My Uncle George is 101 and doing fine. My mother is 95 and has been wheelchair bound for over 2.5 years now, has taken 93 falls, has CHF, pulmonary hypertension, AFIB, has had a stroke, and too many other issues to mention, and is doing fine. Being 'barely able to walk' has nothing to do with the end of life being near, nor does being 92 as others have mentioned. While the human body is not eternal, nobody but God knows how long it will actually LAST. The heart can give out at any time, even if there's no disease at play, but again, who knows? People die of heart attacks at 55 while others hang on for dear life at 101+.
You can always ask dad's doctor to write an order for a hospice evaluation and if they feel he has 6 months or less to live, they'll accept him as a patient. But even then, it's a guess. My mother had a friend who lived for 3 YEARS on hospice and kept getting re-approved after each 6 month evaluation b/c she had terminal cancer, but wound up living for 3 years anyway.
Honestly barely being able to walk is not a precursor to death and dying. My husband had trouble walking for several years before he ended up completely bedridden where he remained the last 22 months of his life. Now the fact that your dad is 92 means that his life here on earth is shorter than most, but only God knows when He will take him home, so just enjoy whatever time you may have left with him, and leave nothing left unsaid.
A 92 year old is close to the end of life, whether he has dementia or not. To begin with, he has a 92 year-old heart. All his other vital organs are also close to their expiration dates. An old person doesn't have to be sick to die. Being very old is enough. The body is not eternal,
I watched my mother’s family of 7 (eight really, but the oldest died of a heart condition at the age of seven), and one died in her fifties, of cancer, three died in their early eighties, (Parkinson’s, dementia, cancer), and one sister and my mother lived to their nineties, my mother until 95.
The youngest will soon be 94, and “may” be bedridden. I’m not sure, because she was moved to a higher level of care a few weeks ago, and the communication there is different from her previous care site.
I saw her Saturday, and she was enthused to see me and understood and responded to what I was saying to her. Yesterday, awake but next to no interaction.
Maybe, but my mom spent many years needing a wheelchair, including 18 months in a nursing home after she could no longer even stand and pivot into the chair. I never imagined just how frail and helpless people can become and how long they can go on that way in their final years, and she was far from the only one like that in her nursing home.
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You can always ask dad's doctor to write an order for a hospice evaluation and if they feel he has 6 months or less to live, they'll accept him as a patient. But even then, it's a guess. My mother had a friend who lived for 3 YEARS on hospice and kept getting re-approved after each 6 month evaluation b/c she had terminal cancer, but wound up living for 3 years anyway.
Good luck!
Now the fact that your dad is 92 means that his life here on earth is shorter than most, but only God knows when He will take him home, so just enjoy whatever time you may have left with him, and leave nothing left unsaid.
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I watched my mother’s family of 7 (eight really, but the oldest died of a heart condition at the age of seven), and one died in her fifties, of cancer, three died in their early eighties, (Parkinson’s, dementia, cancer), and one sister and my mother lived to their nineties, my mother until 95.
The youngest will soon be 94, and “may” be bedridden. I’m not sure, because she was moved to a higher level of care a few weeks ago, and the communication there is different from her previous care site.
I saw her Saturday, and she was enthused to see me and understood and responded to what I was saying to her. Yesterday, awake but next to no interaction.
So, in my family, no particular way to predict.