NPO is hospital-speak for "nothing by mouth." We are not forcing Mom to rely on the feeding tube any longer. It is probable that pneumonia will result, but she is steadfast in hating that tube -- even though she is also in denial about what aspiration will ultimately mean.
This week was a pretty horrible week for visiting. On Thursday, she could not (or would not) wake. She always responds to our voices, but I could not get any response. Once I touched her face, and her eyelids fluttered and she said "I know" after I self-identified, but she often says "I know" to cover her deafness. I felt sure that I was going to get a call in the middle of the night that night.
She was alert Friday morning, but pretty much the rest of the week she was out of it. She wanted to make herself tea, and she kept insisting that staff had "snatched" her as she was walking home, to imprison her in that room.
We visited the Kaplan Hospice House in Danversport. It is a lovely place. But she would have to go off dialysis to be there, and she is not going to opt for that when she is experiencing so much denial about her condition.
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