“Joy is a state of the soul and not a quality of things…”, Home Care Team Malaga 2
Hello!
Let's introduce ourselves: we are Home Care Team Malaga 2 and we are a doctor and two nurses. We are called Malaga 2 because there is another team that also visits patients in Malaga and that, therefore, is the Malaga 1 team.
Both teams provide coverage and care for almost 200 patients belonging to the two large hospitals in Malaga, the Carlos Haya Regional Hospital and the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital. This means that there are days when our visits take place in any of the areas of Malaga such as the neighbourhood of La Luz or San Andrés, but on other days we go to Rincón de la Victoria, Cala del Moral or even Vélez Málaga, if we have to attend to a patient who belongs to a mutual insurance company (such as teachers, policemen or patients with private insurance).
Our visits consist of helping the patient to have the symptoms related to their illness as controlled as possible to improve their quality of life, but we also offer emotional or social support to alleviate their suffering.
The Doctor usually works together with a nurse visiting the patients scheduled for that day. The other nurse makes follow-up visits to monitor the evolution of the disease, whether symptom control is being achieved or to accompany both the patient and their family. Other times it is a bereavement visit.
Everyday life provides us with scenes in the living room in which we talk about the disease, but also about shared family moments, memories or past experiences, or future projects, knowing that sometimes the future is short.
At other times, everyday life gives rise to scenes in the kitchen of the house, where the nurse explains to the family the importance of BEING at the patient's side in the last moments, where touch and hearing is the last thing to be lost. Or the importance of passing on to the patient all the love they have always shared.
Other times, everyday life is at the patient's bedside, where sometimes the strength, courage and serenity is transmitted to us by the patient himself.
Everyday life also brings moments of sadness shared in the car with your partner or moments of humour to try to get out of it. Other times, moments of gratitude from the family or moments of renewed energy in the face of the work shared with the Cudeca volunteer...
In short... as Miguel Delibes used to say:
"I realised that joy is a state of the soul and not a quality of things; that things in themselves are neither happy nor sad, but merely reflect the tone with which we envelop them".
Team Málaga 2.
Dr: Noemi Vega; Nurses: Carmen Garrón and Elisa Romero
