If you have not read the blog since before Wednesday and do not know that my mother-in-law is seriously ill then do some catch-up and read Wednesday's blog (Oma not well) before proceeding with this one.
I spoke to Ingrid today by phone and she said that Mom's health had deteriorated discernably from the day before when she had made it clear that she was pleased to see Ingrid and Reinier - not that she explicitly recognised them but somehow she knew these were somehow "close" to her. Today she ate nothing and the only moisture went and stayed in her very dry mouth - she swallowed next to nothing, if anything, and often pushed Reinier's hand away when he tried to get her to take more. Mom is sleeping a lot. If she is woken by the nursing staff when they turn her over it is evident that she is in a lot of pain though nobody knows where in her body the pain is - one can only surmise she must have a terrible headache, at a minimum, both from the fever and the dehydration. Today the doctor started putting her on a low dose of morphine. It is very likely that her kidneys are starting to close down. There seems to be little sense in sticking needles into her to do blood tests that will do little more than satisfy curiosity. At this point I am praying for a "happy" death, as Catholics put it.
Opa is resigned to the fact that his wife has given up the fight and does not want to see the pain prolonged artificially. Anyway, Mom would rip out any drips that anybody tried to insert into her. Ingrid and her brothers feel the same as Opa. (For South Africans who are wondering about the spelling of Oma and Opa, I am not making a mistake. This is the Dutch spelling for the Afrikaans Ouma en Oupa - Grandma and Grampa.)
Ingrid's brother, Jeroen, also has a blog. To read his account, follow the link to Update Oma.
