Good News And Bad News

Today's been a three ring circus.

The latest x-rays show no bowel obstruction, her white cell count is back to normal, and now they suspect it may have been some other type of flu since the assisted care facility is now rife with gastro-intestinal issues. That's the good news.

The bad news is that she is refusing to eat. When we were there on Thursday night, my brother tried to feed her some water, broth, and jello with a spoon. As I watched and listened to him, it put me back to how he was with his daughters when they were babies.

The assisted care place did an evaluation and said they aren't equipped to handle her level of required care. She can't go back there, at least not now.

So she needed to get out of the hospital and into some place where they can see if they can get her to eat. Her Medicare provider, CDPHP, denied coverage on the first call. They said there wasn't any sense in covering rehab since her dementia was so advanced. Her doc called the insurance company's medical director and convinced them to cover her for this weekend during an eval period. On Monday, we'll know if she's getting better and will be able to feed herself, if she is willing to eat but needs help, or that she isn't going to eat at all.

Years ago my neighbor told me that her mother died from dementia two weeks after she stopped eating. Mom's doc confirmed that's common.

If she refuses to eat, it's the end. We aren't going to have anything done to keep her alive, per her wishes.

One thing I'm super stressed out about is that we'll have to go "private pay" to get her into a nursing home. They want first month plus another month security up front. That's $17,490! They charge $291 a day. Even though we have the long term healthcare insurance, which will reimburse us $249 a day, we still need that chunk of change up front just to get the ball rolling!

We're going up to see her tomorrow.