I really wonder if part of the reason is that I'm shooting in a little different place but whatever the reason, I'm happy!!
Signed DM up for hospice again....Home health was a joke....after a month, they dismissed her from PT and OT so the only thing they were providing was a nurse to come by once a week.
Not sure about the decision, but they can offer her some more support....but it bugs me that they keep mentioning putting her on morphine and Ativan.....she's not in pain at this time and she's confused enough without adding a tranquilizer, so I'm hoping I can keep those out of her hands!!
We'll see how it goes....I may still cancel it once she's in Assisted Living if they can offer her more general support and take the "medical decisions" back into my hands instead of theirs.
Hope everyone has been having a nice weekend! Thinking of the victims of Harvey.....what a mess!!
It's a tough spot you are in. Hospice means she can't see her doctors and the one my mom was with their doctor was very old and came by every three months! Home Health is restricted by Medicare so that any progress made is lost because you get so few sessions. Good luck Chris. I hope all goes better for you and your mom.
Yeah we went 'round and 'round about that.....the only good thing (I suppose) is that although they do have their own medical directors, on her papers her regular GP is listed as her doctor
I talked to them quite a bit about stuff like "what about her sleep apnea doctor"? (who we just saw yesterday) and they said they would handle that too....I asked "How? You can't get the information off the chip that they can to see how well she's doing or if adjustments need to be made to her machine/oxygen"....they didn't have an answer for that one so we kind of agreed that if her doctor agreed she needed to see one of her specialists, as long as hospice was notified and agreed, we could see them.
I've canceled them before....I can cancel them again if I don't like any of their decisions!!
Good thing your there to look after her care. It bothers me that they try and take the easy way out by just drugging them. There is a time for that but not as quickly as some of them are put on them and can be for the wrong reasons.
My DM in law went down really fast once they started pumping the IV full of those drugs. We got there too late to turn anything around.
Chris prayers and vines to you and your DM
That's what I thought too....I'm like "why would you be giving morphine to someone in no pain??"....the only "pain" she has is her arthritis and usually Tylenol or maybe something like Vicoden are enough to make her comfortable....the only reason I can see for pushing her to be on morphine is to depress her respiration ....which she does NOT need!
And as far as Ativan goes, again, why? Other than to make them easier to deal with? Mom's the most chill person I know.....why do they want to tranquilize her?
A little snack popped Miss China back up above 50....thank goodness!! Mama really doesn't feel like staying up with you all night my sweet girl!
I had to go read back a few days.
Hospice is usually managing those last days ( weeks/months) and they do tend to drug them trying to relieve pain as their body shuts down.
I wish I had used them now for my grandmother's last week. Once she couldn't swallow anymore, with her dnr, they just checked on her every hour,
rotated her, told me she was in a euphoric state and didn't need any pain meds/drugs.
There is no ideal. The nursing home/dementia ward couldn't give out drugs like they used to to sedate/calm any one anymore..... some new law that they couldn't. They went too far and took away her anxiety meds which I had to fight for because without them she acted crazy and frantic.
It's a hard road to navigate.
You have my sympathy.
and can be for the wrong reasons.
