After a hospitalization a doctor told me I was not permitted to take my Step-Mom home. She had grown too infirm and too weak to not have 24 hour care. Plus her dementia left her vulnerable to too many accidents.

A major contributor to her decline was pain which forced her...

Pain forced her inactivity, and all she had to treat it was Celebrex, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen.

As the months passed in the ‘Rehab’ center she grew stronger and much more active. She was an exception to many of the other patients. Perhaps her dementia is what made her

Perhaps her dementia is what made her believe she was a nurse. She made her rounds of the entire nursing home daily looking for other residents to help. She would push their wheelchairs, listen to their stories, or do other errands.

About 15 months into her stay she fell on a

About 15 months into her stay she fell on a concrete floor and developed a massive brain bleed. She did not get to see her 92nd Birthday, and I still torture myself for not preventing that fall.

I often wondered why she became so much stronger there. She literally could out walk

Step Mom literally could out walk me. When I cleared her things from the Rehab I found the notes and bills which listed her medications, and it explained her improved health and strength. Her Dr there had prescribed hydrocodone 4 times a day. The pain which forced her inactivity

The pain which forced her inactivity at home was controlled, and she was free to be active which improved every aspect of her health except her memory loss.

If only I had been more adamant about being proactive about her palliative care maybe she could still be here. I ..

I confess to my ignorance and realize I was part of the problem for not getting her pain adequately treated. I have since learned from experience what untreated, severe pain does. I was ignorant and negligent, but what was the excuse of her medical practitioners for allowing...

What was the excuse of her medical practitioners for allowing her health to deteriorate that way because of untreated pain? She lived an extra 15 months in much better health when pain was controlled. There is no law which dictates that we must die before we reach 100. Why do we?