Visit from the Palliative Care Nurse

 The Palliative Care Nurse (PCN) has been for a visit to check on Mom. Mom's health has improved significantly from a year ago when she was recovering from a COPD exacerbation that resulted in pneumonia. At that time her GP registered her for palliative care and we made arrangements for an expected death in the home. This is Mom's wish, that she not be put back in a hospital or an institution, she wants to pass at home with her family around her.

Mom moved in on Nov 1, 2021, her 91st birthday. Her doctor ordered a routine chest x-ray to get a baseline on the condition of her lungs. At that time he saw pneumonia and we started a concerted effort to improve Mom's health. There were at least three moments where I wondered if Mom was going to take another breath, it was so difficult for her to inhale and exhale.

At that time we put Mom on the nicotine patch and over 10 weeks we ended her 60 year pack-a-day smoking habit. 

Today Mom was awake at 5:30 am. I brought her juice and tea in bed, as is our routine. Often she falls back to sleep but today she got herself up and dressed herself for the day. By 6 am she was in her big chair eating rice crispies and drinking another cup of tea. 

She dressed herself despite the chronic pain in her left shoulder that flared up at the end of December, her shortness of breath from the COPD and the arthritis that has crippled her feet, knees and hands.

PCN stepped back from taking Mom's blood pressure, listening to her lungs and asking questions about the progress of her dementia. She said that Mom was no longer a candidate for palliative registry, but her registration had been renewed because there wasn't a case manager available to be assigned to shift her status to Long Term Care. Mom's care status in the healthcare system will likely be changed in May, when the current 6 month palliative registration is up for renewal.


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