Hello,
I hope you can help me. My mother, who has up until a month ago been living an independent life has been diagnosed with nasopharyngeal tumor and progressive bulbar palsy. She has been in a hospital for the last month and underwent tracheotomy to enable breathing and is currently being fed through a tube. She has lost almost all hearing due to her condition and we communicate with her by reading her lips and by writing either on paper or on the phone.
She is mentally alert and deeply affected by her illness. Recent symptoms that started to make lip reading difficult and may be connected to her condition but then again may be a result of a mini stroke is paralysis of facial muscles.
She is severely depressed, and because of her inability to speak (she did try to cover the tube and speak but it makes her cough violently and her speach is gurgle and hard to understand) and hear she is withdrawing.
My sister and I visit her every day but we are struggling with engaging her in any sort of communication. Looking at pictures of her great grandchildren is a very momentary and short lived, almost mechanical distraction. She doesn’t want to talk about the past, look at pictures from the past or reminiscence. She gets impatient if we ask about her pain and her condition. Is there anything we can do to maintain communication with her and lift her spirits even a tiny bit? I end up sitting there holding her hand and she finds even that at times irritating. I am planning to talk to the doctor about antidepressants but I am wondering if there is a way I can communicate with her without causing her to be irotated, frustrated or sad.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks,
Judith