On Hospice Care for Throat Cancer- What to Expect?

Donna,
Say what??? I am horrified about feces IN HER MOUTH. It's unthinkable that it happens, but they don't even catch it and clean her up??? I don't know how you can bear seeing that, let alone having to clean it up! I would make them clean it up immediately while you're there. She needs to be as close to the nurses' station as possible. Why is she "digging it out", is she constipated/impacted? There's no excuse for that. That's a hospice nurse's problem, too.
Do they have any rooms with 2 patients in them? Pairing your mother with someone who could call for someone when your mother starts that might help. When your mother isn't constipated does she go looking for stool in there? If she's impacted on a regular basis, they should be disimpacting her before she feels she has to. It's not an acceptable way to keep your mother's bowels moving. They deal with constipation all the time in those places. Again, the hospice nurse has a problem here and I'd be calling his agency to get him involved if need be. It becomes their problem, too.
Carol

Why no stomach tube? Then you can give her any food she needs?

Her directive was no feeding tube

Just want to thank those who replied to my post. My mother passed late Sunday night. They finally started giving her morphine in the last week which helped calm her breathing. By the end it looked liked the tumor had pretty much closed off her throat. She wasn't able to talk or swallow. I believe with the morphine she was able to go peacefully. I'm thankful she no longer is suffering. Because of my experience with The hospice group & the AL center I feel the need to do something about the way our "care" system operates. I'm not sure where to begin but I am going to look into the fact that NC doesn't seem to have a set required patient to CNA ration in AL units. Also a friend told me that when you are on Hospice they pay for all the patients needs, Rx diapers,wipes, approved trips to ER, etc. if this is true no one told me this before hand and I paid for all my mothers Rx and some of the ER bills.
I will continue to pray for all of those who continue this awful journey & hope for cures in all areas. God Bless
Donna

Donna,
I'm glad your mother's death was peaceful, I know that was a big concern of yours. If your mother was designated as a hospice patient by Medicare, the AL received an amount of money per day from the time she started on the program. They then pay all of her expenses related to her terminal diagnosis. If you paid for any medications, medical supplies, ER trips, after she was enrolled in Medicare hospice, tell the AL to reimburse you and account for any money they're not refunding. "Offer" to contact Medicare to straighten things out. I was a home hospice nurse for m,any years and saw some patients who were in AL and nursing homes.
Carol