The Battle is Over
So, I haven't posted in a while. My husband Tom and I drove down to S. Arizona on the 1st of November to hopefully be Snowbirds. We had a beautiful drive down the Willamette Hwy. from Eugene and into CA, over to Carson City NV and then back into CA again and down through Eastern side down between Yosemite and Death Valley. It was lovely the leaves were turning along the creeks and rivers and the huge lakes were beautiful. We drove about 500 miles a day and always stopped for lunch. Took us about 3 1/2 days. We had both had colds before we left, but were mostly mended.....just having a bit of a dry residual cough. Tom started feeling more tired and was coughing for the first few days we were settling into our winter home. After a week or so I took him to a local clinic. They checked him out and advised taking him to emergency in Tucson. He was admitted overnight to the hospital and I was told he had deep vein thrombosis in both his legs, blood clots in his lungs and Atrial Fib. The next week at home he just kept feeling worse, no appetite, couldn't get him to walk anywhere. To make a much longer story short, I called 911 when he slid off the bed and I couldn't get him up. To a different hospital in Tucson he went this time because the medics thought he might get better care there. It was just a downward spiral from the start.
Each day I could seem him getting worse. So many drugs, so many I.V.s, had to be on oxygen with a mask. They wanted to tube feed him as his swallowing reflexes were bad. Thank God he had completed a POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) or they would have stuck a tube down his throat. After 8 days in the hospital he was transferred to a Hospice facility nearby. Finally....no I.V.'s just comfort care....he seemed so much more relaxed. I stayed in a motel about a mile away and asked them to call me if there was any change. I got the call around 3:30 am the next morning and rushed over to be with him. He died about 4:45. He looked so peaceful and content. I am happy that his battle is over. Now I have to deal with his loss. We had so many good times hiking and camping and I can dwell on those good memories.
Each day I could seem him getting worse. So many drugs, so many I.V.s, had to be on oxygen with a mask. They wanted to tube feed him as his swallowing reflexes were bad. Thank God he had completed a POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) or they would have stuck a tube down his throat. After 8 days in the hospital he was transferred to a Hospice facility nearby. Finally....no I.V.'s just comfort care....he seemed so much more relaxed. I stayed in a motel about a mile away and asked them to call me if there was any change. I got the call around 3:30 am the next morning and rushed over to be with him. He died about 4:45. He looked so peaceful and content. I am happy that his battle is over. Now I have to deal with his loss. We had so many good times hiking and camping and I can dwell on those good memories.