07:27 – Barbara’s dad will be released from the hospital today and return to the Brian Center. I was surprised yesterday when Don, our UPS guy, endorsed the Brian Center. He mentioned that he hadn’t seen me over there for a couple of days. I hadn’t realized that the Brian Center was on his route, but he said he’d seen me over there every day until the last couple of days. I told him that Barbara’s dad had been over there, but had been in the hospital for a couple of days. Don said he’d been delivering there for 10 years or more and knew just about all of the staff. He has a very high opinion of the place.
Barbara says they’re getting Hospice and the palliative care group from the hospital involved in managing her dad’s care. Dutch is in both congestive heart failure and kidney failure. The next time there’s a crisis, which could be in a day or a week or two, rather than transport Dutch to the hospital they’ll transport him directly to Hospice, assuming there’s a room available. There’s nothing that can be done to fix Dutch’s problems, so at this point the goal is to keep him as comfortable as possible. Heroic measures would simply extend his suffering. Barbara is very happy with the palliative-care doctor who’s now managing her dad’s care, and trusts her advice about how best to proceed.
10:26 – I just talked to Barbara, who asked me to pick up a six-pack of Pepsi and a couple cans of Mandarin oranges for her dad. He’s not eating much, so Barbara and Frances are trying to figure out what might temp him to eat a bit more. Dutch knows he’s going back to Brian Center today, and he’s not happy about it. He apparently likes it at the hospital, where he has a nice single room and gets constant attention.