You know, I thought convenience was the reason one of the "care facilities" that my mom stayed at talked me into having a feeding tube installed. She was there for physical therapy after hip replacement surgery. They told me, in smooth, quiet tones, that mom couldn't swallow food anymore. What??? She's sitting there swallowing saliva right in front of us!
While my mom had advanced Alzheimer's and dementia, she was cooperative with the staff. At first, they had her doing cognitive therapy, like putting pegs into a peg board, but said she couldn't handle walking through parallel bars. Meanwhile her weight was dropping. I saw her every day, and I started bringing baby food with me to feed her. No one would watch her swallow! Every day, I would ask the physical therapy department when they were going to work with my mom. One therapist, she didn't work there on a regular basis, committed the sin of sitting my mom down with a tray of soft food. She was so hungry, she polished the tray with her roll.
The regular therapists were outraged. They behaved so unprofessionally, that I got my mom out of there ASAP. The final place she was at was wonderful. It was a small board and care for Alzheimers patients, and it was in a single family home enviroment. As a matter of fact, we started worrying that she was eating too much. We celebrated her birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, and she got to see her first greatgrandaughter. She may not have known who we were, but she was darn glad to see us.
No, I don't think in my mom's case that it was a matter of convenience. Her nourishment came in a prepackaged bag that hung on an IV stand. No, what they did was hook her up and leave her sit. I didn't see any extrordinary effort on their part regarding the tube. No, they simply tagged her as a USELESS EATER, but they didn't count on me yelling BS. Lol, the therapists started hiding from me :-D
Yep, I got a dog in this fight...
Good for you. Your mom was blessed to have a child like you.