Palliative care and elderly care

One of moms’ sisters (a retired nurse and care giver in an elderly care home) dropped by today to have a look how we were coping in giving care to father’s metastatic liver cancer. She already stayed with mom a week, so she is a real help. The great thing is that :

She doesn’t drop by as a normal visitor sipping coffee or tea,
she is hands on, brings soup, canned homemade mashed apples…

Mashed apples by the way, because father forgets from time to time what his falls teeth are all about, so mashed food does miracles if your body already is consuming way to much energy to feed the cancer.

Advanced care

For advanced care, we have nurses coming in 2 times a day. Their care giving consists of:

• giving medication
• giving food and drinks
• giving father a bed wash or real shower

24 on 24 care

What really is needed these days is a 24 hours on 24 support of father. Support literary, as the cancer is making father weak. But also support in helping father out orienting himself where he is and what he is doing.

The only qualification needed here is patience: lots and lots of patience. Mom on her own would never manage this (people need to sleep as well, and with sleep deprivation comes a lack of patience), so mom has the luck that her kids are around and her sister drops by once in a while, or when needed.

Yet again, we are talking a 24 hour day job. Its hard, so I can imagine what happens if a cancer patient is treated in a hospital with never enough nurses to go around:

• neuroleptics,
• diapers and
• sleeping pills…

For those of you not knowing exactly what neuroleptics are: antipsychotic drugs which get rid of, or reduce, the intensity of psychotic experiences such as delusions and hallucinations. They also have a calming effect. Which is another way of saying: neuroleptics (Risperdal, Dipiperon, Haldol) can keep you asleep or groggy.