Thank you LJ. I'm sorry for the loss of your dad too. You are right, now the trauma is fading I consider it an honour to have been there in his passing and to have try to help him not be so scared and more comfortable in the weeks before. Hospice care is outstanding and one of the most important fields in medicine. But is treated like some sort of poor relation in the general field of medicine in the NHS here. Ours is meant to be NHS funded, but is mainly kept afloat by charity raising ,In my area there is ONE impatient hospice, to serve an area of over 1 million people, it has 14 places. My dad was there, wanted to have hospice care at home, but day before they were to move him from the hospital, he went downhill fast and went to inpatient instead, he was very very lucky to see his last days out there and not in that nasty, bleak hospital room, begging for painkillers, with the terminal agitation and nurses who had little knowledge of the dying process, saying they couldn't give anything a doctor hadn't signed for or adjust the dose, or give as and when needed.
Hospice deals with all of the aspects we would rather brush away, and those people who work in hospice, doctors and nurses, are some kind of special in my eyes. As soon as I get myself together, I am going to raise as much as I can for that place. My dad, already raised a couple of hundred pounds, as we asked for donations not flowers at his funeral..good on him!!
You are right, life changing.
I LOVE those TED talks, will certainly take a look in a bit. Thank you very much for posting
For now, my bath is run, and Kev calls (I wish haha)