MND

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