No focus and barely swallowing her thickened ensure/protein drink. She is lying in bed with her legs bent and will never be able to sit in her wheelchair again. The caregiver/nurse said her legs are "bladed"...Is this pacemaker keeping her alive in this condition? She is with Hospice and they visit a couple of times a week in her Board and Care- I just have so many questions and am so extremely sad to see this beautiful spirit disappear in this manner.
My understanding has always been that a pacemaker will not keep one alive. My mother and my mil died with a pacemaker. Here is an explanation from the web.
“This is a common misunderstand- ing. A pacemaker does not actually beat for the heart, but delivers en- ergy to stimulate the heart muscle to beat. Once someone stops breathing, his body can no longer get oxygen and the heart muscle will die and stop beating, even with a pacemaker.”
I think the hospice nurse is the best person to ask about what might happen next. But when my father was staring at the ceiling, fixed and rigid, breathing heavily, I knew the end was near, and one of the nurses confirmed it. He did pass shortly after I left.
Spend as much time with your mother as you need, hold her hand if she doesn't jerk away when touched, tell her how much you love her. Nurses have told me that the hearing ability remains sharp, even if someone has dementia, so your mother could probably hear you.
Just say what you want her to remember, and what you feel may make her more comfortable.
I've heard from others who were with their parents that the ceiling staring is often described as "seeing the angels", or "dancing with the angels."