Shortly after my sisters and brother had all visited her,
Mom slipped into a pattern of heavy sleep. She woke up on Saturday and was wide
awake and eating/drinking, but on Monday morning I could not even wake her up
enough to get her medicine, crushed into some applesauce, down her. She finally
woke enough for me to get a few bites of it down her when she was moved around
as we changed her briefs, but she did not waken again to have any breakfast or
liquids.
Later in the afternoon, almost evening, friends came by
with their guitars and sang to mom for over an hour. At first she didn't
respond, but when the wife started singing an old favorite of hers, The Gypsy
Rover, Mom responded. She didn't open her eyes, but a smile slipped onto her
face and stayed there for the whole song. Then husband sang a song for her and
she turned her face toward his voice and opened her eyes. From then on, as long
as they were singing, she watched whichever one sang to her. Later that evening
I was able to get some more apple sauce into her with more pain meds. Other
than a few ounces of broth and some of iced tea, that was all the intake she
had on Monday.
Tuesday morning she woke up at 6:30 and started
frantically demanding that I go find Dad. I couldn't get her meds into her
until about 7:45 because she kept saying no and then demanding to know where "the man”
was and when he would be back. Once I got her meds in her and assured her that
Dad would be back and wouldn't leave without her, she calmed down a bit.
Our Hospice nurse came in Tuesday afternoon, two days
early, and spent a good while with us running through an update on end of life
medicines and how to administer them. She has taken Mom off all diabetes medicines from here
on. If her food intake is not consistent, then her diabetes medicines will do
her more harm than good. We are confirming with her Hospice doctor if we should
discontinue all of her meds at this point.
Mom does have some edema in the arm that she holds close
and doesn't move. (Edema: An excessive accumulation of serous fluid in tissue
spaces or a body cavity.) We have her arm propped up in order to help keep that
down and the nurse says that is working. She also said that Mom's heart rate
has gone up and her oxygen absorption has gone down, both as expected with her
change in state.
Even in her more wakeful state on Tuesday, Mom only ate a
half an egg, a few bites of cantaloupe and, when I discovered that they were
ripe, she ate two fresh figs off of the trees in the orchard. She didn’t want
dinner, but I did get her evening medicines into her with some pudding. She
drank only about 10 ounces of fluid Tuesday, but the fruits gave her some extra
liquids, too.
Last night, as soon as I turned off the lights, Mom began
demanding that I go find “the man”. She was agitated and restless nonstop until
after 1:00, when she finally fell asleep. That is when things got really interesting.
Mom started talking in her sleep, in full, coherent sentences and paragraphs.
Her brain is still working perfectly in her dream world and I lay there
listening to her side of a conversation with someone and just smiled. It was
totally, totally my mom.
Per the nurse, we will have more of these “coma” days,
followed by wakeful days until the day that she doesn’t have a wakeful day
afterwards. The long, slow summer will begin to wind down soon and it seems
like Mom may be following its lead, but only time will tell.
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