How long can a dying person be bedridden before they finally pass?
The answer to that question is it depends on the reason they are dying. There actually is no definitive answer to your question without the cause of their impending death being revealed.If your question pertains to someone who has opted to be placed on Hospice, again, no definitive answer as the cause is still unknown. However, a terminal cancer patient per say who goes on Hospice who is not intravenously fed and unable or does not desire to drink any liquid or eat will usually last three to five days depending on their weight. An overweight person can live approximately five days and a thin person usually will last about three days.A terminal cancer patient who goes on Hospice is not given any nutrients or liquids including an IV for hydration. If medication other than pain meds were administered prior to being on Hospice, they are immediately stopped along with all treatments that were used to keep the person alive. The only form of treatment or medication Hospice uses is that of pain medication and oxygen for example so the person doesn’t suffer as much. All things that would extend the person’s life are ceased.I know this to be true as my husband and his mother both were cancer patients who opted to be placed on Hospice while in the hospital receiving medication and treatments to assist keeping them alive. When my husband signed his death warrant via Hospice, it was not more than two minutes when the nurses of death arrived and unplugged him from all machines used to provide him with antibiotics and liquids that kept his body alive. I could not believe my eyes. When his mother opted for Hospice, my husband watched them do it to her and told me how cruel and inhumane he thought it to be. So when he signed the papers, he did not at all look surprised when they unhooked him from everything. His mother was heavy and lasted five days; my husband only lasted three.
Is it possible to get a bed-ridden dementia patient off the bed?
My wife had dementia and Progressive supranuclear palsy. The longer a person is in bed without getting up the harder it will be for them to get up. If you can convince her to get up, with assistance, even to move to chair or bedside commode, it will help her circulation, joint flexibility, and digestion, and probably will help to prevent constipation and urinary tract infections. Getting up and moving around is also the best thing to prevent or treat bedsores.It is possible to die from staying in bed too much.From your description of your mother’s reactions, it sounds to me more like fear than disease that his causing her to pull herself backwards and stiffens up. Has she experienced falls? Has she been criticized or threatened by nursing staff for trying to get up? ask for a physical therapist or occupational therapist to help her get out of bed, and make sure that any nurses or caregivers know how to help her and prevent falling.IF she does have painful stiffness related to her disease, it would be intermittent, or continuous, but not in response to being invited to get out of bed. In that case, Parkinsons medication such as Levadopa, or dopamine agonists may help.Check with her neurologist, not just a hospitalist or GP>
HELP. Severe depression/anxiety from thinking I have MS. Cant take it anymore.?
From what you have written here, it doesn't sound like MS. MS symptoms rarely come and go like you have described it here, and generally a symptom has to be consistent for at least 24 hours for it to be considered MS related, plus you have already seen your doctor for tingling and numbness in your hand. The thing with MS is that it has so many possible symptoms that you can look up just about anything and come up with an MS match. This is also why one of the first steps in an MS diagnosis is to rule out all other possible causes. Anxiety and stress are actually two of the main culprits when it comes to MS scares, and it sounds like this is what is happening to you. Try to stay off the self-diagnosis sites on the internet and try to relax, go out, keep yourself busy, the more you fret, the more anxious you'll become. If your symptoms persist or get worse, then talk to your mother again about seeing a doctor just in case, but for now try not to worry and stay off self-diagnosing on the internet. If this is not possible then I suggest that you give your doctor a call, maybe it is an issue with your medication or he/she might be able to get you some help with the anxiety, if it is so bad that you cannot even leave the house, then it sounds like there is more going on that an MS scare. And for what it is worth, and MS diagnosis is not a death-sentence. Many of us live near normal lives, with educations, jobs, spouses, children...the whole thing. 15% of those diagnosed will end up bedridden or in a wheelchair, approx. 5% percent live normal lives, unaffected by the disease, and the majority of us are somewhere in between these two extremes.
How do cancer patients know the end is near?
Some don’t.My sister was diagnosed stage 4 squamous cell lung cancer earlier in June of 2016. We were told she waited too long to come in. They started her on some pain medication at the hospital and sent her to the cancer treatment center located in the same hospital to begin radiation and chemo. After her radiation treatments were over, her doctor at the cancer center told her she was responding very well. He also took her pain medication away. He told her she would be getting better and that the medicine she was taking for pain was very addictive and he didn’t want her to get addicted. So he took her off of them cold turkey. She went through withdrawals from that as well as being in pain from the cancer. She did get her medicine back around December 2016. She believed what he told her. She thought since he was the doctor, he would know better than she did.About a month ago, she couldn’t breathe, so she was rushed to the hospital. She had pneumonia and the flu. They sent her home with antibiotics after seven days. My other sister has a friend who works in home health. That friend was going to come and check my sister’s situation out and determine if a nurse or hospice would be needed. Her cancer doctor faxed the nurse papers that stated my sister was in REMISSION. But a few days after we brought her home, she couldn’t breathe again. We took her to a different hospital in the largest city close to us. (The doctors in larger towns seem to be better at their profession, at least they do around here). The doctor there said that her previous doctor must not have known how to read x-rays, because her cancer was getting worse and spreading into the other lung. She was told she was dying and had only a few days, if that. One of the last things she was able to say was “I’m dying” and “I’m not ready to go”. After she said her last words, she couldn’t speak anymore. She stayed that way for three days until she passed.So, back to your question. With her doctor insisting she was getting better, she only knew she wasn’t getting better the last few days of her life.
How to deal with being really sick and not having family support?
Well, you're in a tough situation, no doubt. It is hard to be sick, especially at your age when you should be getting your future sorted out. But you need to understand that it is also hard dealing with a sick person. I'm not criticizing you. I'm saying that you should try to see this from your family's point of view... First of all, if they are not sick, then they are not going to understand your limitations. So be patient with them. It wasn't until I got very sick once that I understood how hard it is to be sick and how little sick people can do. Also, if you have ALWAYS been sick, then your family has always had to deal with your being sick. You need to acknowledge that it can be incredibly stressful, expensive, time-consuming, and depressing to have a sick family member. You can't expect your family to put their needs on hold forever to deal with your sickness. And they probably feel like you're ALWAYS sick, so if you feel even sicker than usual, they probably won't understand how that is different. You need to be patient and understanding of the effect your illness has had on them. Now, I'm not saying that they couldn't improve in their level of support towards you. From what you have said, they probably could be more supportive! What I am saying is that I have known people in your situation. If you focus on trying to convince your family and friends that you have a problem, you won't be focusing on feeling better. You will feel worse. You need to stop feeling like a victim and start being tougher. What I mean is, if they expect you to do things that you can't do (babysit, clean), refuse.... And be prepared to ignore their complaining. Don't do it and then feel resentful and complain because you will feel worse and you will continue to be trapped in a cycle of convincing yourself of how sick you are rather than getting better. Finally, I may be wrong, but it sounds like the sickness is the main thing in your life. Of course people are not going to want to talk about it all the time. Try to find something else to do and talk about. Maybe films or books? GOod luck.