Life goes on in hospice care

Mom is at a new lunch table with Marta, a woman who rarely speaks but is apparently glad to have Mom with her for meals. The aides let Mom sleep in these days (thank goodness - who needs a schedule when you're 91?) and Marta misses her for breakfast.

When I got there, she was finishing her orange sherbet. Her appetite has returned a bit, she has gained a pound, and seems more awake and able to interact. We chatted a bit.

Then we went to the activity room - or at least I did. Mom got very disoriented, and couldn't seem to figure out how to use her walker, which hand to put on which handle, or how to navigate out of the room. I don't know if it is the changed location of her lunch table, but she was all over the place and needed strong guidance to get out of the room, and even more to get her in the chair in the community room. It's like her brain got scrambled just by getting up from the lunch table.

I don't know what to expect now that she is in hospice care. I usually associate that with an approaching end to life, but she seems better in some ways (cognition, appetite, doesn't seem as tired) and worse in others (not using the walker or getting confused about it, hands are icy cold). Someone from hospice comes in to read to her twice a week which she really enjoys. For some reason, life goes on.