And The Band Played On

Spent an hour at Pops this morning getting him situated. He was in a lot of pain and needed to be cleaned up. They do a good job with him, but they are not fully equipped to handle an involved hospice patient. Stephanie, the head supervisor, and others are all willing to pick up techniques to assist him- so when myself or KA go by we do a lot of ancillary things to assist with his medical needs. It's fine, and he appreciates it. This morning his bed was wet and he needed to have a new shirt and stuff put on. I had one of the gals help me and we flipped him around as gently as we could. He would moan and groan but at one point, he looked at the gal, Maria, and said "that's my son". I do like those moments of clarity. He sacked out once we were done and had repositioned him and apparently, he slept most of the night. I still want to get him out of bed at some point, if he wants to. He wasn't alert enough yesterday.

Anytime I think he is on his last leg, he rallies. His oxygen saturations ranged from 74 all the way up to 90 while checking him this morning. The dying process is quite different in monitoring it when it is someone you are close to. Mom, KA and I have talked about how it changes our daily routines. I, for one, am tired of eating out and not going to the gym. I like to get by the gym at least five times a week and haven't made it all week. I know, boo hoo for me-no gym and also have to wear the immobilizer boot. The kids also have to deal with changes and have grown accustomed to spending time at Mom's place watching TV and playing on the internet. KA and I have talked and life does need to continue on- as best we can. I'll miss him when he's gone and also miss my Mom when she moves back to Texas- but I think we will be shocked at the free time that we have rediscovered. I'm looking forward to baseball practice tonight as it is a routine of normalcy, yet I do feel honored to be available to help Pops on his end of life journey, however long that will be.