Made a Painful Decision
But it was anything but easy.
My sister and I agreed on a medical decision for our mom. She will get palliative care and there will be no more surgeries performed on her. The other choice was too ugly and involved surgical removal of one of her legs. We don’t think, in her right mind, she would want that. It would also be very risky for her and had only a chance of increasing her longevity, not a guarantee. To put her through it without even knowing if it would lengthen her life was too much.
We did what we would want if it were us and what we think she would choose. Right now she is getting rehabilitation services and will someday get hospice care in a nursing home that will become her permanent residence. They are trying to re-teach her to use her walker to get around. She was walking well with it before her leg broke and she had to have the subsequent surgery, so we’re hoping she can at least get back to her walker rather than a wheelchair.
I cried all the way home after leaving my mother in a nursing home. I thought she would be horrified. I kept thinking she knows and blames me for leaving her there. I seem unable to accept how bad her dementia really is.
Come to find out she thinks it is a fancy hotel. The dining room there is “eating out,” at a restaurant. Tomorrow she may be on a cruise or in her…
