What a roller coaster these last few weeks have been! About 3 weeks ago my 95 yr old grandpa aspirated some of his vomit in his sleep which caused pneumonia. Thankfully he has made a quick and full recovery.

They did a barium swallow test & had a speech therapist evaluate him. The ST put him on honey/pudding thick liquids and pureed food, which he is pretty much refusing to eat (according to the ST) but the nurses say he is just being himself. LONG story shortened it was suggested that he be placed on Hospice, more for comfort care then end of life care, so we went ahead with the suggestion.

I have been in health care for over 10 years and am a Hospice volunteer in my spare time so I have a good understand of how it works. It's a lot different when it is your family, my head is telling me one thing but my heart is saying another.

One of the things that we are struggling with as a family is the possibility of a feeding tube. It will be a while before we really have to make that decision. The problem with that is once the tube is in there is no taking it out and you can not DC feedings. At that point it would mean we are pretty much dragging out the end of life process & it would take longer for the body to shut down. On the other hand when the time comes that he can no longer eat or drink then he will basically end up starving to death and the body will shut down quicker. When this time comes the patient is usually on pain medication for comfort so they are usually unaware that they are "starving". So what do you do? The DNR was the easy part because he had already signed one when he was admitted into the home several years ago.

I have a passion for Hospice care so I would love to hear your feed back & stories.