How is this even possible?!

[ecoteat]

My grandma is 82 and has not been particularly vivacious in years. We've had a few scares in the last couple years that had the family scrambling to start mentally preparing ourselves for travel, funeral, grieving, etc--and then watch her pull through! Earlier this summer she decided she wanted a Do Not Resuscitate order and made it very clear that when it was time for her to die, to let her do it naturally at home.

Last Sunday night she had some major health event (heart attack? stroke? We don't know for sure since she was not taken to a hospital). Monday she was not expected to live through the night. I am many miles away, so I slept with the phone, laptop, and credit card on my nightstand fully prepared to get The Call in the middle of the night and book my flight immediately. Tuesday morning, she's stable. Wednesday--stable. Thursday--stable. Friday--stable and she opened her eyes long enough to ask for coffee! Saturday--stable. She's been mostly unresponsive the whole time and hasn't had anything to eat or drink other than a few sips of coffee yesterday, since last Sunday. She's been on pretty heavy pain meds the whole week.

How is she still alive?! I've always thought she was pretty amazing, but this is crazy! I've always heard that humans could survive on average 3-5 days without water. She wasn't that strong to begin with--how is she on day 6?

What an emotional roller coaster this week has been!

[amcal]

Oh gosh, we just went through this with FIL.

The family decided to withdraw care and it was pretty brutal.

Do you know if the family has withdrawn all care? Including IV fluids?

If she has an IV then, she's probably getting fluids and could live indefinitely.

A Do Not Resuscitate doesn't mean that they've withdrawn care, it just means that they won't attempt to bring her back should she have some sort of heart attack etc.... But, if they haven't withdrawn all care then she's most likely getting fluids and nutrition and will most likely live until she has some sort of life ending event.

Hugs Mama I know how brutal this is

[CarrieMF]

Her body systems have probably slowed down alot so while a healthy adult can only go for 3-5 days her body isn't requiring as much & can go longer.

[The4OfUs]

My great aunt lingered on, totally ready to go but her body hung on, for about a week and a half (or was it 2 weeks? It was astounding), with just about one teensy sip of water a day, only when she asked for it.

to you and yours.

[babygrant]

I work in a nursing home and when we have a palliative resident we swab their mouths. A lot of the time as soon as you get the swab in the mouth, the instinct is to suck on the swab. So we dip water in the swab and they suck the water out of it. If they are swabbing your grandma she would be getting fluids that way.

[ecoteat]

She does not have an IV--she didn't want that. I think there is occasionally mouth-swabbing happening. I was thinking that since her body isn't expending any energy she wouldn't need as much coming in, but this is really throwing the whole family for a loop! I know this is what she wanted, but I doubt she realized it could be a week (or more!) of being unresponsive and uncomfortable.

Thanks for the kind words.