We Appreciate Your Continued Love and Support...

 For those that have been following our dementia journey closely, I wanted to report a significant change in Pam's status.  There has been a marked decline in her condition in the last 48 hours.  While she is still eating, she is eating much less and drinking much less.  She is declining to eat foods that were always her favorites.  And she spends the bulk of each day sleeping.  When trying to converse with her, her replies have little to do with the subject that you are asking about.  I suspect that the hallucinations have returned.

So as of today, April 24, she has been placed on "final days" protocol by the hospice team.   While her final passage may still be weeks away or longer, this protocol results in a significant increase in care visits from both skilled nursing, social workers, and chaplains (if desired).  They have significantly reduced her medications to only those dealing with comfort.  This change is difficult to process, emotionally.  As much as we have all known that this disease has no cure, and that we try to prepare ourselves for this reality.  We have learned that you can never really be prepared.

The family has received many offers of assistance and we appreciated it very much.   Please bear with us as we focus on helping the grandsons navigate what is happening to Gmom.