Today’s post for National Palliative Care Week 2017 is all centred on the above…know that your end journey or sharing it with a loved one will cover all of these aspects and probably multiple times.
Today marks four years since my Mum got to meet her first great grandchild, Ollie…and it was the last time she had a day out before moving to a hospice and then dying within two weeks of today’s date.
The morning had been really bad, to the point where I didn’t know if we were going to make it to the hospital to see Ollie. Mum was not in a good way at all, feeling incredibly lethargic. But the strength of the human will is something astounding to witness sometimes. Mum was determined to meet him and so meet him she did.
We hired a wheelchair as she was beyond walking more than a couple of steps at this point and that made a huge difference. This was the good.
The great was the experience. Mum was glowing; we got some great pics with Ollie & his parents and then on the way home we stopped at one of her favourite cafes for a cappuccino – one of Mum’s treasured indulgences. I got a great pic of her and I – as it turns out it would be the last pic of Mum and I together. And she was sparkling – as you can see.
The downright ugly would come later that day when Mum had some major toileting issues. It also became clear in the couple of days that followed that now Mum had met Ollie and seen other precious people in her world, she was pretty much ready to let go.
When I rang the Palliative Care team to let them know that Mum now needed to be in the hospice, they were surprised as they didn’t think when they got the referral earlier in the week that hers was an urgent situation. I let them know that it hadn’t been, but things had substantially changed. She hadn’t given up, she was just done – very different experiences on an energetic level.
This journey is about treasuring the good and the great, accepting that there will be the bad and the downright ugly and going with the flow. It’s also where high levels of self nurturing come into play – that’s a deeper discussion for another day.
Peace & blessings, Sharon