Bright and early this morning an ambulance came to our house to pick up my mom to take her to her doctors appointment. That is about the only safe way to transport my mom these days. Her doctor looked at the medications that the hospital prescribed and said not to use most of them. She also wanted to put my mom on hospice. At first we thought that was a good idea, my mom wouldn't have to be transported in so much and a nurse would visit.
However, after doing some research and calling many different people we determined that if we did hospice care then my mom would lose her caregiver. She has had her same caregiver for years. They have a good relationship. Also, they said that she would only get a caregiver for 2 hours a day. Under her current program my mom gets 20 hours of service a week. She would lose caregiving hours at a time when she needs more. That makes no sense to us. The only reason that I can manage all that I do is because of her caregiver. I also don't have time to train someone new in the complexities of my mom and her needs.
After a lot of deliberations I have decided not to do hospice care at this time. In the end, I consider her relationship with her caregiver more valuable than what she will receive with hospice care. Taking care of mom sure comes with a lot of responsibilities and hard decisions.
Sorry you are going through this. You are definitely the "sandwich" generation.
ReplyDeleteYou can unofficially have her as a hospice patient without the red tape. It's about comfort care and advance directives anyway. The hospice designation only means another entity pays the bill. The doctor and you can choose to decrease medications and comfort support without as many follow up visits as the doctor sees fit.
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