The Critical Care Roadmap for Elderly Parents
Hello all you Boomers and Seniors out there. This post will be briefer than my usual blogs.
If any of you are dealing with the demise of your aging parents, I feel your pain and my thoughts and prayers go out to you.
Over the past two weeks, I have watched my parents, both of whom are in a skilled nursing facility, deal with various forms of the flu and cold viruses floating about, along with their normal decline. It’s a bit like watching a tennis match, one gets better then the other goes down, and vice versa. Back and forth.
I thought I had lost my mother this past week. She has rallied slightly, but not to where she was before. She has failed so much over the past week that I chose to set up hospice. So, over the past several days I have been immersed in meeting with these wonderful care givers who are an adjunct to the nursing care she would normally receive at the SNF. It’s never about enough care, it’s always about what care is required to address the needs of the specific individual. In this case, I consulted with the charge nurse, the administrator of the facility, and her primary care physician to determine the best course of attentive care, and this is the avenue we chose.
For those of you who are not familiar with hospice, it is a type of healthcare that focuses on the palliation and alternative to therapies for patients who require comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering.
It takes a village to help my senior-senior parents, and decisions like this can only be made with contribution from all the moving parts in the nursing home. We’re fortunate in that we have an incredible working relationship with all the players so getting their support on such a critical matter was not only important, but not that difficult.
If indeed you are going through anything like this, hang in there, and perhaps use some of these guiding principles in your decision making. In the meantime, I will be back to you shortly with more blogs that hopefully you will find helpful and inspirational, which is what this website is all about.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Your BoomerGal, Connie.
“Little by little we let go of loss…but never of love”