On 6/7/2008
TracyR wrote:
My father is in the late stages of lunger cancer with mets to the bone. He is in the hospital right now but my sister wants to bring him home after he is stablized. While I want my father to be comfortable - I am not sure we are capable of caring for him. If we chose in home hospice what does that exactly include? I am assuming that he will be on IV pain meds so I am unsure what to expect.
I believe the the decision lies with my mother. If she wants him home during his last months then we will find a way even if my sister and I have to take time off from work.
This is all going so fast...
Hi Tracy,
Contact Hospice and see what your options are. If you have a local hospice house, you, your mother and sister should visit. I did that and found it to be nothing like a hospital. If we had gone that route with my mother, it would have been possible for me to stay there as much as I wanted. (I also did that at the hospital.) Every room was a single with a fold out couch for family. It was much more like a place where people might go for a retreat, then a medical place. The greatest advantage to being there would have been a full time nurse available at all times, as well as other staff.
We brought my mother home from the hospital with home hospice care. They are wonderful, providing meds, a hospital bed, everything needed, but still you will be doing most of the caretaking yourselves. We were able to have a home aid most days who would stay one or two hours and take care of bathing and things like that. A nurse came maybe twice a week. The last week, we had a nurse everyday. There was also a social worker who would come periodically. One of the best parts was that there was always someone to call when I had a question or concern. (And I did many times!)
My mother needed 24 hour care for almost three months. I did a lot of it myself, but I was also lucky to have a lot of help. We hired more and more people as time went on. Her last week, we felt we needed two on, especially through the night as my mom had a great deal of trouble sleeping.
Good luck to you and your family. Please feel free to ask me any questions you think I might be able to answer. I have been through this and I know how hard it is. Roz