Is this the end?

This morning Mom was sleeping, but with her mouth open. You could tell she was dehydrated (from the medicine last night).

I gave her some water on my fingers, not wanting to give her too much to start her choking. I called hospice, and ask for the nurse to come out.

She said Mom's lungs are clear. At least the top of her lungs. There have been problems with the lower part of her lungs ever since she went on hospice. Her oxygen is around 93%. So neither of these are bad, but the nurse said she thought we were starting into the "active stage of dying".

Then later the home health aide came. She is not prepared for my Mother to die. She has gotten quite attached to her.

She woke up my Mom, asked her if she wanted something to eat (just so she could prove the nurse wrong, I think, lol). I fed her ice cream, but then when Mom took a sip of water, she started coughing. I told the aide "see, this is exactly what happened last night".

Then, you could almost see a light bulb go off in her head. She said maybe she is having a trouble swallowing thin liquids, that if a liquid is less than honey thickness it will go down into her lungs and not the stomach.

This made a lot of sense, because last night, the more Mom coughed, the more water I gave her, and then she coughed more.... Just a vicious circle.

So, we shall see tomorrow. Mom did eat a little today. Not much, but a little bit of sausage, bacon and pineapple. And, the ice cream.

Oh, and yesterday she ate corn on the cob, KFC chicken, and vanilla ice cream with M & M's and cashews.

Not exactly the diet of a dying woman.