Hi! Thank you for your thoughtful input. Yes, my mom has had several rounds of dialysis...and now they are saying she no longer requires it. Which is encouraging to all of us. The hospital keeps saying they are going to release her to a nursing home for 2-3 weeks of rehab, but it never happens. My mom and some of my siblings are in denial about what's next -- some of them (and my mom) talk as though she'll be able to go back to living in her little apartment by herself. But my mom can't even go potty by herself, and she was incontinent even before her diagnosis...and was in excruciating pain, unable to bend over to unload her dishwasher or take out her trash, etc. I read all these hopeful postings by people who seem to be able to live "normal" lives with MM...and I really do want that for my mom. But she wasn't living a "normal" life even before the diagnosis because she was so overweight and was already in decline. My mom is 76 years old. I don't think that is very old, but she has so many other things that are unhealthy: she is morbidly overweight, for one thing, and diabetic. Being overweight is really going to be a problem for her now with her compromised bones. Her inactivity contributed to congestive heart failure, also. So we are just taking this one day at a time. But the more postings I am reading, the more encouraged I become - that MM is not necessarily a "next week" death sentence for my mom. What I am hoping for for my mom is a wonderful nursing home for rehab to help her get some strength and courage back, good doctors to monitor her meds and her condition, and then for her to become a resident in the nursing home (instead of going back to her apartment)...some place where they will treat her with the dignity she deserves, where we can all visit her often, where she will have lots of different kinds of stimulation, and where she can be comfortable and taken care of for at least five more years...or longer, if the quality of life is there for her. This is a new hope for me. Thanks again for your feedback. Every little piece of the puzzle helps me see the bigger picture. Blessings, -B