Mum has been diagnosed for 6 years but we feel she had VD for at least a year before that. She is in a very caring residential home. She often has "sleepy days" but on awake days she could hold a reasonable conversation, was walking slowly but unaided, liked to sing and loved eating sweets.
Six weeks ago she had a fall and badly bruised her back. She was in a lot of pain and had tramadol and slept all day. So it was changed to a Butrans patch. She was still very sleepy and had no pain, but she stopped walking, eating and drinking. She was only having a couple of teaspoons of food and sips of liquid. She got a urine infection and would not take medication. I had to push the hospital to admit her, but she has been on a drip and the urine infection cleared but she is still unwilling to eat or drink much. After 6 weeks not eating she is unable to stand and spends a lot of time asleep. Her neck seems to be permanently bent forward and to the right. She wants to lie in a foetal position on her right side most of the time but can stretch her legs. She can't or wont hold a cup. Often she is indecisive and will say "I don't know" "What do you think?"
They have done a brain scan and tell me she has very little functioning brain left and is in the last stage and needs paliative care. But she is still often talking fairly lucidly eg looking round and asking "Am I in hospital?" I helped another patient to the toilet and she said "Well you've done your good turn for the day."
Has anyone else experience of people in last stage who make lucid logical statements?
Six weeks ago she had a fall and badly bruised her back. She was in a lot of pain and had tramadol and slept all day. So it was changed to a Butrans patch. She was still very sleepy and had no pain, but she stopped walking, eating and drinking. She was only having a couple of teaspoons of food and sips of liquid. She got a urine infection and would not take medication. I had to push the hospital to admit her, but she has been on a drip and the urine infection cleared but she is still unwilling to eat or drink much. After 6 weeks not eating she is unable to stand and spends a lot of time asleep. Her neck seems to be permanently bent forward and to the right. She wants to lie in a foetal position on her right side most of the time but can stretch her legs. She can't or wont hold a cup. Often she is indecisive and will say "I don't know" "What do you think?"
They have done a brain scan and tell me she has very little functioning brain left and is in the last stage and needs paliative care. But she is still often talking fairly lucidly eg looking round and asking "Am I in hospital?" I helped another patient to the toilet and she said "Well you've done your good turn for the day."
Has anyone else experience of people in last stage who make lucid logical statements?