Playing the waiting game with Death

My mother’s health took a big turn for the worse this week.

The hospice nurse expects her to pass in days, maybe a week, though her heart is very strong, so she could last longer.

Mother’s Day

For her sake, and mine, I hope that the suffering is not prolonged.

She is now totally bedridden, somewhat delirious and a new pain complaint has popped up the last two days. She now complains of severe head and neck pain. The nurse cannot figure out what may be causing it. It is unlikely that the colon cancer, if it has returned, spread to her brain, though it is a possibility.

But the morphine is not really touching the head pain, even when dosed hourly. She is so “zonked out” by the pain meds yet still is pointing to her head and grimacing. That is tough to watch.

Mom’s face has been taken over by that ghoulish death mask. Her eyes are starting to look beyond.

But her heart continues to beat hard and strong in her emaciated chest.

In one of her lucid moments, my mother asked what had happened to her. And to that, I had no good answer.