(no subject)

[scarfman]

You may know Thursday night I tweeted:

• Thu, 14:53: Back to the ER for @horseyparalegal: tremors that won't stop and rising pulse.
• Thu, 16:30: Tremors lasted two hours. Hospital keeping @horseyparalegal at least overnight.

Friday afternoon in my wife’s hospital room we were visited by the doctor who’s the director of palliative services for the healthcare system our doctors and hospital are part of. A month ago when she was in the hospital, a couple of reps from that department visited us and suggested it was time to start preparing for when she needed to go into skilled care permanently and switch away from aggressive cancer treatment to keeping her comfortable for the end of her time. The director of the department came to see us Friday to suggest that that time has come.

We were reluctant to hear this so we decided to ask my wife’s physician and her oncologist for their opinion. They each stopped by my wife’s room Monday, coincidentally at the same time, and did concur with what the palliative doctor said.

Right now she’s still in the hospital because they’re still diagnosing and determining treatment for the tremors that put her in the ER last Thursday. But they've asked us to choose a skilled care center tomorrow morning, which she almost certainly won’t be coming home from.

Comments

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Damn. What a hard thing to process. I can say this: every person I've known who faced this decision felt very much better -- physically and emotionally -- after shifting the focus over to palliative care. Many said they wished they'd done it sooner. I don't know any major decision that has a more unanimous endorsement.

As one of the culprits who stole your eyeglasses from a Chambanacon hotel room snog those many years ago, I knew you two would get on well together. Little did I know, that was a massive under-estimation. You're both magnificent. All my love from Chicago.