GilWest
Distinguished member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 359
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Diagnosis
- 01/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- WV
- City
- Southern
Just a little background. My mom had polio as a kid and had been unable to walk since age 3. late last year, she started becoming progressively weaker and we thought she had had a stroke. The doc at the hospital thought it was a stroke and we went home with that. A month later, her speech had gotten worse, so i took her back. The new doc said not a stroke and probably post polio. ALS Specialist trip followed, and he agreed that it was not a stroke and was probably post polio or ALS. Mom progressed, weaker still and then EMG. It declared that it was prob not polio, but new motor neuron disease. In the meantime, I had placed mom in skilled nursing at our local hospital. Now, mind you, Mom has all the classic signs of upper motor neuron disease. She is easily strangled when swallowing and the slurred speech began mid-year last year before the weakness. Anyway, she was released from skilled nursing, sent home, but I had to take her back and pay day to day for respite care until a bed opened up at a local assisted living facility. Whilst in skilled/respite care, mom ate with a little difficulty, but she seemed to maintain weight. After 3 weeks in the assisted living, I am unsure if mom eats much at all. She maintains that she does not want a feeding tube, but I told her I cannot let her sit and wither. She has atrophied more and lost quite a bit of weight in the 3 weeks since leaving respite. I am unsure what to do. What are the pros and cons of a feeding tube? We see another ALS specialist in a month because she was unable to travel the distance to the original specialist. Every doc I ask says it is just the progression of the disease and that there is not much to do, but I can't let her starve can I?