After losing the ability to swallow, how long can my mom last?
This is a tough situation. It sounds like your mother has gotten pretty sick, and her appetite is poor. Sometimes, when people get an infection (like a UTI), they can get weak and confused. Her poor swallowing and lack of appetite may be related to the infection, and this problem can sometimes improve once the infection is treated. However, sometimes the swallowing problem is related more to an advancing dementia (forgetting how to swallow) or a stroke (losing the ability to swallow well). If this has happened in your mother's case, it is not something you can fix or change. What I would recommend:
1) See if she improves after the infection gets treated. Most people who lose their ability to swallow (from strokes or dementia) will not improve once the infection has cleared. Keep in mind that some people with swallowing problems cannot handle liquids. They will cough or choke when being fed. This can be dangerous, as they will often swallow things into their lungs, which can lead to a pnuemonia. If this has not been an issue, then I would see how it goes. I would also concentrate more on liquids then solids at this point, as dehydration is the biggest risk. If she doesn't drink well, dehydration can also cause lack of appetite and inability to eat, as it can make people confused. I would feed her slowly and gently, encouraging her to sip liquids throughout the day.
2) If the UTI has been treated now for a couple days, and you see no improvement in swallowing, I would have her swallowing professionally evaluated (like a speech language pathologist). You can get her referred to one by her health care provider. Speech pathologists evaluate swallowing ability and make recommendations about special foods or liquids that can help the person eat better.
Lastly, to address your question about how "long she can last in this stage". If your mother really has lost the ability to swallow, some people can live a couple of weeks or months if just drinking fluids. If she still eats some solid food, she could last months. If she cannot eat any food at all, she may live only for a few days to about one week.
Good luck!
My husband, who is a Parkinson's Disease patient, had aspiration pneumonia. A feeding tube was inserted and in a few months, he was able to swallow again. Food was re-introduced and he was able to resume eating regular food, but not fluids.
Three more years passed and his condition deteriorated. The next step was a switch to mechanical food. This continued for about a year and then he was switched to pureed food, more because he would forget what he was doing and we feared he would choke on his food.
A year of so later, he required another feeding tube to eat. This continued for about a year. During this time, I was allowed to give him "pleasure feedings," if I felt he was alert enough to swallow. After awhile, he lost his appetite and refused to eat anything. We continued the tube feedings and this kept him going for many more months. However, he was losing weight.
As his condition deteriorated, we eventually had to stop feeding him because his lungs were filling up with fluids from his food and any liquids he received. The decision was then made to stop all food and water and he passed away about 9 days later. This entire saga lasted more than four years.
I was glad to have him for four more years. It was difficult, but we adjusted and so it was worth it all. I am sorry to report that I lost him today.
I'm so sorry for you and your mom, but.....Time to call in Hospice. My mom couldn't swallow and if she did it went into her lungs, causing paemonia (sorry can't spell) we called Hospice, they are WONDERFUL!. She died Monday, 2 weeks was how long she lasted. You need to make her comfortable and Hospice will see to that and all her comforts. Hurry!
Last summer my 89 yr old mother had emergency gall bladder surgery.GB had calcified to her stomach(dr had to cut open her stomach to remove)she could not eat for a week and was on just IV's. She also had complications caused by anesthesia and pain meds and got ICU psychosis.Meds they used to counteract that made her catatonic for several weeks.All that time she was not able to eat so they fed her nourishment through a pic line.When she finally started to get lucid again she couldn't swallow failed several swallow test and dr wanted to put tube in her stomach.She was 5' & 115 lbs prior to illness and lost 35 lbs in hospital and rehab.The director was advising us to call in hospice when Mom refused the stomach tube.Miricles happen even though Mom was talking gibberish and refusing to even try her physical therapy to relearn to swallow almost overnight she came back to us said Dad(who died in 1973)was not ready for her & started eating and was home in 10 days.She spent a total of 2 months in hosp/rehab and has been home 5 months now she is eating all the time gained 25 lbs.She recently celebrated her 90th birthday, and now fighting newly diab breast cancer with tamoxifen but doing very well. My point is they can turn around when all looks bleak whether her recovery was her unwavering faith or it took that long for all narcotics and anti-psychotic drugs to get out of her system I don't know or as one friend said her stubborn mid west unbringing cured her.We are glad to have her for as long as possible. I wish you well and hope for fast and peacful result.
My uncle lived one week to the day. He chose not to have any tubes for food and water.
there is a product that helps people to swallow again. Find it on
vitalstim.com
I use to work for this company and this is a real good product.
It sounds to me that your mom may be septic from her UTI if her ability to swallow has been compromised. Your mom needs to be hospitalizede for this, if this is the case. If her problem with swallowing is from another cause she can have a gastric tube placed for long term needs. For shorter term she can hav a nasogastric tube placed which bypasses the need for swallowing and would empty the food,liquid or pureed, into the stomach. TPN is also another alternative,but only provides nutrients and vitamins needed to sustain the body with not alot of caloric value and does not keep the stomach in the digestion mode. I hope this helps, I am terribly sorry for your situation.
There are many reasons for inability to swallow and the outcome is related to the cause. As you've noted, her infection can compromise her swallowing function, surgery and drugs can be associated with swallowing dysfunction. As long as she is given water and this can be done intravenously, you will have time to determine if her swallowing problem is transient. If she has a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's, she may not recover her ability to swallow and if there is a physical obstruction in her swallowing organs, she won't recover the ability to swallow without medical intervention. If one of these is the case, then you would need to consider a feeding tube but for this, there are considerations about quality of life. The duration of life in the absence of nutritional intake is variable and depends somewhat on the overall health of the affected person prior to the onset of swallowing dysfunction.
