For those that don’t know , my brother died nine years ago of motor neurone disease
It’s a cruel disease, possibly the cruelest and strange as it may seem North Wales has a cluster of people diagnosed with the condition
The three hospices of North Wales often take these patients in for symptom relief, respite and for end of life care and their care is usually challenging and intense .
Communication of needs is often the major difficult area to nurse and something like the “ simple” positioning of a limb can take an hour to achieve correctly
Perhaps now you can understand why I had such a hard shift the other night.
Now I’m not being dramatic here.
I am good at distancing myself from situations that can suddenly become personalised
Most nurses of a certain age, have to be
But motor neurone patients have special needs and those are ones that we all take for granted
They need to be understood and they need to feel empowered
Looking after them can leave you worrying that you’ve failed them
and I always thought I could have done more for my brother.
So caring for them, can be particularly challenging
I admitted a patient with MND the other night
The night I got home very late
A friend and colleague has just texted me to tell me that they had died peacefully.....
Too sudden but fortunate with the hospice care
And I took the dogs out for a walk in the now cold night
And in the darkness of the still village
I remembered a lot of stuff running around my head
And had a brief cry
