Dispatches from the front continued

HP is now officially admitted to home hospice care, and we've had social workers and nurses buzzing about and ordering us stuff and explaining and making him comfortable, and there will be home health aides. I will breathe freely once the home health aides start in with us, but the team has applied for the maximum help for me, 20hours a week of home health care, plus a volunteer companion for a couple of hours a week. There will be nursing visits two or three times a week, too. So we will see how this works out for all of us.

Last night very late, we had a long power outage, probably they were rolling the blackouts to save the grid, temps well over 100 for a couple of days and more to come, and I think this was a planned thing. Mainly because it was our street! the next one had lights. But it put the fear of God into me, since HPs mattress is powered by an electric pump, and must be kept inflated. Also if the house gets hot I don't know where on earth to get him to to be cool. Then I remembered a hospice nurse was scheduled for first thing this morning, so I planned to throw it all at her. Then the power came back on, waking me up because I'd left the lights on, phew, relief.

One wonderful thing about the hospice care is that they provide for respite for a few days, and they will undertake to move HP to the local brand new rehab place, will accompany him there, and his own nurse will attend whil he's there. They need a few days' advance notice to make sure there's a bed, but other than that, it ought to work.

So I will definitely plan a little shore visit in the fall, once the weather has abated, and HS won't have to take over the whole thing again. This is great.

It's still hard to believe that he's eligible for this care, since it's only days since he was stable and doing fine, but I'll take his doctor's word for it, and if it unleashes all this help, that's fine. He is mainly in bed now, since he can't tolerate the energy level it takes to be moved to his chair and sit up, too exhausting. So, reluctantly, since I have staved off this time for so long, he needs to be in bed, being turned and so on, and fed every bite, all minced or shredded. Even then he gets very tired eating and I let him stop when he can't go on.

Yesterday was a two scarf day. Knitted, that is. The other thing, if you don't hear much from me, my own computer has died, and I can't get it in to repair it for a few days probably, so I can only email or blog in great haste from the library, which is where I am now, if I can get in here at all. Can't upload pix or anything. But I shall return! and thank you for all your good thoughts.