CAREGIVING: Recertification is one of those things that I am glad I can worry about it. Kathy is doing well enough that she needs to be recertified to continue with hospice care. Medicare pays for hospice, but the general rule of thumb is that since it is end of life, comfort care it is restricted. In other words they want to make… Read more →
Tag: hospice
The Nurse, the Donkey and the Bereavement Counsellor
CAREGIVING: Our hospice nurse came for one of her visits on Friday. Kathy checked out fine: blood pressure; oxygen with that finger clamp thingie; and her lungs sounded clear. I told her I was starting to give her tastes of food and drink. She thought that was fine as long as I am careful. I also told her I was thinking of cutting… Read more →
More updates: Winter, hospice and coffee
CAREGIVING: Sorry I haven’t had much time to write lately. Actually it is all pretty good. I have some new design work keeping me busy and Kathy has been doing really well. Also, I wanted to give an anonymous, but huge thank you for the kind help I have received from some of you. Wednesday I was down at our bookkeeper’s office.… Read more →
Pre-planning and Huntington’s Disease
CAREGIVING: I spent some of my birthday looking into funeral and cremation options for Kathy. It’s not something we want to think about or plan for. When I was a kid one of my friends lived in a funeral home. His mom and dad ran a funeral home in Fitchburg MA. I remember when he had a birthday party we went… Read more →
When I’m 64
LIFE: On February 17th I turned 64. I’ve been waiting for that one Beatles song “When I’m 64” to actually apply to me. And I forgot about it: aka “senior moment.” Fortunately all of my friends on Facebook remembered it for me. Thanks to all of you, my friends and fauxs. Life never turns out exactly the way you imagined it… Read more →
Update on the Cheek
CAREGIVING: I guess after Kathy’s most recent close call we all deserve an update. She is doing much, much better. The antibiotics did their job and her cheek went from grapefruit sized down to normal. Now we wait to see if the same infection comes back. I did learn a lot from the process. For one thing, just because you are… Read more →
Things are swell.
CAREGIVING: The goal with our hospice care is to keep Kathy comfortable. Hospice care (from a health care cost standpoint) is limited to Kathy’s actual “diagnosis” of end stage Huntington’s Disease. When something else pops up (blood pressure, infections etc.) there are “conversations” about what to do next. Or not. They will support whatever decision I make. But I have to make decisions on how far to… Read more →