Description: Cycling for Palliative Care
Mrs. Koch was the retired Director of the IUPUI Office of Gerontology, a mother, and grandmother. Her severe lung disease made it physically impossible to do much, but it could not hold her spirit and humor back. By the time we met Mrs. Koch during her final hospital stay, she had already come to terms with the fact that she was reaching the end of her life, with no chance that her lungs would heal. This was something that she seemed to accept without resignation or depression. She possessed the hard ea
When I met her, I was struck by a vibrancy undeterred by frequent drops in her oxygen level. She received a very high flow of oxygen, but not unlike many medical therapies, the device which delivered it proved to be far less than perfect. For Mrs. Koch, it did not prevent profound attacks of shortness of breath. While barely keeping her oxygen levels normal, the device would not permit her to go home.
Mrs. Koch’s days were filled with visits from doctors and other healthcare workers interspersed with visits from many family members and friends. This would be a dizzying experience for the most social amongst us. Meaningful moments mixed with moments of annoyance and pain, and perhaps some moments brought all three. I witnessed suffering outweighed by her grace. In the quiet of the nights, exhaustion would set in and she became especially prone to her oxygen drifting down to dangerous levels. She quic