re: Close relative is in hospice...(update page 5)

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Not sure how aware y'all are, but UTI's are extremely serious in the elderly. They get drastically worse quickly and quite often require IV antibiotics. Hospitalization was probably correct. UTIs also actually cause extreme delirium quite often. Many people completely recover from the delirium when the UTI is gone.

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That had kind of been the pattern, but this latest one seems to have just caused a severe, irrevocable decline.

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I'm exactly there with you with my step dad. He's not eating and drinking very little. He had pneumonia last Christmas and has continually gone done throughout 2023 with it getting much worse after his sister passed in September. Since then, he progressively slept more and more until it was almost all the time. He has been on Hospice since early October and it's been very helpful for my mom. They came by the assisted living twice a week and gave her supplies (incontinence) for him, advice, gave baths, etc. Now they are coming daily and he is heavily medicated. It's just hard. That is all.

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Wow. How is he hanging on so long despite not eating/drinking?

Very sorry yall have to go through this.

On my soapbox for a second: I believe a lot of these conditions are heavily influenced by lifelong crappy diets - processed foods, sugars and nasty oils. Add to that he had a spouse that chewed his arse up daily for 40 years - relentlessly.

All of which is to say: take care of your body - eat right, exercise. And please surround yourselves with other humans that are invested in your well being on a daily basis.