Ferrets and Constipation

The hospice work is different after the illness. I think I am better at it because now I've been close and while not languishing, I can see a little better where the hospice residents are and where they are going. It was strange, but not unexpected, to go back and find all the people I'd visited had died. One young woman I knew of, but had never stopped to see because she didn't particularly care for visitors, was still there, so I decided to go in and say hello. And for about six straight visits that was it, hello, I'll see you next week, until it got so I wondered if I was interfering rather than supporting. As so often happens, Sam broke the ice. I had him with me one day, walked him in and after hello, how are you, this is Sam, was ready to leave again when she said, "Maybe I'll have my three ferrets here next week." Today, a couple weeks later, we had a pet conversation and, though the ferrets are still not with her, she showed me a couple dozen pictures of them on her computer. Next week it's a video. A ferret breakthrough...yes!

Then down the hall to my easy to talk to guy, J. He told me the laxative he'd been given to help the constipation that his pain patch was causing was doing too good a job. With my recent experience including both of those extremes, I counseled Philips Milk of Magnesia, if his dr. approved.

Now too I'll sit by a sleeping patient. All is quiet, but up on the 12th floor on a windy day, the windows whistle. Then the bridges and the city look more remote somehow, but that only makes me more all the more grateful to still be among them. I may be tired and I may be fuzzy, but I am.