off and get him changed and positioned. Not many nurses do that and I was very appreciative.
When we left his room and we were in the living room she began conversations of what to look for with Al when he is passing. She gave instructions on what to do and who to call once that time was here.
I knew in my heart that Al didn’t have much longer. She told me with the visits Al has had from heaven that I needed to tell Al to take their hand and go.
She then grabbed her things and gave me the biggest hug. I felt like all of you were a part of that hug, it was so big.
After she left I went in and sat with Al. We talked about heaven and I told him the next time he saw mom or dad or grandma to grab their hand and go. I told him he has been a real fighter in this illness. I explained that if things didn’t improve by Monday he would probably not be able to go to Day Program any longer.
I explained that he did a good job all through this and how proud I was of him. I waited and watched him as he tried hard to settle down to sleep. Rhino came in and meowed and I heard Al say ever so softly, ” I will miss you Rhino.” With that Al went to sleep.
I am not scared, and I am not ready, but I know things are going to change again. I am so thankful that I have had the chance to be with Al and that I have Rhino.
Al, I don’t know when your time is going to be, but I love you brother. Take my love with you when you decide it is time to go.
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I Was Told I am JUST a Sister
I hope I don’t take more than one page to get out all I need and have to get out. This morning I…
I Was Told I am JUST a Sister
I hope I don’t take more than one page to get out all I need and have to get out. This morning I awoke to a nice calm morning. But things change as you know. We never quite know what each day holds out to us. I guess that is where we really need to count our blessing other than those big moments.
I was drinking my coffee and talking to some MSA friends on here when the phone rang. It was the Hospice Hospital. The doctor was on the other end of the line. She said that she was going to keep Al another 24 hours as they had made a few medication adjustments and wanted to make sure he would be alright.
This is cool. I would hate for him to come home a mess. So he is coming home tomorrow. The next few sentences out of her mouth began rubbing me the wrong way. Soon I was frustrated then I went from that to plain old angry.
She told me Al was doing real good. She explained how their nurse aide had said he walked four steps and had no issues. This is when I started to become frustrated. Al doesn’t take four steps here at home. In fact he does need to take three steps to get from his wheelchair to the shower chair but he gets very upset because it hurts his legs and feet so bad.
Al looks like he is walking on his heels because of his feet contracting from this disease. I see his heels and they are so red. I do try to get him to continue with this as long as possible because he gets so much cleaner when he gets a shower over a bed bath.
She told me that he became upset and angry over a football game last night so she gave him one of his new medications and that didn’t work; so she doubled the dose and then he became quiet.
Alright, I am just listening and not speaking as she goes on to tell me how amazing it is that he is so good. She then changes the topic to stating she had called Al’s regular Hospice nurse and that nurse tells her that Al really isn’t declining much. She says he is pretty much the same as when he started Hospice.
I think my eyes probably got big as my daughter always tells me when I start to get upset. She goes from there to telling me that I need to start remembering that she is the doctor and all I am is the sister.
She stated in no uncertain terms that I directly disobeyed her orders to double up Al’s pain medication and then I quit being quiet. I told her that I had went up to almost double the first time she wanted it upped on Thanksgiving Eve. But after I saw how he changed and he started hitting himself and screaming and cussing I was not doubling the dose within an hour as she wanted.
I explained that I did not want to see what damage he could do to himself over this. I asked her to try some other medicine but she was persistent even after Al was beating himself up.
So on the phone she was scolding me reminding me that I am nothing compared to her. Her next blast of words were that he isn’t declining for what he needs to be. She said she was having a meeting this Thursday with Al’s regular Hospice nurse, who already told her this morning that Al isn’t declining and she was 90% sure she was going to release Al from Hospice.
My heart sunk. I know what I see here. He has gone from five days at Day Program down to two half-days because he is declining and becoming weaker. He is almost 90% bed bound except on Day Program days.
He can no longer stand more than a few seconds and when he does it is on his heels because of his feet contracting. He has to be fed liquids and foods about 75% of the time. Last month he could still feed himself most of the time as long as it was finger foods.
His medications have been changing all the time because pain continues to get worse. His entire body is contracting. His head hangs on his chest. You can barely hear or understand what he is saying.
But according to the doctor he is not declining. She said that he will probably have a few more months to live. All of a sudden I was enraged. I felt although I can not prove it that this was to get back at me for not following her orders, since she did make that perfectly clear.
She stated that she would only release him if I promised to her in writing that I would follow all of her orders when he did come home until he was dismissed from Hospice.
All I could think of is I am going to be forced to place him in a nursing home. Why? Because it takes a lot of money to purchase briefs and pads.
They send a case at a time when they send his briefs. He wears two types, pull-ups for Day Program and tab types for when he is home in bed. He also uses quite a few chux pads. The bill is about two hundred dollars every couple of weeks. I can’t afford that at all. I already pay for what ever he needs here at home, food, clothing, anything that Hospice or Medicare/Medicaid doesn’t cover.
She said that she will let me know this Thursday her final decision. I hung up and sat here and almost started crying a pond of tears but I had to leave to go to the pharmacy to pick-up my medications for myself since Al will be home tomorrow I won’t be able to get out as easily.
When I went to the pharmacy the owners and I were talking about it and they told me to talk to the Hospice right here in town. I asked them, ” Why should I? If Medicare won’t consider him acceptable in another county, they won’t here either.”
The owner convinced me to at least try. Just run over there and talk to them is what he said. I grabbed some lunch because I had forgotten to eat breakfast in the chaos of things. Then I went over there.
I was very upfront and honest. I explained everything that had been going on today and for the past six month history. She asked me if the doctors had ordered gel pain medications and I said no, and she wondered why.
She said from everything I was saying he is declining and they accepted Al in their Hospice care. We hugged and I told her as soon as I got home I would call the other Hospice and tell them the new Hospice information, which I did.
Now I am in waiting time. Waiting for Al to come home. Waiting for the two Hospices to talk to each other for dismissal and admitting. He will still get three showers a week. He will get a nurse in this area for visits. I will even get home maker time hours for me. From what I learned they will send someone out to tidy up his room or something.
So I had no trouble calling the now Hospice. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I may be the sister but I know how he reacted to the increase of medication. Even the Hospice nurse that was here was shocked at how it was a negative reaction to the increase of meds.
I know in my heart this doctor is upset with me because I didn’t follow orders, but hey, this is a real person, and my brother. He is just not another case. So I am calmer now and this is good for all around. I made the right decision and as far as the Hospice Doctor is concerned…………she needs to remember why she became a doctor. You just can’t shut up noisy patients at any expense, pain is pain no matter what title you hold.
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Worse Night Yet For Al
Yesterday was awful, last night was terrible. Al got worse as the day wore on. By last night he was screaming he was on fire. Tears never stopped and I could not seem to bring the pain down.
I ended up calling Hospice around 11pm. At 1am a nurse showed up. She could see his pain and she called the doctor on call. I had never dealt with this doctor and I swear if I ever see her face to face I will have my way with her through words.
She ordered the nurse to give Al double one of his strong pain medications. In less than half an hour Al went nuts. He was screaming and crying. He swore his body was going to burn up. He began to hit himself wildly.
I couldn’t take it. I made her call that doctor back. The doctor then ordered twice the amount of that pain medication. I said absolutely not, hell no, no way. Find another doctor. Well there was no other doctor.
She reported that I would not do as requested so the doctor ordered him to take an extra pill that he usually takes. It is a calming pill. It seemed to work and he fell asleep. He slept for half an hour then was wide a wake, like wired.
The nurse called another nurse and she went home leaving me to wait here with Al for another hour. By now it was after 4am. The new nurse couldn’t seem to do anything with Al. His heart was racing at 282 beats per minute.
It was obvious to me that Al’s burning body was due to the heart going wacky from internal tremors inside the chest wall lining. When the nurse could do no more she called that same doctor back.
The doctor ordered him into the Hospice House. The ambulance came and got him and left at 6am.
I went to sleep with tears streaming and slept for four hours. Now it is time to start final preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. All I can say today is I miss Al so much. I am dead tired, but I am thankful he is still alive on Thanksgiving Day. He may not be here physically with me but he is in my thoughts constantly.
Who I am 