[Kelt]

We'll see how this works posting from my phone, please forgive any errors.

Today I pulled the plug on my father for the second time. As I mentioned in a previous post, a couple of months ago when all of this started I signed him off to hospice and had his IV removed, and then he went and woke up.

It's been two horrible months in a nursing home. He is basically starving himself, and now he is at a state where he just sort of fades in and out of consciousness. A little while back I put him in hospice care and three days ago I took him off of all medications other than pain and anxiety. (It's not like he needs his blood pressure meds now). About a week and a half ago, he was having a hard time breathing but his blood oxygen was still staying high enough. At the time I had to make the decision to give him a little extra oxygen just as a comfort measure, not to be sustaining, so that he wouldn't have to work so hard. Now that some time has gone by, and he hasn't had even fluids for four days I've decided to remove the oxygen just in case it is now acting as an artificial support.

I feel like I live in a barbaric country, there is no way anyone could ever consider this humane, he looks like something straight out of a concentration camp. This is tearing my mother to pieces, and it's not doing me any good either. If this is how nature takes it's course with a stroke victim, shouldn't we be humane enough with all of our medical advances to help them just a little at the end? Rhetorical question of course.

I would, (and could), treat a dog better.

(If anyone is wondering, all of the attorneys carefully crafted words can't help in this situation, the paperwork is in order to prevent this from happening, yet it is.)

I had planned to drive home last Saturday and I am getting to the point where I really will not be able to stay here much past tomorrow as I have kept pushing off my own obligations at home. Today was especially fun, I got to take my mother to the funeral home so that we could fill out all of the paperwork and pay for the things we are going to have done in advance since she can't deal with it by herself if for some reason I cannot be here long enough.

Mother is a whole other story entirely, and I won't go into it today. Suffice to say, my ideas of what kind of help she needs going forward are changing the more time I spend with her. I'm trying not to kill her about nine times a day, but it just isn't her fault. She really is that confused.

I'm afraid this is a jumbled mess, but trying to do this on the phone isn't working. I'll wait until I get home to post more. Thanks for listening.