I've been living with my mom for a year now. She was 86 and in fairly decent health until this past month, when she was hospitalized with pneumonia. She had COPD but quit smoking 21 yrs ago. She also had very severe arthritis in her legs and feet. She suffered from depression but was in denial with that up until her passing. She was also malnourished, and has been losing weight for the past 3 yrs, quite quickly. She was hospitalized for 21 days and in a rehab facility for about 2 1/2 wks. She told me one day, "please let me have my last wish, let me go home to die. I fought her on it until Friday the 13th and agreed to let her come home. I thought she was going to be walking around with a walker. No way, she couldn't even weight bear. On Saturday, she had a hospital bed. She was able to suck out of a straw half of the day and by 2:00 pm, she was not able to do that. I had to drop water into her mouth so she could take the medication. She had refused oxygen and when I put it on her at 10:00 pm, she didn't even know I was putting it on her. By 3:30 am, she was struggling to breathe, very labored and panting. I called hospice and they told me to give her 2 morphine and her xanax and within an hour and 15 minutes, she was gone. I had only been giving her 1/2 a tablet, so it was quite an increase. I am feeling like I killed her. My friends are telling me I only helped her pass comfortably, that she would have passed anyway, but struggling to breathe and in pain. I am trying to look at it that way, but it's difficult. I will be going to the grief counseling, both individually and as a group support meeting. My sister and I do not see eye to eye on much of the planning for mom's memorial. (We rarely agree on much of anything.) That makes things even harder. Thanks for listening.
I don't often post, but I do try and read as often as I can.