Reply #1: Towards the end, my father couldn't eat.....

[greatauntoftriplets]

My father had end-stage renal disease. The night his kidneys shut down (13 years ago this July) he also had a heart attack, though the doctors were so busy treating his stopped kidneys that they didn't realize it for a couple of days.

He lived nearly two weeks after that... spent the first days in ICU where he was given the equivalent of 24 Lasix pills via injection several times a day. Nothing worked. Eventually, they moved him to a regular room. Every day, he was slipping away a bit more. At first he could eat a little bit, then started choking on it. So the nurses made certain all his food was pureed. For some reason, he would only take food from me, so I made certain to be at the hospital when dinner was served. Then, he started aspirating the pureed food into his lungs...so they stopped serving him and stuck with the IVs.

One day we moved him to a nursing home. My mother was so distraught that my sister had to take her home while I stayed to deal with the paperwork.

I signed his DNR order at the nursing home, which was in accordance with his living will. It was a very difficult thing to do.He died that night. But it was what he wanted, and I don't regret doing it.