Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Hospice care brought comfort at end of life

“Your wife is going to have a cardiac arrest. It will happen here in the hospital or it will happen at home, but it will happen. Are you prepared for that?”

It was a fair question the doctor asked me, and it is one we should all consider before the fact. Hospitals can save lives, but they are noisy, uncomfortable and disorienting places. Even after medical procedures have failed, an endless stream of specialists poke at your belly and order futile tests that go on until you die alone among strangers at two o’clock in the morning.

With the help of Creekside Hospice, we rescued my wife, Kay, from the hospital and brought her home. We put her in her favorite recliner. Then we opened the doors and put up the shades, so she could see the light and hear the birds.

“It’s so bright. It’s nice,” she said.

But Kay was drowning in a sea of sleep caused by the cancer and the drugs. Occasionally she would bubble to the surface of consciousness. We no longer tried to offer bits of food and drink as small life preservers. She could now only take her drugs by mouth with an eye dropper. Whether Kay was conscious or not, we would touch her and say, “I’m here, I love you, and I will not leave you alone.”

On the morning of March 1, her heart stopped beating. Daughter Laura and I removed Kay’s clothing and, though her body was not soiled, we washed her as a last act of love and respect. Then we covered her with a sheet and the prayer blanket and a shawl, sent to her from friends.

The hospice nurse was called, and our little family went into our kitchen nook to have coffee and to await the arrival of all the official people.

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