It was not just challenging, but almost an impossible mission, to feed an adorable 90 something year old patient of mine, even a tad bit of “not-so-appetizing-appearing-at-all” puréed green, yellow, beige, orange and brown food that she was served, especially when she had clearly declined to even have a spoon of it from her very own loved ones, now being labeled to have “failure to thrive”. And while this was all just getting so close to discussing end of life goals of care, I fed her almost everything that she was served, unbelievably, not just once, but every single meal for the day, while she remained hospitalized. How she’d await the next spoon and pick the colors from the plate as to what she’d wanted for the next bite.. She’d spit out the eggs once in a while, turning her face away, taking her hospital gown off constantly, I could see she was getting close to being discharged home, with her improved caloric intake. But I did bribe her a bit though I confess, to be able to make that kaleidoscopic plate more palatable for her, to provide her with the basic nutrition she needed to get back to her baseline at least, to smile, talk and be with her loved ones, to be able to be home again.. I was glad I could find the key to her heart, (I promise I couldn’t have guessed it), was by getting her an ice-cold can of Pepsi! It didn’t just help me feed her all her meals with sips of it in between those spoons, but also it bought me a dozen or more of million dollar toothless smiles, anyone would envy me for.. This was what I called hospice care unofficially- just TLC, giving her precisely what she wanted, keeping her as comfortable as possible, communicating in a language called love, while respecting her identity, being well aware of the great grand status she held in her family, but despite her advanced age, it wasn’t too difficult to see a baby wrapped in that soft, brittle skin, with the numerous lines as if translating obviously to wisdom, experience and filled with nothing but so called life ironically, though she was almost nearing its end.. Hospice also officially means not putting her through surgeries, and just letting her be, in her own charming, graceful way, drinking away her favorite chilled soda and also bringing smiles to her loved ones’ faces, who were longing to see her in no more suffering, happy, and comfortable!
NotesOfADrMom 