Heavy night

Joan’s condition is deteriorating rapidly. We will soon have to let the Silver Chain bring in a hospital bed. Overnight we had to get up to toilet about five times without a real result. We both realise that there is little to void because she has eaten hardly anything, but the pressure is there.

I now know what the term respite means. I cannot really leave Joan alone to dash off to the pharmacy, or have a much needed haircut or go shopping for groceries. Joan’s sister Dorothy also has some respite from caring for her husband Mike and is going to use her respite to look after Joan on Wednesday afternoon. Some respite!

Mike has advanced Parkinson’s Disease and can be a very frustrating patient as he cannot speak well enough to understand what he is saying and he has a fixation of fiddling with technical stuff like phones, computers and TVs until they need someone else to come and reset them to work again. His favorite play thing is the Garmin SatNav device.

The Silver Chain service is excellent and we can call them 24 hours a day for either telephone advice or a call-out. The trouble is that the nurses are always different and we have to go through the question and answers routine and the review of the last visit before anything can happen. Never-the-less it is better than seeing a GP or the Oncologist or even being in hospital because these palliative care nurses have seen it all many times over and know what drugs and doses are best suited to each situation.

Photo of Joan just a few weeks ago.