Mother has been in skilled nursing since July 16. The weekend that was one week ago, she was super agitated, had ER trips on two days in a row From fall. One of them she gassed her head open. She had a BM in the hall because of her mental status. They did suspect constipation was adding to her agitation. Then Hospice work some more with the meds and she was a lot calmer.
yesterday we went up there and she was literally having the “death rattle “. The floor nurse did not seem to pick up on it, but she called Hospice. The hospice nurse, who has 30 years of experience confirmed that’s what it was. Said she heard fluid all in her chest. her oxygen saturation on 3 L was 76. Her breathing looks labored. They gave her some morphine and medication to dry up the secretions. They removed the humidification for her nasal cannula set up. And while we were there, she improved some. But she was barely awake at all. But we did bring her dog for a visit and she woke up quite a bit for that. She made one purposeful move to pet him. Made a lot of noises that we weren’t sure what they meant. But when her eyes were open, she was not focused, she was not making eye contact. It really looked like this was the end of her life. I stopped in today. She’s sitting up in bed agitated. She’s talking in a lot of words salad but also some complete sentences. Now they weren’t necessarily appropriate. Didn’t make sense for the situation. For example, saying she was gonna get up and go get a hamburger. Or there was a lot of random shouting of ow, ow ow, and no no no.
weekday Hospice nurse showed up and told me she’s been getting reports from the weekend of looking like she was going to transition. But it is night and day difference today. They did not hear the congestion in her chest today. They had to give her a round of all the medication’s. Yesterday Hospice had said to stop trying to feed. Today Hospice is giving her applesauce and she’s easily eating it. They have documented a drop in her arm circumference. On July 16, it was 24.5. Today it is 23.0.My main concerns are I’d really rather not have to go through the Medicaid application process. She has money for a few months. I’m also worried about losing Hospice because they provide all of the calming medications and extra oversight for her.
I know people will say this is just a rally. But she’s already had a big rally. First was when she left the hospital looking like she was in a coma and by the day after she arrived at the facility, she was awake and agitated and terrorizing the place. Every time I keep thinking there will be an end and relief in sight. It never happens.
