Caregiver02, is the lady coughing after she has eaten some food/pudding, or drinking water. If yes, then she is aspirating, meaning the tube that carries food/liquids to the stomach is no longer working correctly. That could be what the hospital had found and their findings is that this lady has a limited time left.
It must be difficult to see your client in this condition, and seeing her daughter sadly being in denial.
This disturbs me - there are so many better ways to meet the needs of a pureed diet than bland baby food and pudding. If she is showing other end of life signs
and is refusing food then from my observation not long, on the other hand if she is wasting away because of her restricted diet then she might benefit from some better quality foods and nutritional supplements. Is hospice involved?
She doesn't want to eat. Baby food is the only food we can get in here, and most of that drools back out. She was in the hospital 5 weeks ago and they said maybe she would live a week or two. But she seems to be sustaining on the little she's eating. She also very contracted but her daughter insist on get her up and into a wheelchair everyday so she can try to get her to eat.
My ex husbands grandmother lived on Campbells Cheddar Cheese soup for over 20 years. An elderly uncle ate nothing but hot dogs from decades. It can be quite amazing how long hte human body can live on poor nutrition.
It IS amazing how long people can live on little to no nutrition. I would assume they're not living at their optimal condition since they must be deficient in sooo many nutrients but the body is an amazing machine and somehow can often make do with very little.
If she's eating a variety of baby foods, she might actually be getting some decent nutrients to fuel her body.
It must be difficult to see your client in this condition, and seeing her daughter sadly being in denial.
https://www.agingcare.com/articles/end-of-life-care-signs-that-death-is-near-443741.htm
and is refusing food then from my observation not long, on the other hand if she is wasting away because of her restricted diet then she might benefit from some better quality foods and nutritional supplements. Is hospice involved?
If she's eating a variety of baby foods, she might actually be getting some decent nutrients to fuel her body.