Friday October 7 (continued)
Adam called for an ambulance transport at 6:00 Friday
evening. I was relieved after having made the decision to not proceed with the blood transfusion, but anxious to get Gram back to ManorCare. I had no idea how long it would
take. I was emotionally exhausted; it had been a long day already, so I hoped it wouldn't take long. Gram
was in a fetal position and resting mostly. I’m not sure if she was sleeping
because her eyes remained half-open. She was having periods of restlessness
followed by calm quietness.
We waited.
In the meantime, I called Keri from Heartland Hospice.
Since we had pushed the Heartland team aside when we decided to pursue the
blood transfusion, we hadn’t yet signed the papers to engage them. Keri was
patient with us and she graciously agreed to meet us at the hospital while we waited for the transport.
Michelle and Aubrey came over, too. It was around 10:00 when Keri arrived. We all sat in the waiting area of the Emergency Room at Passavant and for the first twenty minutes, did nothing but tell stories and reminisce. No papers were signed yet. We laughed as we shared memories of Gram and times gone by. Keri seemed interested in hearing them and touched by the love we were all sharing. These moments- this experience- seemed to signal our shared acceptance of the decision and what was about to happen with Gram.
For those few moments, I swear we were the only people in the whole world. I was totally unaware of anything going on around us. It was like the world outside of those chairs we sat in was frozen in time. We all seemed to know now that Gram wasn’t going to surprise us this time.
Michelle and Aubrey came over, too. It was around 10:00 when Keri arrived. We all sat in the waiting area of the Emergency Room at Passavant and for the first twenty minutes, did nothing but tell stories and reminisce. No papers were signed yet. We laughed as we shared memories of Gram and times gone by. Keri seemed interested in hearing them and touched by the love we were all sharing. These moments- this experience- seemed to signal our shared acceptance of the decision and what was about to happen with Gram.
For those few moments, I swear we were the only people in the whole world. I was totally unaware of anything going on around us. It was like the world outside of those chairs we sat in was frozen in time. We all seemed to know now that Gram wasn’t going to surprise us this time.
I signed the papers. We would begin the hospice process
as soon as Gram got back to ManorCare. Since we assumed, at that point, it
would be after midnight, the agreement was effective the next day, October 8.
Technically, it was in about ninety minutes.
When Keri left, I checked in with the nurse. Adam’s shift
had ended and a new, not-as-friendly nurse appeared. He told us that
Gram wasn’t a priority for ambulance transport and it could be a while. They
had, however, contacted their service of last resort and that service was providing an arrival
time of 3:30 am. “It might be earlier or later,” the nurse said. I was so frustrated. If
Gram would have been just a little stronger, I would have carried her to my
truck and drove her myself. My biggest fear was that she would die in that
hospital. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted her to be among familiar
surroundings.
We left the hospital at 11:30 pm. I asked two nurses to call me
when the transport arrived. In turn, I needed to call Keri and have her nurse, Tonya, meet me at
ManorCare when Gram got back so we could begin treatment.