Hospice and Dementia - Heading to the Exit

I write this in hospice with my mother who has hours to live. Her dementia has gotten to the point that all things are winding down and the end is in sight. It has not been a pleasant process. My fiercely independent mother is now incontinent and totally dependent on others simply to change position in bed. There is no interest in eating, that started quite a while ago. She can no longer speak.

I studied what I could about dementia so I knew what was coming. But when it's your mother lying there gasping and quivering, it is almost painful to watch. Her hands are warm even though they are bonier than they were before when they were always ice cold. We can tell she knows we are here.

My mother spent most her life without any prescription drugs. At 80 she had no prescriptions. Now, in the past several months she is on so many things that I can't keep track. Thank God for Medicaid.

In the coming weeks once this ordeal is over I will go back and write more about the experience.

May she rest in peace -- soon.