Palliative Care

We recently had a family meeting.

One advantage of having a large family is the portfolio of skills siblings bring along. My younger brother ran the meeting AND took notes. He took them by the simple expedient of recording it with his smartphone. He also graciously asked everybody's permission before recording.

One of the items on the agenda was the question of palliative care. For those who are not familiar with the term, think of it as "in home hospice". The goal is not heroic, life-saving medicine. The goal is to provide support and comfort as life winds down.

I suspect that the insurance companies love it because it has to be cheaper than plugging failing, elderly patients into multi-million dollar milking machines "for the duration".

Patients like it because they are not treated like fodder in some industrial process. They stay home with their loved ones.

Dad is resistant
Dad does not see how they fit into the medical ecosystem.

"Do they replace my regular doctor?" dad asked.

"No, you would still see Dr. Awesome on a regular basis." one of the nurses in the family informed him.

"Would they replace Tammi?" dad asked. Tammi is the woman who assists mom when one of the daughters/daughters-in-law are not available.

"No, they would not replace Tammi." we tell him.

"Would you guys stop coming?" dad asked. This may be one of his biggest fears, that we will scrape our responsibilities off on these palliative care people.

"No dad. You will still have 8-to-1 and 5-to-8 coverage from family members seven days a week." we tell him. Dad is in bed by 8 nearly every night.

"So I don't see what good they will do.  I have everything I need the way things are now." dad said.

I could see past dad and mom's face was working. Dad was so focused on the technical side of things he was not tracking mom's need to have something, some plan, to escalate the next time we had a crisis. After all, dad made it VERY clear he does not want to go back to the hospital.*

Palliative care is more for mom's need to do something more than hold dad's hand and say Hail Marys for his soul when she finds him laid out on the floor than it is for dad.

Dad is a stoic. If the family members cannot get an appointment with Dr Awesome until Wednesday then he is willing to suck-it-up.  Heck, what is a little bit of chest pain.

Mom is an empath. She feels the pain he does not. Palliative care means she can call them and know that some kind of help is on the way and will relieve her of being the pivot pin.

But before Mom can have that ability, palliative care needs to establish a professional relationship with mom and dad. She cannot call them out-of-the blue.

The resolution

We make a concerted effort to not treat our parents as fake-adults. We don't pretend to allow them control like you might pretend to give a mentally retarded adult to humor them and make it easier to manage their behaviors. We don't treat them like some goofy-but-lovable team mascot. They have actual control.

It cannot be denied that neither one of them are as mentally sharp as they were at the height of their mental powers. Dad used to keep a running tally as the groceries were checked out and correct the cashier when she double rang items or missed them.  He did that for fun.

But they are still piloting their own ship and doing a very fine job.

Dad told us that he needed to discuss the issue with mom. They weren't going to do that in front of us. I suspect it will take a week for them to sort it out.

The answer may still come back "No."

*Dad softened a little bit regarding going back to the hospital. If it were for a procedure that would improve his ability to take care of mom, like a cortisone shot for his knee, he is willing go to the hospital for the procedure. He does not want, however, to be plugged into the milking machine again.