Dementia Accelerates at the End

I've written that my mother has already passed from dementia. Cause of death is shown as cardiac arrest, but she didn't have heart trouble. Her brain forgot to tell her heart to pump anymore.

It's amazing how quickly things go at the end of a "demented" life. Here is the actual chronology for my mother.

For the past 9 months she lived in an assisted living facility. On 1/18 I got a call that the facility called a homecare place. After a phone call I learned that mom's doctor recommended to the facility that they contact the homecare company.

1/21 - I met with the representative of the homecare company and learned about hospice, and the fact that mom's doctor had diagnosed "failure to thrive."

1/27 - Mom was moved to the hospice facility by medical carrier. I was told to meet her there. She was a wreck. Deathly afraid and holding on to the bars of her bed with both hands while curled in a fetal position. She had no idea what was going on.

1/29 - I started moving her furniture and belongings from the assisted living place since she would never be going back.

1/30 - I finished moving her things. My daughter came out after a 6 hour drive to spend time with her grandmother and me at the hospice.

1/31 - Time together with mom at hospice. Daughter had to go back home to take care of her daughter.

2/1, 2/2, 2/3 - I stopped at the hospice for a few hours every night after work. I was never comfortable about leaving because I couldn't know if that would be the last time I'd see her alive.

2/4 - 10:30 AM - Doctor at the hospice called me at work. Said mom "looks different today. I think it's only a matter of hours." I immediately went there.

2/5 - As I fitfully tried to sleep in the recliner by my mother's bed, I woke up at 1:45 because her noisy breathing had stopped. As I wrote earlier, the nurse confirmed shortly thereafter that she "was gone." I sat by her bed for the next hour and a quarter talking to my mother's body, assuming her soul was already off to a better place. While still on her bed, I kissed her on the forehead, said goodbye, and went home.

More to follow...