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Old 02-07-2017, 11:25 AM   #17
chrisinhouston
Professor
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 1,857
Yesterday morning my wife and I discussed Hospice care. Having had home hospice for both of my parents and my wife dealt with it briefly with her dad we felt that if mom holds on but grows weaker it will take more than the 2 of us can handle. There is also the issue of when someone dies at home on their own. With hospice they handle the death certificate but if you don't have hospice you have to deal with the police and possibly the county morgue and sometimes a autopsy is required. So I found a local Hospice center that can does home centered care. Mom just doesn't want to leave her apartment and go somewhere unfamiliar.

A lady with the hospice came out yesterday and we signed everything, well I signed. I am the primary person for medical and legal power of attorney since my wife travels so much normally. The lady was so surprised how involved we are with mom and that we were so involved with other family members with hospice. She said most families don't want anything to do with it and prefer to not be too involved which I find sad. Today a nurse is supposed to contact me to come out and go over the medical history and medications. I called her GP Dr. this morning to tell them the hospice will be contacting them for records. Also the pain management Dr. since he prescribes her pain patch.

We stopped by to check on mom at 7:45am. today We were surprised to find her already up and sitting in her recliner with the dog in her lap. She was watching a cooking show, first time in a few days she has actually turned on the TV. It has now been a full week since she has eaten anything, just bite or 2 that day and her meals were very hit or miss the week before. She is typically only drinking a few ounces of liquid during the day. Hard to figure out how she has the energy to get up each morning or how much longer this can go on.

Neither my wife or I slept well last night. We both were thinking about what is going on with her mother. I'm trying to figure out what the heck we are going to do with all of mom's shit and she really has a lot of shit. She has a 2 bedroom apartment that is chock full of stuff. She was a crafts person as well as a doll maker so on one wall alone we have about 300 porcelain dolls that she made from scratch; pouring the slip into molds, firing them, painting details like freckles, eye lashes, lips, putting in eyes and hair and making the clothes. They are all different and unique. We put in her will that every granddaughter and great granddaughter should take whatever they want but that will still leave a great deal. She also has loads of little chathkis in curio cabinets and on shelves as well as hand painted plates and other things from her craft making days. And some butt ugly furniture. Plus 2 closets full of holiday decorations and I mean decorations for just about every holiday on the calendar. Maybe we can sell what the family doesn't want or need on Craig's list or eBay.
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