What to expect from hospice?

[haele]

22. So sorry to hear this is happening to you.

My father had a stroke he was not going to survive, so the hospital transferred him to the short-term hospice they had on the top floor. They put him in a comfortable room with a view that was very much like a hotel room with a couch and two beds and a very small kitchenette and bathroom with a shower. They had a larger hospital bed for him (with built in monitoring and other medical hook-ups that were unobtrusive), and a full sized bed for anyone who would want to stay.
The nurses were very attentive - they checked in every half hour, and ensured that they did everything they could to keep him (and Mom, who stayed with him) comfortable, even though he wasn't really "there". They allowed mom to bring in his portable stereo system and help her figure out how to run it to play the music he liked, and they had all sorts of electronic doo-dads that had he been conscious, he could watch TV, go on the internet, or watch a dvd or stream his favorite shows, or just read or write.

Hospice is a blessing. Very few "beeps and blinking lights", and most of the nurses and doctors will treat you with the care and respect you need.

If he had shown any signs of improvement, they would have begun stabilization treatment - a woman in the room next to him had started to make a turn towards recovery, so they stabilized her for re-evaluation and she went up back in the hospital proper.

Haele