Tube Feeding - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

Grami · 04-23-2002, 05:12 AM

My Dad has AD and is 81 Years old, he also has lung cancer. The AD is progressing very rapidly the last few months and he is on Hospice Care. The tell us they feel he does not have long to live. My question is how do you all feel about Tube Feeding when the time comes they can no longer eat? My Dad wanted no life support. There are 6 of us children and my Mother still alive, some say let him go peacefully~~Which I'am one of, there are some that say no way it is cruel to let someone starve to death. How and when do you know you are doing the right thing? And do we really have a choice to make? After all Dad wannted no life support.. Does any one have in input or iformation on this that might help make it easier when the time comes to have to say yes or no? I know that I would not want to prolong life and there is no life.. Thanks so much!!

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Grami

bird123 · 04-23-2002, 09:28 PM

The advice would be - do what you think your father would like to be done. In nursing home settings long-term tube feeding is usually done through PEG tube - a flexible tube inserted to the stomach through a hole made in the abdominal wall. Tube feeding via NG tube (inserted through the nose) can be done for short period of time because it is quite uncomfortable for the patient to keep the tube in the nose for long period of time. The downside of tube feeding in the bedridden patients is aspiration pneumonia. Because of the loosen sphincters and poor peristaltics, the liquid food frequently backs up (especially if patients lie down flat in bed) and get aspirated into the lungs. In many cases, treatment of aspiration pneumonia, in addition to antibiotics, includes intubation and ventilatory support. Would you take your father through this? If he doesn't have too much time to live anyway, what for do you want to prolong his sufferring? He wouldn't have any quality of life. Sometimes we just have to accept that some day all people die.

brooke@home · 04-29-2002, 03:11 PM

I can imagine how difficult this decision is for you to make. I had a similar situation with my aunt, who was 83 and lived with me until her death last fall. She also had Alzheimers and terminal cancer. She was under Hospice care as well. I know that for me, the most important thing was to give her some dignity and make her as comfortable as possible for the time she had left. When she no longer wanted to eat, we didn't force her and when she slipped into a coma, we didn't intubate her. She died very peacefully as I know was her wish. You are lucky that your father made his wishes so clear to you. I think sometimes we want to hang onto someone we love when in fact, it is more for us than for them. It sounds to me as if you are trying to do what your father wanted. Good luck!!

MOMFL · 06-06-2002, 12:29 PM

To bird123,

Thank you for submitting that post.

My father died 6 months ago from Alzheimer's Disease, he had it for approx. 14 years, he was 72 when he died.

He got pneumonia quite unexpectedly, and died a few days later. He had been on a thickened liquid diet for awhile, but not tubed fed. (Since he was still able to walk with help, and not wheel chair bound yet, I didn't expect him to die yet, since he got this disease so early, his body was still in good shape.)

Your post helped to answer a question I had.

SnowyLynne · 07-15-2002, 11:07 AM

Since I have AD,Worked 30 years as a CNA,I have seen alot.I would not want to be tube fed.

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