My wife of 50 years ...

Dear husband of 50 years, I am so sorry you are going through this with her: she must be miserable, and so, thus, are you!!  She is going to be very weak from her sepsis and stay: everyone who is in the hospital loses ground because of de-conditioning due to being in bed most of the time, but also because of the illness and its treatment, which take a lot out of a person. She may be demanding to be taken home, but you know that is not possible right now.

I would ask the doctors and nurse/case manager/discharge planner to tell her that rehab/ nursing care is best so that she can grow strong again. Don't carry that burden all by yourself. 

Also, when a person has been in a hospital and also a skilled nursing/rehab bed, they are eligible for skilled home care: PT maybe OT, an RN. And sometimes, a home health aide. For only 2 or 3 weeks but its something.

Does she have an underlying illness? Dementia, or Parkinson's or something? Or is this just a bad patch?

There are lots of supports for taking care of her at home, although absolutely the bulk of the care falls on you. Do you have children? Does she have any able bodied siblings? If she needs ongoing care, its time to enlarge the caregiving circle beyond just you, dear husband.

The other member of this group pointed out the facebook caregiver page which has over 21,000 people on it.  Just join facebook if you aren't already on it, friend me if you like, and then add this group. Answer the questions as you join. https://www.facebook.com/groups/aarpfamilycaregivers

Take care, keep writing!

Jane Lincoln

II've been there and understand...when my wife was admitted to the hospital last year, she, too hallucinated...I'm not to make light of your situation but my wife demanded I take her with me when I left the hospital and I assured her I couldn't because she needed the medication, the IV's, etc.  She refused to accept my word for it.  I went into the hallway and asked the first person I saw, who was a visitor, to just stp into my wife's room and tell her she couldn't leave due to her situation.  She did and my wife just said, "OK".  That was the end of it.  I see you wrote this last year and I hope things have improved for your wife and yourself.  Unfortunately, my 88 yo wife fell and broke her hip and femur 2 weeks ago.  She can't stand nor walk either and the rehab place is wondering if she's going to recover sufficently to walk and stand up by herself.  We've been married 52 years, had no kids, and all we have is each other.