Saturday morning at 8:10 the phone rang, and it was a nurse from hospice. She said they had been told about Jenny's nausea and vomiting. I explained that everyone keeps thinking Jenny has nausea, but she does not. When she gets the dry heaves, she has about 30 seconds notice, then it starts. OK, so she has the message there is no nausea. She asked if they could come out to see her in the next hour. Of course I said yes, and wondered who may be accompanying her.
They arrived at 9:30 - Bernice the nurse, and Beth, a counsellor. After a few minutes in the bedroom with Jenny, Beth asked if she and I could go to the living room. So off we went for about the next hour at least. I told her about the work we had done with Simonton, and the ongoing sessions with Erin, and how Jenny and I have reached a place of peace and acceptance. I talked about Sophie, and what do we say to her at age 3. She was very good, and gave me a idea about how to do that. She also said that if we wanted, a counsellor would be available for Sophie which would involve a play session with Sophie and a counsellor.
Bernice, meanwhile, is with Jenny, assessing her situation. She got on the phone with a doctor and they talked about how best to deal with this. Evidently, Jenny's presentation is very unusual, in light of the fact that there is an absence of nausea. They ended up giving her a pill for it, and Bernice actually had some with her. Jenny has not had an episode in 72 hours now!
Bernice came back on Sunday morning with another counsellor, Lucy. She spent only a few minutes with Jenny, and determined that she was doing well. When we all left the bedroom, Bernice sat on the couch while Lucy talked to me for 30 to 45 minutes. It seems she is the head of the counsellors for this area. It was wonderful.
Anyway, it turns out that they are part of a program called the 'Palliative Response Team', or the 'Crisis Response Team'.They work as partners with the Home Nursing Program. Beth used the analogy that if the home nursing team is like a GP, they are like a specialist. I kind of think of them as a swat team or navy seals or something. There swoop in to handle a problem, resolve it, then turn you back to the home nursing crew. Not that we ever were not still with the home nurses - for the drains and anything else that might come up.
Not only that, it also turns out that this program is one of only TWO in CANADA! The other one is in Kelowna, but theirs is scaled back, and they do not have near the scope and authority of this one.
Jenny and I were quite blown away by the whole process.
Fast forward now to today. Our friends Patti and Elaine came over from Vancouver today to see Jenny before they take off for China on Thursday. Elaine has recently acquired a 2002 BMW convertible. The thought that they might bring it over here really excited Jenny. She thought she would love to go for a ride in it. I knew she could never make it to the end of the driveway (since the trailer is taking up a huge part of it), so tried to dissuade her.
She was talking about it to Debbie the nurse this morning and Debbie said why not try it, if we got a wheelchair and took her to the car in it. So Patti and Elaine arrived sure enough in the BMW, and Jenny was insistent on going. So Elaine and I got in the car and went to Medi Lend, a service quite close to here, where they lend medical equipment. We went there and within 5 minutes we were walking out with a transport wheelchair. It is smaller, lighter, and does not have the big wheels. It is very easy to haul around.
Julie, our friend from Qualicum, had also arrived, and we got her out to the car in this chair, and into it. Of course, Elaine put the top down and Jenny was on Cloud 9. This was possible only because of the wheelchair. So how good is that to go down the street and poof, have a wheelchair and for free! Here are some pictures of the event.
Patti, Sharon Elaine|
Jenny
Jenny
