What she said. Such a horrible time for you. I'm sorry.

Exactly my reaction. Hang in there dear.

I'm very sorry to hear this. It's still good to hear that the hospice staff are on the job.

oh wolf, I'm sorry you have to be going through this.

Unfortunately, it seems like we all have to go through this sooner or later. Unless you were born an orphan and married an orphan.

Hang in there, wolf.

A care aide was just out to bathe momwolf. She also helped me to change momwolf's brief. In doing so we made what is a pretty scary discovery. There was fecal material in the brief ... as you may recall, momwolf has a colostomy.

The hospice nurse has been informed of this, didn't offer any suggestions in terms of what it might be. The nurse will be out tomorrow morning to see momwolf.

The care aide was great though, momwolf roused a bit during the sponge bath, but not in any significant degree.

Things have moved so fast. She was up and talking on Thursday, and although not entirely with us, was able to celebrate her birthday with siswolf and I on Friday. Perhaps this is what they talk about ... that people try to make it through some milestone date, and then things just start happening more quickly from then on.

I have seen this when I worked as a carer in an old folks' home. One old lady had a visit from each of her three children (one lived abroad) and then simply stopped eating and faded away. Perhaps that is not a very comforting thing to say, but perhaps momwolf knows what's best?
All I can say is that I know how hard it is to watch your parent suffer knowing you can do nothing to help. I wish you and your sister the strength to get through this. Lean on your friends.

Bless those folks. I had to give my father-in-law a sponge bath when we went down to Florida to bring him back here. He had been living with someone who was also declining and neither of them had caregivers.

On the one hand I'm proud to have saved my wife the experience. On the other hand it was pretty awful.

It's over. momwolf passed away yesterday evening. She was "sleeping" (which is a euphemism for was just barely semi-conscious). It was peaceful, if you don't count the last two weeks.

siswolf did not arrive until several hours after "it" happened, which is probably for the better. I waited until after siswolf had gotten her to make the phone call to the Hospice on-call service. The nurse they sent out was a complete ditz, no apparent compassion, kept complaining about how late it was, and hit us with a very perfunctory "sorry about your loss" before going straight on to "do you have any of the narcotics left over, I have to destroy them."

Everybody else had been lovely. This will go on the comment card.

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Thought about this, I think that there will be further adventures related to dealing with the funeral industry, so I'm going to start a separate thread.

Please accept my deepest sympathy. May you be blessed with strength in this time of sorrow.