She’s been on oxygen 24/7 for copd for the last 5 years. Has bad heart condition. She is severely depressed and now has dementia and lymphedema. Is 70 pounds and has been on hospice for four and a half years. She hasn’t left the house in over a year and a half. She is miserable and rarely happy.
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Your Mom weighs only 70 pounds. The truth is that at that weight she is bound to get a bedsore with inactivity. This is pain to be avoided if possible. So I would encourage Mom to just get up briefly to change position and improve circulation in hopes of avoiding things that can be even WORSE.
Our bodies are made for survival, and the machine fights to live long after the person housed within wishes for peace and rest. I am so sorry. As I said, I would get the best bed possible to prevent bed sores and then let Mom make her own decisions to the extent she is able, but I would explain to her the danger and pain involved in bed sores. In all truth, once they occur they are often the last step before infection, systemic infection and death; Steve Reeves, who was paralyzed following his fall from a horse (Superman?) ultimately died of a bedsore.
I am so sorry for the struggle for your Mom. This is a decision difficult to make. Let her make her own decision after you, and the Hospice nurses, speak with her.
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