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| Saturday Morning Jean on the rebound drinking a green tea latté with some help from her sister Anne |
Jean has had ups and
downs over the past 4 days, so we've been on an emotional roller coaster here
at the hospice. The short version is
that on Friday, Jean wasn't talking, eating, drinking or even opening her eyes;
one of the nurses here implied that she might never open them again. But she did, Saturday morning, and then she
started eating and drinking, and is now able to talk to in an extremely quiet
whisper.
Here's a longer version,
day by day.
Wednesday, January 9
The Wee Hours For the
first time since she has been at the hospice, Jean woke up in the middle of the
night afraid to be alone. She asked one
of the nurses to hold her hand, and when that nurse needed to attend to another
patient, she got me from downstairs and I sat with her to the morning. Since that time, there have been only a few
hours when Jean has not had family and friends sitting at her bedside.
Late Afternoon
Jean had Skypes sessions
with Yao Louis in Ann Arbor and Laurie Abbott in New Mexico. She was not very talkative, and the sessions
were short. After that, the Zen Hospice
Chorus came to our remove, and sang what sounded live a very old song with this
haunting refrain:
We may not need words
We may not need songs.
We may just need our two
hears beating.
The Evening.
Jean was nauseous three
times. This made the 6th day of the last
7 that she nauseated, and the hospice decided to give her 1 mg of Haldol as
needed every two hours to try to control it.
In retrospect this was probably a mistake, the Haldol and lorazapam (for
seizure control) had a powerful sedating effect on Jean.
Thursday
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| Susie Dranit, with her gifts of a fleece cap and an orchid |
The Haldol appeared to
be working, but Jean had no appetite, was not talking much, and appeared to be
dozing a lot. Susie Dranit came to visit
at 2 pm, bringing the orchid and the fleece cap that you see in the photo. Susie was a colleague of Jean's at URS, and
had many warm memories to share, and some tears to shed. She ended up staying for several hours, holding
Jean's had and talking even though Jean did little in response. Susie seemed to get a lot from the
experience. After Susie, Ken Eichstaedt
from URS came by, bringing an ivy plant in an ornamental pot that had been a
prized ornament in Jean's cube. Like
Susie, he chatted for a while, held hands with Jean, and it seemed to mean a
lot to him.
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| Karen Creech, with gifts of flowers: Nick Galloro brought the irises Tuesday; Ken Eichstaedt brought the ivy Thursday; Susie Dranit brought the tall orchid Thrusday |
Jean's sister Anne and
brother-in-law John arrived from Florida in the evening. This was an event Jean had bee looking
forward to since Anne returned to Florida December 11. Jean did not acknowledge the event, but
somehow she was already aware that Anne was back when she opened her eyes
Saturday morning.
Karen Creech visited to,
as she has many times, and her loving patient presence was much appreciated.
Friday
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| Ian Austin, Jean, Anne Lewis |
A bad day. The hospice stopped the Haldol, and went very
lightly on the lorazapam, but Jean appeared to sleep the whole day. Of course Anne and John were there from early
until late, and Ian Austin from URS came by in the afternoon. Like Susie Dranit
and Ken Eichstaedt Thursday, Ian spent several hours just holding Jean's hand
and talking about life in an engineering consulting firm. Jean did not say
anything in response, but made a couple of gestures that seemed to indicate
agreement with points Ian was making.
Saturday
