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Best of luck.
Time for asking for a gerontologist, a geriatric specialist. A swallow eval is easily done by an OT person. They will then recommend diet.
If this isn't addressed safely your father will be swallowing food into his lungs and getting aspiration pneumonia.
I am sorry. This is one of the progressions in aging that can happen. You may likely have some decision making soon.
If any of his food or drink goes into his lungs he will develop aspiration pneumonia and it is in most cases fatal.
My late husband who had vascular dementia developed aspiration pneumonia in Nov. 2018 and he came so close to dying with his BP at like 48/26, and would have died if I hadn't asked the doctors to try and save him.
Well they saved him, but he developed sepsis and septic shock and came home completely bedridden, under hospice care, and was never the same, and he died in 2020.
And he had to have thickened drinks and pureed foods for quite a while until he eventually could eat some soft foods as well. His neurologist said that because of my husbands dementia that his brain was forgetting to tell his throat to close when he ate or drank, thus allowing both to go into his lungs.
I can only guess that this is what's going on with your father. I wouldn't continue to let him suffer. There is no happy ending with dementia.
Bring hospice on board sooner than later.
God bless you as you travel this difficult road with your father.
However, I think that it is likely that intervention may not be in your father's best interests. Would intervention increase your father's quality of life, or just the quantity of his life?
There's a lot to be said for comfort and dignity, which is what I want for my mum, as well as for myself in my old age.
We all need to make our wishes known and have an advocate when dealing with the machine of medicine.
Your father needs a swallow test. Food can be aspirated and cause pneumonia.
Your Dad is 93 with Dementia. His brain is dying. Not being able to swallow is the first sign his body is shutting down. The body loses weight because food is no longer being absorbed into the body correctly. I would not go the way of a feeding tube for a 93 year old. You may want to talk to the Doctor about Hospice.
Hopefully, ALL elders can be strongly encouraged to set forth in writing and verbally what their wishes are in respect to "heroic measures" at or near EOL. Some may want "everything done"; others will opt for minimal intervention and comfort care; still others' wants will be somewhere in the middle. Anyone who questions my wishes can read my posts on this website--they're here in writing as well as in my attorney-prepared healthcare directive and a personal letter.
I am not medically knowledgeable, but I do know my brother has , pre cancerous espogus, he is only 48, he has to have his espogus scraped every month or so, for probably a year. I now it's extremely uncomfortable, and painful. He is miserable that week. Can't eat at all. It's really hell for him. I'm not sure if the procedure is anything like what my brother goes through. But I will say if it's any where's near what my brother deals with I would never put a 93 year old though that.
I'm sorry, I know how hard this is, but it may be time to see about hospice.
it could be something else they’re missing - test for C
I imagine thick shakes would be hard to swallow
it sounds like something more
be tactful but don’t accept one persons opinion the medical world are full of missed signs that if caught early could have helped
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