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My 94-year-old father-in-law resides in assisted living, suffering from congestive heart failure that led to 4 hospitalizations in 2024, severe pain from spinal stenosis (treated for 6+ years with a fentanyl patch), and GI bleeds that land him in the hospital with severe anemia at least once a year. He has just been hospitalized again with blood pressure of 190/114, and I predict the same outcome: medication adjustments that will do the trick for a few weeks, and then more of the same. Meanwhile, his cognition and quality of life seem to diminish by the day. At what point, and how, do loved ones broach the option of hospice, or at least palliative care? He does not like to be "managed" and seriously thinks we should be planning a European river cruise right now, not his funeral.

Never to early for a topic of Hospice
It probably should have been discussed at the second or third hospitalization in 2024.
Ask for a consult with the Hospice. Most hospitals have a Hospice or an admission nurse for a Hospice they work with is on site.
His ALF may also have a Hospice they work closely with.
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Reply to Grandma1954
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You can request a consult either in hospital or at his AL. Ask for a hospice professional or doctor sit with him and his spokesperson such as your spouse to have a frank conversation about his health and what hospice can do for him. If family is tiptoeing around him, he needs a medical professional
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Reply to MACinCT
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My dad had a long, slow decline with CHF with many hospitalizations to pull off the fluid that oral Lasix couldn’t touch. It was insidious and beyond tiring to him. His cardiologist was the one to suggest bringing him home on hospice care and dad, after taking a couple of days to think about it, chose it for himself. CHF definitely reaches a point of more frequent issues with less solutions or even temporary helps. My dad was so very tired of it all and ready to leave this world. If your FIL isn’t able to be honest about his health issues and the coming outcome, he may not be ready to hear about hospice care. Discuss this with his doctor first. For my dad, it was a kindness.
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Reply to Daughterof1930
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