Quiet Saturday at Home

            Well, the actual discharge time from Lunder 1024 on Thursday was 4 p.m., five hours past the 11 a.m. stated departure time. While we waited at the hospital, David’s new hospice nurse, Luis, was waiting in our driveway along with the social worker, Robert. Their shifts ended, so they went home before we arrived at our house. Martin, the night nurse, came instead, and around 9 p.m. a driver from Pelham Pharmacy dropped off the IV-morphine cassettes.

            Luis and Robert returned Friday morning. Luis watched me set up the one liter bag of dextrose water to David’s IV line. I was pretty nervous; it went well, slow but well. The infusion nurse who trained me at Lunder on Thursday, gave me a ‘cheat sheet’ with step-by-step instructions, which I used. I assured Luis I could do the disconnection when the four-hour infusion was complete.

            This morning the weekend nurse, Lisa, arrived at 1 p.m. to walk me through the set-up. I had spent over an hour typing the instructions into a spreadsheet to help me understand the steps and rehearse them in my mind. The actual set-up went well, but I asked Lisa to come by Sunday just to bolster my confidence and refine my technique. After she left I spent more time fine-tuning my spreadsheet, printing it, and putting it in a sheet protector. (I love sheet protectors.)

            Flash back to Monday (or was it Tuesday?), which feels like two weeks ago: my friends Sarah and Birgit came over and helped me dust and sweep the house, and prepare the dining room for the delivery of the hospital bed and equipment. The old oak table that I grew up with has removable leaves; we took them out and changed the rectangular table with seating for 12 to a small square table. All the leaves and the dining room chairs made their way down to the basement for safe keeping.

Wednesday we took delivery on the hospital bed, tray table, oxygen concentrator, portable oxygen tanks, and a suction machine (to clear throat secretions). Thursday we arrived home around 5 p.m.

            Turning the dining room into David’s bedroom, complete with hospital bed and all the trimmings, makes hospice very much more real. It’s sobering. He appreciates not having to climb the stairs to his bedroom each evening. He can go to the kitchen to microwave warm milk or sit on the couch in the family room and watch a movie with us.

            R’el was able to take Thursday and Friday off and brought two-year-old Andrew up from the Bronx for a four-day visit. Andrew is a brave little soldier and has handled his first overnight away from home and his parents with aplomb. Andrew’s mom Xiomara is nine months pregnant, so she and Peter have to stay at home close to the hospital until after the baby is born. David enjoys seeing his curly-haired nephew. Matt flew in late Friday night; he’ll stay till Monday.

            It’s been a quiet day. David still has a cough, and has very little energy, but he’s home and fairly comfortable. He’s reading Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (our current family book group selection) and The ubiquitous Economist.

            Thus ends Day Two of hospice.