My Mother has end stage dementia, recurrent aspiration pneumonia infections due to inability to swallow. She's now on a morphine drip and only comfort care. The doctors thought she would die 2 days ago, but she's hanging on. She sleeps most of the time but recognizes my voice and tries to communicate with me, will open her eyes when I ask her to and squeezes my hand and blinks when I ask her to as a means of communication. I get the feeling she is resisting letting herself die and that she doesn't understand that she is dying and I'm not sure how much I should say to her. I know she hears me for short periods, but she doesn't seem to be seeing me when she looks at me and doesn't understand for very long. I don't want to scare her by telling her she's dying--she seems somewhat scared and quite confused already. Does anyone have any advice for me?
2 days ago when it looked like the end was imminent, I reassured her everybody was okay, "the kids were in bed" , her husband was home, and that she could just relax, and she did! That seemed to be what she wanted, but I don't know what to do now.
2 days ago when it looked like the end was imminent, I reassured her everybody was okay, "the kids were in bed" , her husband was home, and that she could just relax, and she did! That seemed to be what she wanted, but I don't know what to do now.