Catch 22

Mom was sitting quietly in the dining room when I arrived yesterday. Before I greeted her, I noticed that Hope, the Hospice nurse, was in the office. I had been eager to speak with her regarding the bandages on mom's skin tears as I wasn't sure they had been changed in awhile. As the food had not been served, we took mom back to her room to check. Apparently they had recently been changed by Flora, the Hospice person who bathes mom. This is an important service of Hospice because the aides at the home can't change bandages and have to wait for the nurse to do it, if she even notices a need for it. Hope put new bandages on and we took mom back to the dining room.

Mom ate all of her dinner and fed herself very well, relatively speaking. Hope stopped by several times during dinner and was impressed that mom was doing so well. In fact, they had weighed mom and she gained three pounds so she now weighs 103. She is still very thin for a tall 5'9" woman but the weight gain is definitely progress. Hope finally pulled up a chair and said, "You know, she is really doing well. In fact, I hope she can stay on Hospice because they have strict guidelines in place. The person has to be deteriorating rather than improving in order to keep her on Hospice because the government pays for it. Since she has gained weight, that is a sign of improvement." She went on to say, "Everyone in the building would like to be on Hospice because of all the extra attention they receive." I must have looked aghast because she quickly said she thought mom would be able to stay on Hospice because of her advanced dementia. However, she wasn't completely sure and wanted to give me fair warning in case her superiors decided she needed to be dropped. We could always appeal, if need be, although there was no guarantee they would keep her. All I kept thinking quietly to myself was, "I'm so glad I didn't blather on about how coherent mom has been lately." That surely would have tipped the scales against her. Hah! I just realized that her weight gain also tipped the scales against her so to speak. But it's not funny. Sis and I both want mom to be on Hospice because we don't want any more hospital episodes. And, we do love the extra care and attention she gets. Hospice is there for mom and for the caregivers, i.e. Sis and me. Hospice is another advocate for mom. Hospice is wonderful. We need Hospice.

We want mom to be as healthy as she can be but if she improves, then one of her services will be removed. You can't win for losing! Sometimes it's just too much to deal with. Guess I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara and say, "I won't think about this now. I'll think about this tomorrow."