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the more i read about what happens as we get older, the more i think it really wouldn't be a bad thing to die in my 50's or 60s...
I'm 80 this summer and I believe due to the many supplements I take for about 25 yrs now I will live long and keep my sharp mind. It's my joints that give me grief. Long story about the knee and OA probably started in my body when I was 18...there is a lot I no longer do, but a lot I still do. And again my mind is good... and I think there are things we can do to keep it that way. I've posted about caregivers and their minds.
This is NOT what hospice is. My mom is in the latter stages of dementia. She doesn't speak, doesn't walk, and it's impossible to tell whether she understands anything you say to her, as some days she nods her head yes to answer all of your questions, and other days she shakes it no. I don't know if she recognizes anyone, as she shows no signs of this. She can no longer maneuver her own wheelchair. She often needs to be fed by hand. She has no teeth and needs to eat pureed food. In other words, her quality of life is pretty grim.
Last summer she developed what was thought to be aspiration pneumonia and was put into hospice care. She has been in hospice care since then - almost a year. The pneumonia eventually resolved but she remained in hospice. Medicare will pay for hospice if a doctor certifies that the patient has less than 6 months to live. Every 6 months the patient can be re-certified. Dementia patients can be re-certified many times.
I view the hospice team as a resource and another set of eyes watching the caregivers in the assisted living facility where where she is (although she receives excellent care there, it doesn't hurt to have others looking out for her). A nurse visits her weekly and keeps close tabs on the care she is getting from the care-giving and nursing staff at the facility. Hospice volunteers come and sit with her and try to engage her is social interaction. A religious pastor visits her monthly. They offer me the services of a social worker and can help make funeral arrangements when the time comes. The hospice doctor makes sure that she is being medically treated without any further interventions in accordance with her living will.
My mother's quality of life at this point is so minimal that some might view euthanasia as a blessing - but the hospice people do not offer this "service". If they did, I believe it would be against the law. If they did, I'd have to think she might be a candidate for this "service". I have not experienced anything like what you are talking about. I see a team of dedicated individuals who have a goal of making someone's final days better and more comfortable.
This is the most typical experience. We have hospice in every nursing home I've ever worked in and they have all been professional. The idea a business kills off it's own customers is astoundingly ridiculous even morality and ethics aside. They neither prolong life nor hasten its' end, they carry out the patient and families wishes to ease the person as gently as possible as they journey into the next world.
For OP,giving someone Ensure is not a life prolonging measure, they can't/don't withhold nutrition from people unless the person herself (not the family) wishes that and can express it and is alert and oriented. Even then they would need a family meeting and a doctor's order to withhold food and drink and it would have to be clearly documented this is what the patient herself wants. There is no reason at all a hospice patient can't eat and drink whatever they like. There isn't any medicine in Ensure it's just a shake with added vitamins. Not at all contradictory with Hospice care.
This is NOT what hospice is. My mom is in the latter stages of dementia. She doesn't speak, doesn't walk, and it's impossible to tell whether she understands anything you say to her, as some days she nods her head yes to answer all of your questions, and other days she shakes it no. I don't know if she recognizes anyone, as she shows no signs of this. She can no longer maneuver her own wheelchair. She often needs to be fed by hand. She has no teeth and needs to eat pureed food. In other words, her quality of life is pretty grim.
Last summer she developed what was thought to be aspiration pneumonia and was put into hospice care. She has been in hospice care since then - almost a year. The pneumonia eventually resolved but she remained in hospice. Medicare will pay for hospice if a doctor certifies that the patient has less than 6 months to live. Every 6 months the patient can be re-certified. Dementia patients can be re-certified many times.
I view the hospice team as a resource and another set of eyes watching the caregivers in the assisted living facility where where she is (although she receives excellent care there, it doesn't hurt to have others looking out for her). A nurse visits her weekly and keeps close tabs on the care she is getting from the care-giving and nursing staff at the facility. Hospice volunteers come and sit with her and try to engage her is social interaction. A religious pastor visits her monthly. They offer me the services of a social worker and can help make funeral arrangements when the time comes. The hospice doctor makes sure that she is being medically treated without any further interventions in accordance with her living will.
My mother's quality of life at this point is so minimal that some might view euthanasia as a blessing - but the hospice people do not offer this "service". If they did, I believe it would be against the law. If they did, I'd have to think she might be a candidate for this "service". I have not experienced anything like what you are talking about. I see a team of dedicated individuals who have a goal of making someone's final days better and more comfortable.
Everything you said here is exactly our experience with my Mom -- she was in this exact same "state" of existence and hospice did all the things you described. It was wonderful to have that extra support. She was on hospice for about 18 months (kept being recertified) and then she was taken off hospice because she had gained weight and was stable.
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