My fil’s doctors in icu told us fil wouldnt be eating, drinking or speaking anymore. That he would barely be conscious after his third stroke.
Imagine our surprise on his first day home from hospital on hospice when he consumed two puréed meals, had a bowel movement, hugged his out of town brother and made jokes. Thats all stuff he wasn’t doing in the hospital.
It looked so much like real improvement.
The next day he was noninteractive. He died that night. It’s coming up on a month.
I have read that these rallies happen in a third of cases but have not seen it discussed here yet. So, if you had a loved one on hospice, did you experience anything like this?
My dad wasn’t like this. He crashed into delirium and every day lost awareness.
We were told by the hospice nurse that this sometimes happens.
Im so sorry for your loss.
The next she drastically checked out. I experienced the sound of the death rattle. As her breath began to labor, I laid in the bed with her and held until she took her last breath. Her eyes were looking up, as if to the Lord. After no response to me calling out, I knew she had slipped away. I closed her eyes for the last time . After several minutes I kissed her goodbye and called hospice.
Because she'd been so agitated, we had not brought her dog. He'd been a focus of her agitation in the earlier part of her post first hospital rehab stay, when she could still talk. I felt at this point it was safe to bring him to visit. It was so weird. We got the dog on her bed, and she made a lot of unintelligible noises and seemed more awake, though her eyes still could not focus on us or the dog. She made one real attempt to pet him. By the next day, she was back to agitated and climbing out of bed, tearing her clothes off, etc. She lived another TWELVE days after this.
And her actual passing was so not eventful. I stayed a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon, again trying to keep her in bed and safe. She called my name and told me to 'come sit,' the first time she'd said my name in weeks.
Friday I did not go, as sometimes my presence agitated her more. Hospice nurse reported to me she was "pleasantly confused," and had been fed 40 percent of her lunch. I got a call at 3 am Saturday where they stated she had "transitioned." I had to ask what the meant, I thought maybe they meant transitioned to active dying. No, they meant passed on. The floor nurse said she'd been asleep all evening with no meds on board, again, a big change for her. I was not close to mother, had been drug through literal hell in the final two plus years with her. So I am not sure how I feel about not being there when she passed. I'd told her the day she had the death rattle not to worry, things were ok between us, and that I'd take care of her dog. It was all I could muster.
Rehab had gotten extended , but then he started to get weaker again and could not eat . He then went to the SNF upstairs on comfort care rather then hospice because he hadn’t used his 100 days up yet . Mom didn’t want to pay the nursing home bill for his room which would have happened if he went on hospice . Although Medicare coverage declines over the one hundred days , Dads insurance picked up the difference . Again this would not have been the case if he had gone on hospice . Dad died before the 100 days was up , so Mom never had to start paying private for his room ..
He had another rally 2-3 days before he died . He went from confused , sleeping all the time to being alert , oriented and ate 2 big meals . Then he slipped into a coma for 2 days before he died .,
Dad had been waiting for my brother to finally come to see him . He was alert and rallied the two days brother was here .