cathym
New member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2007
- Messages
- 2
- Reason
- Loved one DX
- Country
- CA
- State
- British Columbia
- City
- Vancouver
last year at this time our family was sailing along and everything was fine - i noticed mom's speech was a bit slurred when i was visiting my family - by december she could barely talk and was having trouble walking - now it is august, a year later and she is unable to talk, move on her own, and is now having trouble swallowing. our family is devastated. although she is being cared for at home right now, it is getting to be too much for my elderly dad and sister to handle. the rest of the family, including myself, live across the country or in my other sister case, on the other side of the world. with each passing week i hear things are progressing quickly and more abilities are being lost. the fact that she has frontal/temperal lobe dimentia -- only 5% of ALS patients have this - makes it very difficult. my mother has always said that if anything happened to her - like this - she would want to be in a nursing home - and not be a burden to her family.
i think we should remember her wishes. of course, we are feeling guilty about this - and it's a very hard decision to make. my dad has power of attorney over her health care and he is afraid to make the decision. my worries are that this stress will kill him before ALS takes my mother.
have any of you out there gone thru this ? any insights into how to deal with it? we don't know what to do.
if anyone has had to face the decision on when and whether to put a loved one in a nursing home or palliative care unit or hospice, please tell me about your experience.
thanks
i think we should remember her wishes. of course, we are feeling guilty about this - and it's a very hard decision to make. my dad has power of attorney over her health care and he is afraid to make the decision. my worries are that this stress will kill him before ALS takes my mother.
have any of you out there gone thru this ? any insights into how to deal with it? we don't know what to do.
if anyone has had to face the decision on when and whether to put a loved one in a nursing home or palliative care unit or hospice, please tell me about your experience.
thanks