Telescopist
Senior Member
Jim is in hospice care. He is winding down life as we know it. What follows below is an email from Noelia, his wife which she has granted me permission to share with this community.
We can use all the prayers out there...he is stable, but down to 104 lbs and weak (can no longer get out of bed). With the exception of the past few days, we still have coffee and breakfast together every morning and watch/discuss the news. He eats in bed now, so we just sit and talk about all our great adventures. We also have a regular routine, which includes a few naps throughout the day (Jim, not me LOL) in between nursing visits. He was waking me up the night before last every 15 minutes or so because he wasn't feeling well. He told me his stomach hurt and that this was it, he was dying. So I went to the kitchen and got some ginger ale and had him take a few sips until he burped. "You're not dying Jim, you're just having a gas attack!" Don't worry about dying, I'll let you know when you are dying. The next morning we had a good laugh over the gas attack. It was the first time I had heard him laugh or seen him smile in a long time. He still doesn't have any pain (unusual for pancreatic cancer patients) and no metz to the brain. We have a running joke with the nurses when they ask if he has pain, he points to me. I'm a bit of a task master when it comes to medication, following instructions, etc. I have to drain the pleurx catheter in his lung 3x a week. Other than that it's just a daily living routine sprinkled with some NOEL attics to help relieve the boredom.
A while back I bought him a gate with the design of a black lab and geese flying over head. The fence company used a 5' fence with the 3' gate (silly looking). I got in touch with the maker of the gate and asked him to design a sign for me that could fit on top of the gate (to even out the gap). The sign will read, "meet me at the rainbow bridge." Link to Poem
I often remind Jim about the rainbow bridge and it brings him much comfort.
Noelia Cantu Norman
We can use all the prayers out there...he is stable, but down to 104 lbs and weak (can no longer get out of bed). With the exception of the past few days, we still have coffee and breakfast together every morning and watch/discuss the news. He eats in bed now, so we just sit and talk about all our great adventures. We also have a regular routine, which includes a few naps throughout the day (Jim, not me LOL) in between nursing visits. He was waking me up the night before last every 15 minutes or so because he wasn't feeling well. He told me his stomach hurt and that this was it, he was dying. So I went to the kitchen and got some ginger ale and had him take a few sips until he burped. "You're not dying Jim, you're just having a gas attack!" Don't worry about dying, I'll let you know when you are dying. The next morning we had a good laugh over the gas attack. It was the first time I had heard him laugh or seen him smile in a long time. He still doesn't have any pain (unusual for pancreatic cancer patients) and no metz to the brain. We have a running joke with the nurses when they ask if he has pain, he points to me. I'm a bit of a task master when it comes to medication, following instructions, etc. I have to drain the pleurx catheter in his lung 3x a week. Other than that it's just a daily living routine sprinkled with some NOEL attics to help relieve the boredom.
A while back I bought him a gate with the design of a black lab and geese flying over head. The fence company used a 5' fence with the 3' gate (silly looking). I got in touch with the maker of the gate and asked him to design a sign for me that could fit on top of the gate (to even out the gap). The sign will read, "meet me at the rainbow bridge." Link to Poem
I often remind Jim about the rainbow bridge and it brings him much comfort.
Noelia Cantu Norman
