hospice

After living through an incredibly bad episode of real life "Grey's Anatomy" these past few days, my dad was moved to hospice today. To say that the ordeal we had to endure between the trauma team and the neurosurgeon was "emotionally draining" is an understatement. To sum it up in one sentence or less, the trauma team (primarily made up of residents) completely misrepresented and misquoted the neurosurgeon when presenting us their recommendations for my dads care. They also did not involve him (the only expert physician on his case) when making decisions and when presenting us with life/death recommendations. (Okay, that was 2 sentences...) . Needless to say, I was contacted by the consumer relations dept of the hospital today. Eventually, I plan to take this issue further than that.

After meeting with the neurosurgeon yesterday, things fell back into place. Life support was removed yesterday. Today my dad was moved to hospice. He is completely off all life saving treatments and he appears to be completely unconscious. They are now providing him with only comfort medications and he is not expected to live much longer. We all expected that seeing my dad off the respirator and without all the tubes and wires would make things easier. It did not. He is incredibly weak and thin and the sounds coming from his lungs are incredibly disturbing - so much so that we find it hard to stay in his room.

Our time in the ICU was the most chaotic and mind-bending experience I have ever endured. Hospice is peaceful and serene. Ironically, after driving home from there today, I almost missed the ICU. At least there, I was completely distracted about what was actually going on with my dad. Today, at hospice, was completely another story. I pray peace comes to all of us very soon.