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My brother, who is POA for my mom received a call from the nh yesterday saying that mom's weight is 107 lbs. Last week week she was 107.2, the week before and 115 the week before that. They've never called with her weight before. Any ideas?

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Weight loss may be a sign of a person deteriorating healthwise. When my Mom was in an AL they did weights monthly and notified me of significant loss. It was also a measure used by hospice organizations as a meaningful criteria for hospice support. Sometimes it is as simple as the person not liking the food and family sometimes brings in healthy snacks to keep the weight up. Other times it may be a more serious sign. It is likely the cumulation for the month rather than the 2/10 of a pound for the one week.
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Nursing homes don't like to see weight loss. As Geewiz said, that can be a sign of deteriorating health so they feel that they must keep the family alert. This last weight loss isn't so much, but the week before is quite a lot. You'll want to stay in close communication with the nursing home.
Take care,
Carol
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I'm not sure what your mom's health issues are, but if she has congestive heart failure and is taking diuretics, weight gain and loss, in a crisis, is often measured even daily.

An 8-pound weight loss in a week for a patient out of balance with their diuretics wouldn't be at all unusual. That's just about a gallon of fluid. That 8# weight loss can either mean she's "getting sick" (dehydration) from too much diuretic or "getting well" (losing excess fluid) from not enough. (Hope that makes sense.)

In Ms. NotADoctor Maggie's opinion (meaning it's worthless), an 8# weight loss in one week would HAVE to be fluid.
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Babaloo - when is the next care plan meeting for your mom? For my mom's NH, they are done every 90 days and scheduled about 2 weeks in advance by letter. If it is coming up soon, you & brother both should try to make the meeting to go over all mom's vitals and what staff seems to think her path is heading towards. Letter is likely just being sent to bro if he is the DPOA / MPOA.

If they have a 10% or more weight loss in 30 days, that is a red-flag for hospice work-up. 10% loss is one of those key indicators used to make significant change happen that meets the criteria for insurance companies, NH admissions, sort of stuff. When mom was in IL, her MD saw her every 4 -6 weeks and the visit she hit a 10% loss and an iffy H&H lab report, he wrote the orders for "skilled nursing care" needed so I could get her into a NH (and bypassed the AL stage).
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Bingo, Igloo, I think you're right. It must be a 10% loss. I called and scheduled the care meeting for October 10, a day when I can be there. They offered to have the nurse from their preferred Hospice provider there. Thanks, all!
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A pint is a pound, so yes, she lost a gallon in a week. If she was on diuretics, good. If she was not on diuretics WOW check the CBC/CMP (bloodwork) and that would be part of the determination for Hospice. Kidneys and Liver may be shutting down.. God keep you, Babalou
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Pam, I so value your expertise! She is on diuretics and I'm told her ankles look awesome. So I'm assuming this is water. Bun is stable, creatinine is occasionally out of whack. What makes me crazy is that if I call and ask if my mom had a chest x-ray this week, no one can tell me! One nurse checks two books and says no order noted. Then they call me and tell me, yes, it was done a week ago. So very frustrating and time consuming.
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Babalooo - something to keep back of your brain, hospice -since it is a mediCARE benefit- is self directed. Which means you can select the provider. It does not have to be the "preferred" provider the nh suggests. They could be terrific but they could be one that's owned by the old DON; or the former social worker started a hospice and that is who they give the biz too. The whole preferred provider is ripe for collusion.

Also if the hospice group doesn't work, bad vibe, whatever, whomever is DPOA MPoa can fire the hospice and get a new group. I fired hospice #1 within first 9 weeks and got mom on another group. Total lack of communication with first hospice so they got canned. A good NH should have a display with the brochures from several hospice available for you to take and look at. My moms has a rack adjacent to the elevators for hospice.
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