Many people saw the 2006 film, Amazing Grace, about the British slave-trade abolitionist, William Wilberforce. In summary, after his conversion to Christ as an adult, Wilberforce, a powerful member of Parliament, sets all his energies toward stopping the 19th century British slave trade. Despite many obstacles, and through decades of labor, he succeeds, and then…
Category Archives: Spirituality
Happiness Level Four
The Kansas City Star reported on a special graduation ceremony held for a terminally-ill high-school student: Connor Olson graduated from Tonganoxie High School on Thursday. He was the only graduate. He brought his parents, his grandma — and his hospice nurse. Connor has spent an exhaustive year fighting bone cancer, with one round of chemo,…
Bedside Services, and the New Health Law
We were able to perform a bedside paracentesis on one of our hospice patients this past week. Overall, it went well, and the patient felt better. We were prepared for complications, but none occurred. Normally, this procedure is done in the hospital by a radiologist. In this case, I felt the procedure could be done…
Leave a good wake
There are many ways to serve our community. One fulfilling avenue is through hospice volunteering. What does a hospice volunteer do? preparing simple meals reading to the patient helping write letters listening/emotional support doing simple household tasks relieving the caregiver for short periods Most volunteers visit their families once or twice a week and will…
Healing in hospice
Although it was just last night that the house passed the health-care reform bill, I am not going to write about it today. I am too blown away by what has happened. I think I need some time to process. Lately, I have been reading and thinking on the subject of miraculous healing. We pray…
Health Care Reform- it starts with us
A NYTimes article in December, 2009 discussed lessons learned in end-of-life care. Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 I read the article, and below I pasted some of its evocative statements: “It can be hard, sometimes impossible, to know which critically ill patients will benefit and which will not.” “Many acknowledge that the current payment system…
A Lenten hospice story
While I was traveling in Kenya last week I heard a moving story about hospice care. A man had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. When he received the news, he said to his friend, “This is a win-win for me. If by some miracle I live, I’ll be here with Nancy. If I die, I…
What about all these medications?
Some of our patients come to us taking 5 or more medications. We try to take them off as many as we can. There are lots of good reasons for stopping medicines. Many patients, particularly those suffering from dementia, have a hard time swallowing pills. And studies show that over-medication is a common cause of…
Non-hospice diagnosis
Often, one of the Texas Hospice patients suffers a “non-hospice diagnosis,” which is an injury or disease that is not related to their reason for coming onto our hospice service. An example, which occurred to one of our patients this past week, is when a patient suffering from end-stage dementia breaks a hip. They may…
Graduating from hospice
A small percentage of Texas Hospice patients do not follow the normal, expected course of decline toward death. Instead, they return to good health after receiving our care. These are our graduates. A good example was a patient of ours who suffered from dementia. After receiving daily hospice aid visits, music therapy, a cleaner bed…
