The Joy of Palliative Care and Hospice

                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                           

The “Joy of Palliative Care and Hospice” sounds like an oxymoron.  However, that certainly was not the case on our visits today as we delivered hospice kits to patients.  The kits consist of personal hygiene supplies wrapped in a bath towel.  All nine of us on the trip brought an extra suitcase packed with over 100 hospice kits.  Seventy kits were put together by Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN.  Family, friends and neighbors also gathered items for kits.

The kits were received by patients with joyful surprise and gratitude.  One of the items include was a hair pick.  Several of the cancer patient laughed with us  as they “combed” their bald heads.

The joy experienced went far beyond a hospice kit.  I saw it when a faced marked with pain that changed to a smile after the team’s interventions of medication and  massage.  Joy was experienced when the staff taught the family how they could make their  mother more comfortable.  Joy was palpable when the visit ended in song and dance.  Those of you who know me will be surprised when I confess that my African team mates’ singing and dancing was contagious, so contagious that even I, a Scandinavian Lutheran, sang and danced on a hospice home visit!  Not well, but I danced and sang with joy!   There is joy in Palliative Care and Hospice.




                                                                 

        

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