Posted by KB on August 21, 2001, at 8:16:51
In reply to What else?, posted by akc on August 20, 2001, at 21:01:10
I know what you're going through - my Mom was a heavy smoker, and had COPD, as well as heart damage from the chemo she had for breast cancer. I sat up all night with her the night she died. It is a terribly difficult thing to deal with. My only advice is to recognize when she is ready to let go and honor that (and kick doctors' asses until they do, too. It's really easy to want to hold on to someone we care about, but at a certain point on her last night, my mother, though she couldn't speak because she couldn't breathe well enough, made it clear that she was ready and when I told her I understood, she stopped struggling and the rest of the night was more peaceful.
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> akc
poster:KB
thread:9980
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010817/msgs/9996.html