Personal Narrative: Hospice Changed My Life

serious towards everything. I would stop talking to my friends from Kingwood High School and my friends from New Jersey and as well as my family. Then one day, i suddenly became really tired and light headed and unable to function correctly. In a matter of minutes i was rushed to the hospital, and multiple test was concluded and the result was showing that i had stage two colon cancer. The word Cancer didn't shock me or scare me, but the only thing that scared me was the result of having cancer and how it's going to change me and what i have to through in order to live or have my normal life back.

The parents came out of Grandma’s room by one by one, bags under their eyes, makeup running down their face, and bright red noses. By that time, I could almost predict what happened. As my mom and dad approached us with their heads down, I prepared myself to hear exactly what I never wanted to hear. “The doctors are turning off the life support machine. She isn’t suffering anymore, and she will be looking over every one of you guys. She said she loves you all so much,” Mom told us while my dad didn’t hide his tears back.

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

Long-term care is a result of people having terminal conditions, disabilities, illnesses, injuries, or being elderly. The purpose of long-term care is to provide services to people and to aid people at a time in their lives when they cannot depend on themselves to maintain daily activities. There are many variations of long-term care available – such as home care, adult day care, and independent and assisted living, personal care facilities, nursing homes, and hospice.

The doctors were pretty sure that Pierre had less than 6 months to live, so he fell well within the guidelines for hospice coverage. Should hospice coverage be limited to those with 6 months or less to live, or should other be covered? 6 months is a random figure and I think that the covering other could help families deal with hospice care a little better; it would give them a better understanding of what hospice-type services is entailed. It also could be too expensive for covering others and how can you know for sure if 6 months is suitable.

I vividly remember that chilly night in March as I walked out of Fifer, the building my father now calls home, for the first time. I had goosebumps, but they were not from the cold I felt hit my skin. Instead, they were from the sickness in my stomach. As I got in the car, I began to cry and had to stop myself from running back inside. My entire world had turned upside-down. How could I go home without my father? How could I leave him in a nursing home, a place where he was too young and mentally fit to be confined? I had to fight the feeling that he didn’t belong. I had to remind myself of why he chose to be there, and I hated it.

It was another restless Friday afternoon in the small-town nursing home. Overworked nurses buzzed around, itching to start their weekend. “Ann,” a late-stage dementia patient, stared out her bedroom window. Her eyes focused on nothing in particular. As a hospice volunteer, I had been visiting Ann for three months. She spent our time together lost somewhere in her mind where I could never seem to reach her. I reminded Ann who I was and began one of our familiar conversation topics. As usual, she never spoke. As the visit went on, however, something changed. Ann slowly shifted her gaze toward me. I paused. She gently reached for my hand. Her hand felt weak, but her grip was firm. She looked into my eyes, and for a moment her face was clear with recognition. “You’re here,” she said. “…You are here.” She struggled to get out the words as she brought my hand to her face and kissed it. I was so touched I could not speak. For a moment, Ann connected with me. She trusted me. In that moment, I knew I had made the right choice.

    At some point in a terminally ill person 's life, there comes a time when all treatment options have been exhausted, and patient comfort is the number one priority. During this process, hospice care comes into play to ensure quality of life of a patient. Pain management and supportive services are provided to anyone who is willing by Medicare, and other government assistance programs, for individuals and families that cannot afford private home care. These services are provided by a trained group of professionals, including; Doctors, Nurses, Counselors, Social workers, Physical therapists, Volunteers and Chaplains. There are different types of hospice

Today, I shadowed at the Linda E. White Hospice House. This building is brand new and was opened earlier this year. The purpose of hospice is to keep patients comfortable as they near the end of life. The Linda E. White Hospice House features seven suites for patients and their families. Each room includes a patient bed, a pull out sofa, a restroom, a separate guest room with a bed, and access to an outdoor labyrinth. These amenities are meant are accommodate the patient’s family and also keep the family and patient at peace.

As a student-athlete who has been involved in multiple research activities for the duration of my undergraduate college experience, free hours have always been precious. During my time as an undergraduate student, I have helped coordinate an annual race to raise money for mesothelioma research with over one thousand participants each time and have helped tear down and build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Further, I have volunteered, deferring payment, as a peer tutor for several undergraduate courses. However, my most meaningful volunteering experience has been the time that I have volunteered with AseraCare Hospice. Prior to the beginning of this academic year, I had only volunteered with AseraCare for around two months as a junior following

I have an amazing opportunity through my sister's employer, to volunteer to assist hospice patients on a regular basis. I volunteer to assist hospice patients and their families by offering compassionate companionship and assisting with errands. Hospice patent's needs are not always monetary but more often emotional support and companionship. Last year, for one of my projects, I volunteered to make Thanksgiving meal boxes and to deliver them to the home of the hospice patients. I, along with other volunteers, filled the boxes with traditional Thanksgiving meal ingredients including desserts that were donated by area businesses. It took us approximately four hours to fill almost one hundred boxes. After filling all of the boxes, I volunteered

    As of late, we’ve become familiarized with the concept of hospice through guest speakers and readings (Class notes, 2016). Through Descendants we learned the importance of advanced care directives and widened our EOL conversation to focus more on family than the patient (Payne). Through another guest speaker and lecture we also talked about expressive therapy and its imperativeness on patient and family care (Class notes, 2016). During our week not in class, we read articles on grief, coping, and social support and it’s importance to communication at the end-of-life, additionally, we saw the five stages of grief after watching the Scrubs episode (Class notes, 2016). Lastly, we closed with potpourri week in which we learned about the different religions/cultures and their views on the afterlife (Class notes, 2016).

Hospice care main goal is to provide comfort then treating the person disease. Normally patients that live in hospice only have 6 months to live. Hospice also gives control to the patient in methods of their own death. Many patients will rather take a liquid substance that will slowly put them to rest, while others will have alternative plans on how they want to deal with their last stages of life. Hospice is also great at giving the patient many options when there trying to make decision on their death. Hospice overall wants to improve the quality of life and their finial wishes.

After a while of sitting in my grandparents living room mindlessly playing with my toys I decided to get up. I walked towards the commotion going on in the small hallway connecting the living room to the kitchen. The gathering of people consisted of my mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma. Curious about what was going on I walked over to the group. I reached my mom and looked up to see that her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had been crying. I looked over to my dad and his face, like everyone else's, was grim. During this time I kept hearing one repeating word, cancer. I started to listen more closely to the conversation going on around me because even at the age of seven I knew that cancer was bad news. I listened intently and heard my mom explain how she had colon cancer.

In understanding the benefits that hospice provides and the exceptional care given, take this next story about a man who was healthy, but his health took a turn for the worst. “John F. worked as a hard rock miner during his early adulthood, and then as a postal carrier until retirement. Even in old age, he remained a strong 6'4", 225-pound man who enjoyed deep-sea fishing. Two days after his seventy-ninth birthday, John was diagnosed with glioblastoma and offered a poor prognosis. He was recommended for hospice care, and upon admission, complained to a nurse, "After I die, everyone's going to drink my best liquor." Shortly thereafter, John gave a party for 200 relatives and friends, helping them finish off all the liquor he had saved over