Jenny79

Are there signs when someone is near death?I've been wondering this for the past year that me & my ex were together.He has liver pain somedays,can barely walk after being hit by car 4 years ago,been drinking & doing drugs since jr.high,gets this Charles Manson look on his face sometimes,goes psycho even when not drunk or high
can't remember alot of things,barely eats,looks alot different then when we met,the
list goes on & on.

Jenny

rawr_x

im not sure what to say, but i hope that there will be no deaths occuring.

-much love

prodigal

Well, since you asked ... and I've witnessed several family members die, I can tell you what I've seen. I also had a temp job with a hospice facility that was part of a large hospital center back in Maryland. I was familiar with the whole list of symptoms that occur when death is imminent.

Body functions begin to shut down. Extremeties begin to turn bluish as the blood supply becomes limited to maintaining vital organs. The patient becomes extremely fatigued and sleeps most of the time.

When my uncle died of liver cancer, my cousin's partner cared for him while my cousin was at work. His partner had a nursing degree, so he knew what to look for near the end. Basically, my uncle felt fine until the last few weeks of his life. Then he went to bed and slept a lot as his body functions began shutting down. He died peacefully while my cousin was at work.

Sorry I cannot give you more information, but what I'm telling you is based on my experience.

Zoey

I have heard speakers at AA tell how everything was wrong and they should have died, some were expected to die and they came thru this several times and doing well today.
Yes, some die guickly and don't seem so bad, and some go thru a lot where no one else would have made it.

Guess everything is one day at a time, and each person is different.
Just my thoughts and what I have heard.

kelsh

I was working in our local hospital and in one room were two alcoholics. One was expected to live and one was expected to die. They both had been drinking some kind of "moonshine" and their body systems had started shutting down....the one that was expected to die soon...lived. The one expected to live...died.

There was no difference in their reaction to this alcohol that poisoned them. It was how their bodies reacted to the shutting down of their vital organs...something that couldn't be seen.

I still continued on with my drinking on the destructive path to alcoholism.

kelsh

Lilyflower

The few months before my A mother in law died from liver and then kidney failure, she lost a lot of weight, her muscles and skin were hanging from her skeleton. When she went into hospital she blacked out and had convulsions and didn't know what was happening around her because of hepatic encephalopathy, and turned quite yellow after a few days due to her systems failing. She also slept alot towards the end, and her breathing was strained and shallow. It was terrible to witness.

Jenny79

Thanks for all the help.My ex has always been very thin and barely eats.He'll want to eat and even will say he wants something but won't eat unless food is placed in front of him.

6 months ago he was in the hospital for a rip in the lining of his stomach.Doctors said it was caused by the very drinking he been doing for past 20+ years.He was told to stop or he won't live another 5 five years at the most.2 months ago he went into the hospital for breathing problems and very low blood sugar.He's fine now but his mind is not all there and sometimes can't get the words out when talking.He can't remember things like working an oven,stove,phone numbers,how to make a sandwhich,when he talks to someone he sometimes forgets what they're talking about and what he's saying to them.He also only sometimes needed his wheelchair but now can't live home without it[not that he goes anywhere but to try to get beer
or knock on my door].

FormerDoormat

Sounds like he could be suffering from alcoholic "wet brain syndrome" or Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Of course, I'm not a doctor, so this is just a posibility I'm throwing out there.

I found doing some internet searches on the terms "end-stage alcoholism" and "late-stage alcoholism" yielded lots of useful information.

Jenny79

I just ran into his care provider again today[I really have to stop sitting outside in the afternoon],even she says he's different and she's only known a couple months.
She went on to say that he really wants to see me.

I don't know what to do.If I do see him,I just know he'll ask for beer but I could be wrong.

Jenny

FormerDoormat

Will seeing him in this weakened, confused state make you feel good or bad?