h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So since last year, my mother's condition has deteriorated a great deal. Last year she was still walking from her wheelchair to the bathroom and we occasionally walked down the hall of her assisted living for exercise. Then in January she became nauseous for some unknown reason and she wouldn't eat or drink. The facility said she had to go to the ER, so I took her in. She's been bed bound ever since. She never recovered from being in bed for several days in the hospital. They tried physical therapy and she was uncooperative. And while she was no longer nauseous, she wouldn't eat at the hospital and the hospital (actually a skilled care facility) recommended we put her on Hospice.

So we put her on hospice thinking she probably didn't have long to live. But when she was back at her regular assisted living, she started eating and was fairly conversant. She still couldn't walk or support her own weight at all, so we decided to try physical therapy again. She would do the exercises for the therapist, but mostly refused to do them when the therapist wasn't there. She wasn't declining much at this point, however, and in fact, the facility started to take her to meals in the dining room rather than feeding her in her room. This precipitated the hospice company threatening discharge her from hospice.

Right after that, though, she did start to decline precipitously. Not sure what happened. But she became weaker, and stopped being able to eat on her own. They now feed her in her room and they have to feed her, she can't feed herself. She's blind, so she can't see where the food is and she's too weak to raise the food to her mouth anyway, it seems.

Needless to say, this situation has caused me a lot of stress and unhappiness, so I've been pretty depressed the last few months.

And a from me too. It must be awful to watch.

Deb