My elderly father has congestive heart failure and a wide range of competing health issues. He has fallen several times and the last time he was hospitalized for a week with dangerously low blood pressure and blood sugar and almost died. He is not able to walk now. He was just transferred into a post-hospital rehab facility. My mom is starting to suffer from cognitive decline and memory loss and is not medically sophisticated to manage his care. Since he got to the rehab facility he has started to rapidly decline. He stopped eating, he isn't walking and his weak. He needs much more supervision than he is receiving there. Is it possible to hire someone who can oversee his care and coordinate with his case manager, because my mom does not know how to advocate for him. I do not live in their city and am trying to help remotely until I can get there.
Do your parents have POA papers ?
Have you tried to call the case manager ?
And Mom may not be safe to drive or live at home alone either . She may need supervision in assisted living .
I’m sorry about the situation .
Hospice will not let him suffer and will keep him pain free and comfortable until he dies. And all their care is covered 100% under your fathers Medicare.
You can call the hospice agency yourself, or have your fathers doctor call for you.
Best wishes.
Your mother should no longer be in charge of this, and your father should now be placed in care. Your mother and he could likely, if he can recover enough, enter into ALF together. They would manage his medications.
I do not know how familiar you are with CHF, but the words Congestive HEART FAILURE say it all. His heart is now a failing pump. There is nothing to be done to cure this and he will require diuretics to manage the fluid build up in his lungs and his lower extremities. These diuretics will work for some time, but dependent on the severity of his failure he could go into what is called Flash Pulmonary Edema and could be unable to breath very quickly.
Our bodies age and wear out. We are fine machines, but complicated machines and as I always teased when a nurse, spare parts get harder to get. I think that the plan going forward is crucial now and you have access to discharge planning through the rehab. They will be able to tell you how self-caring Dad can be or cannot be. They can recommend and in fact can help with placement and that's much easier from hospital or rehab than from home.
I wish you good luck and hope you will write us with further questions as they come up.
As you will know, these diuretics cause incontinence and great urgency. They also wash out important electrolytes and the blood must be measured for sodium and potassium with some frequency.
I do not know your parents wishes and you do not tell us but it is time now to discuss the possibility of palliative or hospice care if dad wishes it. It is also time to make certain all paper work is in order.
So sorry about your dad, it's a very difficult time I'm sure.