SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
slcsue

newcomer to this forum

SLCSue
18 years ago

I found this website by accident, and spent the next several hours reading and crying as I recognized so many stages of the years I have cared for my Mom. There is so much power in the sharing of your stories, and how I wish I had found you earlier in our journey through illness and caregiving.

My husband and I agreed it was time to move Mom into our home 3 years ago. She had alot of short term memory loss, was recovering from a radical mastectomy, and was no longer able to drive or take care of her house.

We have been through it all; incontinence, sibling disharmony, TIA's, strokes, a heart attack, and finally an angiogram gone awry that required emergency surgery to repair the tear in her femoral artery that almost cost her leg. She was finally discharged from the hospital, to a rehab. center where she continued her downward spiral. She stopped eating, slept 20 hours a day, was so cold all the time no number of heated blankets could warm her. Her primary care physician and I agreed it was time for us to accept that she had given up, and she was moved into an assisted living center with a hospice incharge of her care. No more search for a cure, just comfort.

Within a week of being taken off her meds, she is more alert than she has been in months, is beginning to eat again, and is enjoying being alive! I took a 10 day vacation from work, and we visit every day, looking at old photos together, spending hours just talking and holding hands. They tell me this happens sometimes with hospice care, but I am wondering if we should re-assess the decision, and try again to have her be well enough to come home. Has anyone had any experience with this? Thanks for any insight you can offer.

Susan

Comments (15)

Sponsored