My mil (86) is in nursing care since April and not doing well. She went from independent living in Nov of last year to two hospital stays and a rapid decline. Her last hospitalization in Feb she was rushed to ER as they thought she was having a stroke. We were with her and fully expected her to pass that night she was in such bad shape. She didn't and they discovered the next day she was actually having multiple seizures. We suspect she'd been having them frequently.
She is now bed bound, fully incontinent (has been since December). She is on about 8 medications, including three to prevent the seizures (others are for high blood pressure and other issues). She was recently evaluated for dementia as she has many signs including hallucinations and they suspect several forms. She is losing the ability to speak.
Today my husband went to visit her and said she said hello to him, but she was doing very poorly. They are now assessing her for a UTI and will treat with antibiotics. This is the 4th UTI she has had in as many months. In fact, she's had several infections.
My MIL is in a very good facility and self paying. One of the staff called my husband after the psych eval and he told her that he knew his mom would not improve and he did not want to try to fix anything else with more meds, but now he seems to think they'll treat the UTI and she will improve. Perhaps she will, but for what? To lie in a bed? The only thing keeping her alive is all of the medications.
At what point should hospice be considered? We have been through 10 years of watching slow declines in parents. My mother ended up on hospice with lewy-body and lasted 7 months in nursing, but she had no other problems and no medications - she also never wanted to end up in nursing (my grandmother lasted 7 years in nursing with dementia) - she wanted an assisted death - so I had some peace when she did go. My fil was sick for years on numerous medications and lingered in the hospital for five months. My husband was diagnosed a year ago at 59 with a rare illness for which he is getting treatment and this is taking a toll.
If it were my mom I would switch her to hospice now. I'm a bit surprised my husband wants to give his mother more medication given her state. I feel he is now in denial about next steps. To say I am weary that this has taken over our lives so fully is an understatement. The moving and care of my mil (she neglected many, many things business-wise we have also had to deal with) has been three very long years, following the seven with my mother and fil.
It is my husband's decision what happens next, but I find myself very angry that this is continuing. I know it is out of my hands on a spiritual level, but how can someone so ill keep holding on?
My father (85) was up and walking, developed an infection and declined care. He lived 2 1/2 days. My father was imo the easier of the two deaths for all involved.
When someone hasn’t come to grips with a loved ones irreversible illness, it’s hard to let them go. After 7 years my mother still had refused to accept my stepfather had Alzheimer’s, refused to accept he was dying ( irrationally so, claiming he had a good 10 years left) so imo put him and the entire family thru torture. But with her noone, including the entire care team could convince her to do what he would have wanted. I’d see if you can get a dr to discuss his mother with your husband. Maybe he wrongly views comfort care as assisted suicide?
The doctors said she would not recover from lastest issue with copd and other medical problems, however the daughter decided to stay in the room with her and only ask for the pain meds if she knew her mom was in pain. She brought the regular meds from home and put her mom back on them and reduced pains med requests.
Once her mom was lucid again, she was back to her old self. She was able to return to her home with hired help for daily chores. Yes, she has copd/other issues and it will eventually take her life, but she is adamant that she wants to live as long as possible.
Maybe it is easier to make these decisions for someone else if you know exactly how they feel about it. When you don't know, you will probably make the decision based on what you would request for your own life
Withdrawing medications, food and water to someone who is totally dependent for survival from others reminds me of the Karen Ann Quinlan case--the girl became brain dead after abusing drugs and alcohol, and was kept alive with feeding tube. The family argued over stopping tube feeds vs keeping her fed. It became a supreme court case and the governor of Florida signed the order to allow the husband withdraw tube feedings and it took quite a while for her to die. To me this is someone similar to end-stages of Alzheimer's and you will have to tangle with that issue yourself what is right or wrong.
For myself with my mom at the very end stage of Alzheimer's and she is nearly 90--I still manage to feed her but it takes over an hour, and keeping her hydrated is in itself a full time job. I probably would go for a feeding tube and revoke her hospice because I personally cannot stand to see her slowly die of dehydration because she is my mom and I love her dearly. But the feeding tube is a LAST resort only. Now if my mom is continually suffering that is a different story..well overall yes her care is very very hard and I take it a day at a time, but overall she's not suffering. So I'm not pulling the plug on her. But if she goes unconscious and is not suffering, I will let her go.
Mum has been on hospice for nearly a year. But I do ALL of her care. No nursing home for her. Not ever. It's hard but I also keep her walking with her walker. It's a bear getting her out of bed but once up she's okay.. If I did not get out out of bed she would be bedridden, and it only takes a day of staying in bed to do that. This often happens to hospitalized patients with severe Alzheimer's. They end up discharged and lost their ability to get out of bed because nurses keep them in bed due to fall policies. In bed they don't fall, so the nurse is safe from hospital repercussions.
I agree that there are cases in which the plug is pulled on appliances which are faulty and beyond repair rather than definitively broken as such. They are hard cases which I personally feel outsiders should hesitate to comment on. More recently than the very famous one you mention, a dispute between a man's parents and his wife also went the judicial distance in France (I think it was): I'd have to check what the decision was.
I've checked - he's still going, but his case has now been referred to a UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Vincent Lambert is his name, if you're interested; and there is a discussion of his case and the issues at https://vip.politicsmeanspolitics.com/2019/05/24/withdrawing-life-support-only-one-persons-view-matters/
The article is very interesting but its conclusion is feeble. In the absence of certainty about the person's own wishes, what then?
I have digressed horribly. I just wanted to say: before you subject your mother to a feeding tube, please be sure that her body is capable of handling it. May you both be spared this and similar impossible decisions.
The Nurse that does the evaluation to determine if she is Hospice eligible will give you a good idea what medications can be discontinued.
Many medications Hospice can provide. If there are medications that you do not feel should be discontinued and Hospice does not pay for them you can private pay for them.
Hospice will treat UTI's Hospice will treat other infections. Hospice will not treat other things but you need to discuss that with Hospice.
As far as I am concerned you can not call Hospice soon enough . If the person does not qualify at that point they may in a month or two maybe less, maybe more you can never tell what will happen.
But the extra care that you get from Hospice is well worth the phone call it takes.
However, it is your hubby's decision and he is the one who has to live with his decision! I agree that he should have his mom evaluated by hospice and see what they say. There is no harm in that and besides it could give him more information that could help him make a more inform decision.
The hospital is probably not suggesting hospice because your MIL is self-paid. Sorry to say, a hospital will tx pts different to whether the pt has insurance or not. Sad but true! I really hope that is not the case!
Sorry that you are going through a really hard time!
Hugs!!
To clarify, my mil has very good health insurance, so no issue there. She is self pay at the nursing home - would not qualify for medicaid, like many other residents.
Both of you get educated on hospice care. You care speak with a live person. Hospice has had a negative reputation for generations. But it's for providing the quality of care needed to keep our loved ones comfortable and best quality of life possible until the time.
Blessings
I wouldn't waste a second on worrying about why nobody has suggested a hospice evaluation, and I certainly wouldn't try to arrange it "covertly," so to speak. Just request it. An evaluation is just that, and commits your husband to nothing.
In spite of some of the things we read, it is not true that hospice or palliative care will finish anyone off quicker than they were going to go anyway. These pathways prioritise the person's own sense of wellbeing above all other factors, instead of sacrificing it to ever-fainter hopes of recovery or of prolonging life; but there's no reason they should be less than satisfactorily profitable for the NH. I should put the idea of their milking her through onerous, futile treatment out of your head, for your own peace of mind.
The cancer was 26 years ago - 25 of that she was fairly healthy so very lucky. The main thing is that she has had a lot of infections and a uti four years ago that put her in the hospital for three weeks and moved to her eye. In Nov she had pan colitis and everything went down hill from there.
After my husband mentioned a week ago to staff that his mom was telling stories such as one that someone had been murdered in her room (she was not disturbed by this and apparently it isn't totally uncommon ideation), they ordered a "psych evaluation". We already knew she had dementia, but afterward they called and discussed with my husband that my mil most likely had several types of dementia. They discussed her condition, her rapid decline, meds and the understanding that she was declining even more. My husband expressed that he did not want to keep giving her more and more medication and that he wanted her comfortable and well-cared for above all else.
Not once was a hospice eval brought up. Given that my mil is totally self pay, I am growing more uncomfortable that this is the reason.
Would it be best for us to get a hospice evaluation independently and not discuss yet with them?
The thing is, having been independent six months ago, she's dropped off a cliff and it's only two months in the NH so far. Straight to palliative care might be a little premature, but it very much depends on the complete diagnostic picture. Nothing to see on the scans?
Hospice treats UTI because they can't help a patient that is behaving psychotic.
They have to have 6 months or less and they have to meet FAST scale criteria. We took our mom off all meds the last month she was in hospice. All meds means only what hospice gives. Ours was step approach. Morphine not started until very few last days.
Hydrocodone was used for a month and a half roughly prior. Oral solution. Our experience with hospice was a godsend.
If it were me, I would want my loved one to be comfortable, not unnaturally prolonging their life with just about zero quality left to it.