Any caregiver had to make this decision? Dad had a stroke and had difficulty swallowing. Speech therapist made recommendation to do a nasal tube but they tried 5x and dad refused after 6th. He then had a seizure next morning and whatever consciousness he had was gone. He's no longer able to swallow meds with small spoon of apple sauce. I bought up PEG and doctor ordered the procedure. Am I doing the right thing? Or best thing? Is it too early?
*Good* being very subjective.
If my LO had a very poor chance of recover to a decent quality of life or a life-limiting progressive illness, I would thank the Doctor's for their service & advice but welcome in Mother Nature. Trust her to guide & be at peace with it.
What is your dad's long term prognosis? With dementia at play, it can't be good at all. Nobody can tell you if you're doing the 'right' or the 'best' thing for him, but ask yourself this question: if this were you in his shoes, would YOU want YOUR life extended with PEG tubes and the like?
I know how hard all these decisions are, especially if there's no advance directive from dad. But if he's in the hospital now, or has been recently, they will have asked him about a DNR and things of that nature. Take that info to make your decision from.
Best of luck
Are you doing the right or best thing? Only time can tell. You make the best decisions you can given the information and guidance you have at the time. Ask the doctors for their best judgment. I truly hope you’ll see progress and a great recovery soon if that’s what is possible. In any case, I wish both you and your dad peace
I think you have to ask yourself if you want to see your father in such a condition. Others have mentioned important points of view such as speaking more thoroughly with the doctor as to his future health wise. It is also wise to understand more fully the affect of the stroke.
Sometimes a life is over before the body gives up. I don't see the point of an elderly compromised person having a feeding tube.
Did he ever make his end of life wishes clear in a written document?
Are you expecting that he will suddenly wake and he can go home to a normal life? You may be looking at a life in a nursing home. You really need to find out the severity of the stroke.
Those are questions that need to be answered before you make the decision about having a PEG put in him, because if he's not ever going to get any better, why put him through that?
If the prognosis is not good, you may want to instead talk to his doctors about either putting a PICC line or Midline in his arm so they can at least administer any medications needed, and get hospice on board for his comfort care.
And had your dad made his wishes known(MOST form or advance directives) about to what extreme he wanted to be kept alive? Hopefully he had and that just helps make your decision making a bit easier as you will be doing his wishes instead of yours.
When my husband at the age of 48 had a massive stroke and was having swallowing issues they put a PEG in fairly quickly only to have to take it back out a week or so later as my husband began to swallow on his own again. But my husband was much younger, and while he survived the stroke it left him with many permanent disabilities that he lived with until his death at the age of 72.
I'm sorry that you're having to go through this, but at this point I would do what is best for your dad and what you know or think he would want done.
God bless you.