Another Call from Hospice

I got another call from Hospice this afternoon.

My father's condition is about the same as before, apparently. He's been experiencing some "nerve pain" where the shingles appeared. They started out giving him morphine for pain, but recently switched to pregabalin. I looked up the medication: and trust that the doctor who prescribed it made a sensible decision.

This can't be an easy time for my father. He was tired today: I think the week's doses of morphine might have had something to do with that.

The person from hospice referred to his noticing his mother and sister as "hallucinations." She could be right. She also interpreted his saying "I'm making a right turn now" as his imagining that he was in an automobile. That could be so: but he (and I) have been known to use phrases like that as metaphors, to indicate that we're turning to another subject. Not everybody talks that way.

I can't say that I'm happy about any of what I heard: but it's good to be kept up to date. I genuinely appreciate that.