The Tools of Comfort

A different tool for the trade

Comfort is the name of the game. We are all shocked that this is still going on. Dad has a strong heart and is still young. Not sure what that all means. However, his breathing is still labored and random. When he is sleeping, its actually pretty okay. His kidneys are in the process of shutting down, if they haven’t already.

We use these syringes to get the medicine to go down (Mary Poppins song now in my head…). He can’t swallow or do it himself. So, the skinny one’s work best to get back further in his mouth. You then have to massage his jaw to get the medicine to either absorb or go down his throat. We are keeping up on hourly meds at this point to keep him comforted. Otherwise, he will begin to try and raise both arms. We think that he’s trying to open himself up for more air.

We’ve also taken to leaving him by himself now. Hard, hard to do… But we’ve had several people, including Hospice tell us that some folks just need to be alone to pass.

Photo taken with: Nikon D700, Nikon 60mm f/2.8