My dad is 91 and lives in assisted living. He has an indwelling catheter and developed a UTI which landed him in the hospital. The first day or two looked pretty grim, but apparently he is improving some. Several times hospice or palliative care has been mentioned by the nurses and doctors. I don't know what to do. His quality of life is pretty poor (at least I think so). He has really bad arthritis in his knees, so he can barely walk. He uses an electric scooter most of the time because he can use it indoors in the apartment. But after laying in the hospital for a week I'm not sure if he'll even have the strength to do that. He is forgetful at times, but not to the point where he's been diagnosed with dementia. It's pretty much just age related forgetfulness. I have not approached the subject of hospice with him because all we have is the phone, and he is very hard of hearing, so he wouldn't understand what I was saying anyway. He is declining, I know that, but he is not "terminal", so I don't know if hospice is even choice. How do you begin to make a decision like this? I feel like I would just be giving up and sentencing him..........
My husband was under hospice care in our home for 22 months, so as you can see, there really is no time limit with them as long as you continue to qualify. Best wishes.
Hospice is no longer just for folks who are terminal in the sense of having end stage cancer.
We agreed to palliative care when it was clear that every trip to the hospital set my mom back farther and farther. From there on in, no more ER trips, no more being in the hospital for a week getting more and more deconditioned. The NH treated what they could and what they couldn't, we all left in God and Nature's hands.