I guess Mom dodged the LBD bullet (sort of)

[Guest guest]

First, thanks to all of you who responded to my recent " emergency " requests for

information.  I really appreciated the quick responses, and the information. 

I'd mentioned in those messages that my mom had never been officially diagnosed

with LBD -- the neurologist said her dementia was " more like " Alzheimer's, but I

suspected LBD (but we were fairly early in the progression).

More to the subject of my message, though, my mom had an ischemic stroke (blood

clot to the brain) on January 23 (left brain, affecting language, and the

doctors said recovering from that would be difficult because of her dementia),

went into rehab just over a week later, went back into the hospital with a brain

bleed, went back to rehab overnight, and then was hospitalized again on February

12 when they couldn't wake her the next morning.  It turned out she had sepsis

from a UTI, and possibly aspiration pneumonia (which didn't show on x-rays

because she was dehydrated); I think she was in, or near, a coma when she was

admitted (she never opened her eyes again).   (I was with her almost around the

clock during her hospitalizations -- every night, with my siblings relieving me

for 3 or 4 hours every other day so I could go home, shower, and feed my cats.)

  We were warned in the ER that morning that we might be looking at multiple

organ failure as they tried to treat the infection, and in fact, she passed away

on Thursday, February 17 (at age 86).  The wonderful palliative care team at

the hospital had met with us on Wednesday, told us that Mom wasn't responding to

the antibiotics and that she was showing signs of organ failure.  They thought

she might possibly last another week (we were going to transfer her to hospice)

, but she passed away just a day later.  They gave her morphine to help her

breathing , and put a fan in the room and took off the oxygen (said studies show

that a fan moving the air helps more at that point than the oxygen).  We put

some classical music on my smartphone and put that on her pillow, and she took

her last breath about 20 minutes later.

So while the LBD certainly played some role in her decline, it had not

progressed to the advanced stages.  And her rapid decline was certainly

different than the long slow road you are all living with with your LBD loved

ones.  With a lot of help from me, she had been able to continue to live

independently until the stroke, and her hallucinations had never developed into

anything that frightened her.  With the effects of the stroke, she would never

have been able to return to her home (she'd had pretty limited strength and

coordination before the stroke).  She was my best friend and dearest companion

(after my dad's death 25 years ago, we were the single women of the family), and

I'd give anything for just one more conversation with her.  But her battle is

won, and she is free of the body that had been failing her.

I had expected to be depending on you for the next several years as my mom's

dementia progressed.  Please know you will all remain in my heart and prayers

as you shepherd your loved ones through this awful disease to as peaceful an

ending as possible.  Best always,

Hosey