From http://www.amitabhahospice.org/hospice/signs_of_dying.php :
Closer to death, the breathing involves the whole rib cage and is fast (up to 30-50 breaths per minute) mostly through the mouth and then may pause for even 10-15 seconds before the next in-breath. This period of no breathing is called “apnoea”. This pattern (called Cheyne-Stokes breathing) of shallow quick breaths followed by spaces of no breathing can continue for a few days, hours or minutes before the person actually stops breathing, but rarely does a person improve from this stage.
Mom’s not there yet. But she did sleep most of the day today; she was awake for about 1 hour out of 4.
I’m gonna stay at the hospital with her tonight. I don’t want to say “just in case”, but I’m thinking it.
My mind flips from rationality (”she’s been up out of bed today, that’s why she’s tired; she’s not even close to weak enough to leave now”) to anxiety (”should I call my brother and tell him to GET HERE NOW?”) a couple times an hour.
There is no certainty.
Yep, I’m staying tonight.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 6:37 pm and is filed under pers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “The signs of dying”
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