Mom would say no. She has never really understood the mechanism of medications but reached a point about a year ago when she was still pretty lucid stopped taking her statin and antidepressant. Doc asked to put her on blood thinner and blood pressure meds. I know what mom would say. She would say no. Mom is not in a cognitive state to answer for herself right now. So, how do we, as her children, answer this question? Do we do what mom would want, or do we do what feels like the best thing for her physical body, try to prevent a stroke? Is there a point to trying to prevent a stroke? 81, moderate dementia. Wants to die naturally. What a dilemma!
I will probably even include antibiotics for pneumonia.
I do not want to have to live the horrors I see in my mother’s dementia. We are in year four, and she will probably outlive me.
Now I understand that as an RN I saw the catastrophic side effects of blood thinners that caused admission to hospital and MANY DEATHS, but let me just tell you. Blood thinners CAN AND DO KILL. Regularly and with great frequency. In elders usually a hemorrhagic stroke or abdominal bleed.
So there goes that magic "best for her physical body" the doc is pushing. And he is likely pushing one of the new blood thinners (better and less problematic than the old) that are so costly. And perhaps even getting 6% of average prescription cost from the drug company.
I am 81. Your mom's age. I have had atrial fib chronically for more than a decade. I take a baby aspirin daily because I am DEATHLY afraid of the side effects of blood thinners. So there you are.
THIS ABOVE is your excuse to do it the way your mother wanted it done.
She is 81. I am too. We are past our "sell by" dates. We have outlived the statistic. Yes, we may have a stroke. It will be a clot, vascular or hemorrhagic. We may have ANYTHING. I am on my second cancer. Something is going to "come for us". Something is going to come for us all.
THEREFORE, imho as an RN just your Mom's age? You do it the way you know she would have wanted it done. That either will work to her advantage or to her disadvantage and no doctor on earth can tell you which. Nor can anyone else.
The only certainty now for your mom and for me is uncertainty. We have lived long enough now to know that we cannot know.
You clearly love her. You clearly are doing your best to try to think this out. But there is no way to grant you or anyone else foresight that is literal, that can predict the future with certainty.
The decisions are yours. I will stand with WHATEVER you decide for your mom. You love her. You never wanted to be the "decider" but now you are. So decide the best you can with what you know.