I've been my mother's primary care giver since she had a major medical
crisis a decade ago, from which she had largely recovered but wasn't
taking care of herself adequately. She still returned to work but
retired at the end of that calendar year, then stopped driving. I've
been shopping, taking her to medical appointments, preparing meals, etc.
Her health began a precipitous decline four months ago and finally she
had to be admitted to hospital very early Monday. You would not believe
the massive number of tests they performed, including looking for a
brain tumor with a CT scan. Of course there wasn't one but even if there were, it was not going to kill her. That led to a suspected broken
thoracic spine likely due to osteoporosis, which was later confirmed with another trip back to radiology. This explained her complaints of back
pain and extreme difficulty walking.
I knew that rehab was impossible and chose hospice. That turned out to
be the one good decision I made all week. She was supposed to be moved
into hospice at home, but I was dreading the ambulance ride which just
would have been a lot more pain. In any event, she deteriorated further
the afternoon after I signed paperwork and remained at hospital where
hospice nursing was performed. She had been taken off all medication
except what was necessary for comfort.
The hospice nurses were wonderful.
She died late Friday, a few days shy of her 90th birthday.
Saturday morning, I got a call that the truck with the rented medical equipment was on its way, so the hospice people failed to cancel.
Graveside funeral service is scheduled for Friday. It's supposed to be
a nice day.
Thank you one and all. I appreciate very much the Usenet community in rec.arts.tv. Your words of kindness mean more to me than you could
possibly know.
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