It's a Miracle? Part 2

I talked to my dad yesterday. My mom is off of hospice.

Less than a year ago, my father decided to put my mom on DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and sign her up for hospice. I flew out to Ohio to visit her shortly thereafter, thinking it might be the last time I see my mother alive. She was refusing to eat, a major signal for imminent death. I was about two and a half months out from my knee surgery and hobbled through the airport to get to Ohio to see her.

Now she is off of hospice. She is feeding herself at every meal, using a spoon and holding a bowl. She is still eating soft foods, so she doesn't choke, but this is a major improvement over being spoonfed for the past year. She is gaining a little bit of weight instead of losing it. She is up to 100 pounds from ninety-eight. She is still thin, but that was what she weighed in her thirties. I am not sure how much her communication has improved. I'll have to check with my dad on that.

I remember talking with my physical therapist, Evan, when my mom went on hospice. His mother is a hospice physician.

"Sometimes people get better on hospice," he said. "You'd be surprised."

My mother's father was put on hospice for prostate cancer when he was in his nineties. He got better and was taken off hospice. He died about a year later.

My dad and I talked about the possibility of her having a stroke a year ago.

"I think it is possible, but I don't remember any sudden or dramatic changes," he said. "It might have been a series of smaller strokes that accumulated and slowed her down."

I wonder what would have happened if my mother didn't have Alzheimer's. Part of the issue of diagnosing a stroke is that her cognitive abilities weren't up to asking her questions about the state of her health. Would she have been able to explain what happened if she didn't have Alzheimer's? Could she have been able to sit through an MRI to figure out what happened?

It is interesting that she somehow managed to get better on her own. The "miracle" continues.