...that if you have a person on hospice care in a skilled nursing facility, and if that person one morning is more difficult than usual to wake up, and has oxygen saturations in the 70's even when they're on 4LPM of supplemental oxygen, and that person is also having shortness of breath and decreased breath sounds in one of their lungs, the staff at the skilled nursing facility basically call you (and by "you" I mean the person's emergency contact person) and say, essentially -- Hey, you should get in here ASAFP. Capice?
Which, in many cases I'd imagine, leads to said contact person calling another person close to the person on hospice and relaying the same message, probably with a bit more emotion and a bit less technical information.
And, that's how Wednesday started for me last week. A call from my Mom at about 7am, which in the history of forever has never brought good information, telling me that my Dad had low oxygen levels and wasn't waking up. I was supposed to work from home that day, and when I first talked to her I strung some words together about that I'd go work from the office instead so I could be in town and then play it by ear from there, but a few minutes later after I actually woke up enough to get out of bed and get in the shower, and process what I'd just been told, I was like -- What on earth was I thinking?! If my Dad is non-responsive and barely breathing, my ass is NOT going to work today. Just thinking about it by that time brought me to tears and I was like, no, I can't work with this going on. So I finished my shower and texted my boss, and the doctor I was working with that day, and then my husband, and my son. Maybe not in that order, I don't remember. I probably texted the hubby and son first, then took a shower.
Regardless of the technical details, most of which I don't feel like re-hashing right now, the long-story-short version is that that was a horrible day. But he woke up later. He wasn't very talkative, but he did talk a bit. His O2 sats went up to the upper 80's to low 90's again, on his usual 2-3L. The hospice nurse did say that his left lung sounds were diminished and congested, and he didn't eat much that day, but ever since then he's been -- in their words -- "not declining". Which, in hospice-speak, doesn't mean that he's getting better, it just means he's not rapidly declining like we all thought he was on Wednesday.
We thought Wednesday was going to be It. You know. The Day.
No one can explain what happened. His lungs are still not great, but they haven't been for years. But they're back to what they were before Wednesday. It does seem to have taken a lot out of him, unfortunately. He's very tired now. He still sleeps about 18 hours a day, but when I've seen him, even when he's awake, he looks exhausted. He continues to lose weight, despite eating 75-100% of his meals.
He just looks sad all the time now. Sadder than before.
I gotta get back to work now. TTYL
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