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To: mass55th
LOL!!At my age, I'd rather snuggle with a pet than a human.

Rack time at my place includes 3 pups (Rat Terrier, Dachshund, Jack Russell Terrier) finding a spot to settle. The pups migrate between me, my wife and just an open spot on the bed. They are good citizens when it is time to sleep. Once the sun is up, they wait for evidence of "stirring". Once that occurs, the Dachshund is resting her muzzle on my face. The Jack Russell is giving my ear a good wash and the Rat Terrier is sitting up to demand a belly rub. The Chihuahua sleeps under the bed. The Border Collie picks different places to "guard the cave".

Regarding hospice, I've detected an attitude from some of them that they are doing the customer a service to drive them to the cemetery faster with morphine whether they need it or not. It is a disturbing sense of self-righteousness. I hope to never be in their "care". The abdominal aortic aneurysm tends to be a very quick event when it blows. My hope is that I'm not operating a motor vehicle that puts anyone else in harm's way.

23 posted on 09/12/2025 4:48:36 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin
I am keeping you, your wife and your sister in my prayers. My one sister with the lung cancer entered hospice care in Rochester, NY on July 1, 2011. The gave her Lorazepam drops...that helped her rest comfortably. There were times she was thrashing about, calling out to God to please help her, and it helped calm her down and rest peacefully.

She had a UTI which they couldn't treat because she was in hospice care. The nurse administrator wanted to put a catheter in her so she wouldn't keep wetting the bed, and have to be moved around constantly to change the bed, and her nightgown. My sister was still a bit conscious, and fought them whenever they tried to put one in. That procedure is much easier if the person is relaxed. The Administrator asked me what I thought they should do. I told them to knock her out, which meant giving her slightly more of the Lorazepam to put her asleep. They did that, and easily put the catheter in. It was in until she passed. They never gave her any other medication but the Lorazepam when it was needed. The last week of her life, she wasn't awake or moving around, took no fluids, and had already stopped eating anything at least the week before. Her illness was the first and only time I've dealt with hospice care. All my other family members passed in hospitals.

24 posted on 09/12/2025 5:48:31 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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