Its a Monday

[plumaria]

Sigh. After a 3 day weekend its hard to go back to work. The good news is only 2 more sleeps until vacation begins! Am just beginning this blogging adventure and this very first entry will be short (a) because I'm supposed to be showered, dressed, and in the car by now, and (b) I'm still figuring out the mechanisms, backgrounds,etc of my site...I

Comments

[flemmarde]

great and monday don't *tend* to go together, but by the time i woke up off the couch and discovered you on lj... it was tuesday already!

heh heh... i have friended you already :) glad to be seeing more of you in cyberspace

Its a Monday

[plumaria]

Hi Barb - yeah it turned into a hell of a Monday actually. First message for me at work? One of my patient's private hire caregivers went out on what turned into a bender last night and just didn't show up home...ever....Charming...and then another patient told me that "for months" one of our male volunters had been acting inappropriately (sexually) with her...oh. my. god.....I am so freaking angry with this guy. As my patient said " I'm 95 years old, and ugly. What is this all about?" ....this has never come up in my 13 years of Hospicing and I am floored and upset by it. Lis

Re: Its a Monday

[flemmarde]

my goodness... there's some ethics problems during the day to deal with!

hope you can sort them all out

[nausicaa1]

Welcome welcome! I was planning on getting Flemmarde to put the LJ pressure on you but you caved before I got to her!

Anne Lamott rocks, by the way! I just got her most recent book on audio CD from the library so she can keep me entertained while I do the drudge work!

Its a Monday

[plumaria]

Hi! Thank you for the welcome! Yeah, I thought and thought about journaling and just decided, "oh, what the hell, I'll give it a go!" I amazed myself just be being able to figure out how to upload my photo! Now I have to figure out how to 'friend' people...thanks for your comment:) Lis

Re: Its a Monday

[plumaria]

Oh yeah! Anne Lammott on CD? Very cool. I just placed an order on Amazon for some more of her books - hope they'll be here by the time I go 'to the Mainland' on the 21st....Lis

[rexmundi]

Hmmm.

Welcome to Flemmy's Cosin.

I have just added you to my friends list if you don't mind.

Haven't got anybody from Hawaii yet.

Its a Monday

[plumaria]

Hi Rexmundi - thank you for befriending me..Lis

[cardigirl]

If you can handle another stranger friending you, I'd like to hear what flemmard's cousin might have to say about hospice work and life in general. My mother died in hospice care and d*mn if they weren't the only people who (a) cared and (b) talked to me straight throughout the whole process.

Welcome to LJ!

Hospice

[plumaria]

Hi Cardigirl! I'm so sorry about your mom's death. And I'm glad for you that you had a *good hospice experience. I would have to say that speaking the truth is imperative when someone is dying. I'm glad your nurses were honest with you about her condition and what to expect. I have been (quite often actually) in a position where my pt's caregiver will say to me "don't tell 'x' he is dying...he doesn't know how bad it is." Then when I go in to introduce myself to 'x', he'll say "for god's sake don't tell my wife I'm dying! It would devastate her!" Wow. Makes for quite a challanging process...and then sometimes docs ask me to tell their patients that they're dying as in..."em..er..Mr 'x' doesn't exactly know the seriousness of his condition....em...would you mind letting him know?" Thanks doc...lol....hey..welcome to my journal Cardigirl. I love talking about my work, so if you have any particular
questions just let me know. Lis

Re: Hospice

[cardigirl]

Thank you. My mom died almost five years ago, and that was immediately followed by the further uprooting of my life-to-that-time, so it was only part of a bigger, messy picture. (Things are much better now

Re: Hospice

[plumaria]

You know, its so interesting how people in the 'medical' field view death. I'm not surprised by your mom's doctors's attitude. There are a few ideas floating around: one being that doctors often see themselves as failures if they can't cure the patient. Another being that their own (the docs that is) fear of dying and the dying process itself, can really impede the process for patients in a very negative way - for example your poor mom being forced to do PT... I can't bare that she had to do that:( I would disagree with him on his Hospice/longevity theory though...we find that once we admit our patients and get their pain and other symptoms well managed, they usually experience a vast,(though, of course, temporary) improvement. Pain has a way of wrecking every aspect of one's life - once under control, some joy returns. I've had patients feel so good while under our care, that they've taken trips to Vegas etc (oxygen and wheel chair in tow) and had a ball...