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What can I do about my mother-in-law not acknowledging my father-in-law's congestive heart failure?

Asked by DonnaM | Jan 21, 2010

My Mother-in-law refuses to accept the fact that dad has congestive heart failure. [ages 88 and 95 respectively] She keeps referring to the cold that he still hasn't gotten rid of since he was in the hospital for it. IT was pneumonia, not a cold, complicated by his congestive heart failure. Nope, he won't use his oxygen, either. That lasted 6 or 8 weeks after he got out of the hospital and that was it. And he keeps cancelling doctor's appointments. Mom says, "if he had heart trouble, he'd be dead by now!". Is there anything we can do?

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AliceCat

Give a Hug

Jan 22, 2010

That's a tough one. My father died from heart failure and now my mother has it.

I got on the computer and printed out all the info I could about their illness and gave it to them. I highlighted the biggest points of interest. Really, it's the best you can do. From there, let them decide what to do with it.

Both my father's and my mother's first symptoms was water in the lungs. My father had total pneumonia, when they caught it.
My mother kept compaining of shortness of breath, that I thought was anxiety.

They sound like they are truely in denial. It's sad because there are drugs out there that can halt the progression.

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