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NOVEMBER 2019

In This Issue

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November 7
6:00 - 7:00pm
Coping with the Holidays
Michelle's Place
41669 Winchester Rd.
#101, Temecula

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951-200-7800
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The Gifts of Hospice
People Might Not Realize

By: Dr. Lynn Euzenas

Director of Spiritual Care & Bereavement Services

Dr. Lynn Euzenas - Hospice of the ValleysEvery hospice worker has been asked this question at least once: "How can you do this work? It must be so difficult..." Every time I have tried to answer that question, I always begin touching upon those daily miracles hospice can bring which are about life. Hospice at its best is filled with gifts and populated with angels capable of bringing light to the darkness which can inhabit the end of life journey.

The gifts of hospice that people might not realize are best told in stories. A new patient finds pain relief on her second day on hospice, telling the doctor that for the first time in 6 months, she is without pain. Two sisters estranged from each other for over 30 years, have a powerful reunion after the patient requests the chaplain call her sister to let her know that she was dying. An exhausted wife, caring for her husband at home, finds the hospice team's help life-saving: there was no someone to help her bathe her husband, someone to help her find a specialized Alzheimer's care facility for him, and now a team of people who finally understood what she has been going through. In a hospice, a lonely gentleman in a care facility finds a new friend with whom to play cribbage. A family signs in relief, saying, "Finally medical people who really list to us."

The presence of the hospice team--medical professionals trained in the management of pain at the end of life and the nuances of the end of life journey--can bring so many gifts to patients and families. They can bring comfort, a listening ear, ways to make a patient more comfortable, assist families in expressing their heart to their loved ones who are ill, and share much needed laughter. They can also share a tear, silently hold a hand, sing a song, or receive with care the sharing of difficult emotions. The hospice relationship between patient/family and hospice team together find the humane in the human.

After weeks of illness and hospitalization, a frail elderly woman was admitted to a hospice house. One nurse sat with her husband and fed him such lunch while others admitted her into her room. When they called him back into her room, he saw that they had bathed her, done her hair, and put a touch of lipstick on her lips. She was now decked in a brand new nightgown they had provided for her. He was moved to tears by the tender care offered to her, and he told them, "I don't know how to thank you, she is beautiful again. You have given back my sweetie."

There are so many ways in which hospice care elevates, respects, and brings forth the humane within the human as it practices its gifts of life.

Making the Most of Each Moment

Dr. Leslee B. Cochrane

Executive Medical Director

Dr. Leslee Cochrane - Hospice of the ValleysWhen I was young, time seemed to move very... very... slowly. During my years in grade school, those last three months before summer vacation felt like an eternity. Now as a I approached age 60, time seems to be flying away like it has wings! I find myself wishing I could slow down time to better savor those sweet and precious moments I enjoy spending together with my family; but alas those moments quickly pass into days, months and years. In the memorable words of Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery; but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present."

As a physician working with patients who face life limiting conditions, I am often asked the question: "how much time do I have?" When I discuss prognosis with patients I always begin explaining to them that determining a prognosis is an inexact science. With that being said, I am generally able to tell patients when their life expectancy has changed from years to months, from months to weeks and from weeks to days. Patients and families who are giving a prognosis of months to weeks realize just how true it is that each day is a "gift". It has been said that time is the great equalizer; every person no matter how rich or how poor receives only twenty four hours per day and not one second more. Naturally, as we approach the season of life where most of the sand has found its way into the bottom half of the hourglass of our lives, we develop a greater appreciation of how very previous each remaining grain of sand in the upper half of our hourglass is.

Hospice care is designed to treat the whole person: mind, body and spirit. When a cure is not possible and the patient has been given a prognosis of months or less, the hospice team works with the patient to find out what their goals of care are and to develop a plan to focus on those goals. As you might imagine, most people with a life limiting condition are more concerned with the quality of their days than the number of them. Although we are not able to slow down time; we are able to help patients achieve excellent symptom control so that they are able to spend the final weeks and months of their lives in the location of their choosing as opposed to the hospital. When patients have excellent control over disabling symptoms such as pain, nausea and vomiting they are able to experience each day to the fullest and enjoy time with their family and friends. Hospice also provides spiritual and emotional support to the patients and their families. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts hospice has to offer is to help our patients make the most of each moment; creating the time for one more smile, one more hug and more goodbye.

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