Quote:
Originally Posted by bluebicycle
Thanks
The one of the hospice nurses even said to us, "We have to be very honest with you: in all sincerity, this is unfortunately the natural progression of things and we as nurses can only do so much. We do our best everyday to make her feel as comfortable as possible, and we do our best to help feed her and take care of her."
At least they're trying their best. They are very nice and caring. They watch movies with her and play games whenever possible. But she sleeps a lot because of the geodon they give her. I don't know why she's on an AP anymore when she's in hospice. She's not a danger to herself anymore like she was when we put her in IP. Plus, it's not helping with anything. It's just sedating her. 
It's bad because she has BP *and* dementia. I dont think she's manic anymore. She seems depressed if anything. I wish she had something useful to combat the depression, because I can imagine a manic crash plus dying in hospice makes a godawful episode. I don't think she knows she's dying, but I think she does feel lonely and confused (which is understandable because she doesn't recognize us anymore). And they need to stop using geodon to make her sleep away the rest of her days. I think that's f***ed up. |
I am glad you are having a good experience with hospice. I have read of people having a bad experience with them, but they were great for us. I know they used them when my husband's mother was dying of something like COPD and they kept her at home due to her with her due to her wishes (she still had her mind 100%), but my inlaws were out in California, so I couldn't see anything day to day. They let my husband's family know what was going on day by day with his mother (which my husband's family told him) and knew when to prompt my husband flying out to California when it was time, warning him that she would likely pass soon after he arrived. They were so right. They put him on the speaker phone once he arrived at LAX, so he could tell her he had landed safely and she could hear it; she passed as my brother-in-law was driving my husband to his parents' house.
They helped tremendously when my paternal grandmother was dying of Parkinson's. This was a horrible disease as she still had her mind but was trapped in her body and couldn't talk or gesture much. Afterwards, my paternal aunt said she wished she could go back in time and call in hospice sooner. They helped that same grandmother years earlier when her husband was dying of Alzheimers. He was an extremely intelligent man in his day, an architect of many of the current freeways in Houston in his day, never gave up on writing and applying for letters to immigrate to the U.S. He must have gotten regected at least 15 times but never gave up. He was originally from the Czechoslovakia (a country headed toward Communism, which he didn't believe in), had a brother living in Texas, had gone as an exchange student to Texas A&M University, learning English and an engineering degree, having to be a member of their team of cadets, which they required of all students back then (and of course, didn't admit women). He designed whole factory towns and stores based on the manufacture of a brand of shoe in the Czech Republic, South Africa, and Brazil, could speak around 5 languages. With th Alzheimers, he often confused my grandmother with other people and reverted to speaking only Czech, his native language (luckily, my grandmother's heritage was Czech, and she grew up talking Czech & English), but hospice was great to her, before she had to put him in a home, coming over to her house, giving her freedom to get out, go shopping, get her hair done, sending pastors and ministers to her home to speak with her & pray & give her communion as she was a religious woman but couldn't go to church what with caring for her husband with Alzheimer's.
We always give to hospice now when we give to a charity.