Spoke with a hospice nurse who told me her theory: Getting the cocktail of prescription drugs out of some people’s systems actually brings back their normal immune system and can prolong life.
My ex was a hospice RN. This is true.
The best thing Hospice did for my mother was to remove the feeding tube that a Catholic hospital refused to do.
Hospice allowed my mother to pass peacefully away.
Hospice doctors prescribe just as many meds as any other doctors. The difference is in extra care hospice provides AT HOME, which is a bonus in most family situations. They even come to home to bathe and clean a bed ridden patient, which is a difficult task for any elderly spouse.
My FIL was living with us on hospice for nearly a year (dementia). For sure he did much better without all the drugs they had him on prior.
He hit a lady in memory care and was sent to a dementia psych hospital and came home on a cocktail of meds - Ativan, lexapro, risperdone, donzapel, lithium, neurontin, melamine… he was so drugged up he was unsteady and fell requiring surgery and rehab. That’s when we took him home. Prior to this incident he was walking at a good clip for at least a mile per day.
We slowly weaned him off the meds with the help of the neurologist, and he rallied quite a bit. He still went downhill due to dementia but regained some clarity and mobility for several months. He did not have any other medical issues and that helped. He was very fit and active.
The only med he went back on was risperdone to counter the aggression during his sundowning hours.
My mother, then in her 80’s, wasn’t responding to medications. I was concerned that she was being over-medicated. I had her change doctors and the new one took her off of nearly all the meds except for a couple. She perked up within a month. And lived to be 100 yr old.
I had to sign the papers to put my young sister in hospice. She had suffered three strokes…two the week before the major one. She was intubated and given sedatives to control her trying to pull the tube out of her mouth. To this day, I feel incredibly bad to have put her in hospice. But the neurologist told me it was the best thing to do for her. But I’m wondering if she still could’ve made it through. Anyways, all these what IFs go through your head constantly. I miss her so much! 🥲 there are days I feel very very regretful. Her hospice stay was short.