Kubac agreed (whew!) (Thu, 3 Mar 2011)

As soon as she got home, Mom called me with the news that Dr. Kubac agreed to be her primary doc for Hospice. She still sounded VERY tired and very neutral about the news, but she said that she wanted to call as soon as she got home because she knew it would relieve my mind.

She said that when she got to the Cardiac Clinic this morning, she talked to one of the office staff first, and the woman told mom that it would be “no problem.” Then mom was waiting in the exam room, and Kubac came in and put his arm around her and said he would be happy to do it. He said that because of her age and how far she lives out of town, he thought Hospice care would make things much easier for her because she won’t have to come to town so often, but he wanted her to realize that NO doctor can say that you only have six months left. (That’s the requirement for being eligible for Hospice care.) He said that it makes him mad when doctors tell patients how much time they have left, because nobody knows. She agreed and commented that anybody could walk out of the Clinic and get hit by a car, so nobody knows how long they have. When she told me about that part of the conversation, I said that the six months is just the hoop that you have to jump through to be eligible for Hospice, and that when you get to the end of the six months, they just renew it for another six months, and that Jack has a friend who has been on Hospice for over two years. She was surprised to hear that, even though I know that both Jack and I have told her that before, but maybe she just didn’t absorb the info at the time. I also told her that another friend of hers from my high school days has been on hospice for a long time and that she really likes it.

Mom’s weight was down to 103, so Kubac cut back even farther on the diuretics. He said he didn’t want her to lose quite so much fluid quite so fast. He wrote out the whole change of regimen for her, which she appreciated because there are three different meds on three different schedules. Kubac wanted her to have another blood test next week (which we will do on Tuesday when I take her in for her appointment at the wound clinic) and then she has another follow-up appointment with Kubac on Friday March 11. That’ll be perfect, because I’ll be there to take her in, and mom liked the idea “because you can be there to hear what he says.”

When her neighbor delivered her back home he told her that he wished she would call him more often and that he would be happy to do whatever she needed…drive her to town, bring in wood, etc. But mom told me that one thing that she is glad about with Hospice is that maybe then she won’t have to impose on her neighbors so much. She knows that they are always willing to help, but she doesn’t like taking them away from whatever else they might have been doing.

So…I called the nurse at Klamath Hospice and she is going to contact Kubac’s office and get things started. We have our initial meeting on Monday.