Aimee shares her experience of Hospice at Home end-of-life nursing care for her mum and the difference it made.
“My mum, Stevie, was an amazing, inspirational woman and wherever she went, she made an impact. She was brilliant and always encouraged us.
Mum was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s shortly after she retired. For three or four years, she was fine. She learned to live with it and carry on independently.
But then she started to forget to eat and started going out in the middle of the night. I was getting worried about her. She couldn’t live on her own, so during lockdown she moved in with me and my daughter Bella. We had a laugh, and it was a real bonding time.
As we got towards the end of her life
Mum had always wanted to stay at home, so my brother Thomas and his wife Elzanne moved into mum’s house to help along with me.
It was quite daunting and as we got towards the end of her life, it did start to take its toll.
Bella, Stevie and Aimee
“It became quite frightening for us as a family on our own, not knowing what to do and how we were supposed to look after her.”
The Treetops nurses came and just changed everything for us
The Treetops nurses came and just changed everything for us. They arrived and just gelled with mum immediately. Within 5 minutes they became one of the family. They showed us how to care for mum and gave us confidence when treating her.
“Having someone at home that is poorly and needs 24-hour care is very, very draining and tiring. Not just physically but mentally as well, because you never get to relax. So having the nurses step in for a few hours to give us a break. To know that we didn’t have to worry about anything during that time, was just amazing. It gave us the strength to carry on.”
The nurses didn’t just help with mum, they helped with all of us. It’s horrific watching your loved one deteriorate in front of you and frightening if you’ve never been through that before. We had never had anyone explain what end of life exactly was.
We were prepared for her final days
Towards the very end, when mum started to go in and out of consciousness, the nurses sat with us, calmed us down and explained everything that was happening, so we were prepared for her final days.
“It was mum that was dying, not us, but the Treetops nurses looked after me and the family and helped us through everything.”
The week leading up to her death brought our family so much closer because of Treetops. The whole experience of mum passing was just made more bearable and because we had the support, it couldn’t have happened in a better way.
We wouldn’t have been able to get through it without the Treetops nurses
We wouldn’t have been able to get through it without them being there. They were like our angels. They just took all the difficult stuff away, which as a family we desperately needed.”
Elzanne, Stevie and Aimee
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