Morphine and hospice
Common Questions and Answers about Morphine and hospice
avinza
When the fistual appeared 3 weeks ago her oncologist advised us to call Hospice. We did, they came, and an RN immediately said she was going to die of septicemia. We were preparing for her death. 8 days later, due to lack of experience and professionalism, a different Hospice organization came in and immediately diagnosed the "hole in her stomach"as a fistula and that her death was not as imminent as we were told by the previous Hospice.
your son would have had to first be removed from hospice status, the morphine discontinued, etc - in order to even be considered...and that would be with no guarantees of course. It's a pretty tall order...even under the best of circumstances. It sounds as though your son was likely already too sick for that to have happened. I hope that you can find peace in knowing that you did all that you could...
My Mom is in end stage COPD and CHF and it has been a battle of "wills" and "won'ts" between my sisters and my mothers care....My Mom is on Hospice care and I believe in there "mission" for "comfort care" but my sisters think that my Mom is/will become a "drug addict" (my Mom can be given Morphine and Ativan if her respirations
get too high... (and my Mom has been having respirations up into the 40's - normal is between 18 to 20....
I have taken care of him (Primary) as well as my husband and now my son for the last 3 years and Hospice a year and a half. He has no use of his legs or hands since the first 6months. He was in a Nursing home but we brought him home In the last few months I have watched his urine change color to amber then bloody looking to normal yellow. He coughs at times. We have suction Machine but nothing else other than oxygen to help him for He has a DNR order ( do not resuscitate.
The biggest thing we were able to do for her was to be there and to make sure she was comfortable. Her doctor gave her morphine as needed to where she was the one who decided how much to take and how often. She was able to stay home because she had a directive in place stating that she only wanted comfort measures. After a fall, she was moved to hospice where she was able to die in peace.
It was important to us that our mother make her own decisions and determine how she wanted to leave.
As far as pain, don't think Morphine is 'it'....there are many options. Home or inpatient hospice services and doctors can prescribe different types and options. One thing that worked for my mom (even during treatment stages) was a portable PCA pump with Dilaudid. This went intravenously three or four times an hour with the option to give a 'breakthrough' or 'relief' dosage when the pain broke through.
Morphine is preferred for the treatment of COPD because a doctor can better control its effect on breathing, however, both morphine and methadone work in similar ways -- it is just that methadone suppresses the breathing longer. At end of life, it doesn't matter much which medication you use.
If your husband had an allergy to morphine, then methadone is definitely the proper medication to give.
Death is not often a pleasant experience, especially death from lung cancer.
She has been on a morphine pump for a little over a week. She stopped food and water intake a couple of days ago. Her kidneys and liver have started to fail. (this we know from information from our wonderful hospice nurse) I was wondering how long on average a person will survive once their food and water intake stops?
In my case my Dad had congestive heart failure, was put on hospice care, stabilized and came off hospice after 6 months. The next year they found cancer throughout his body, was put back on hospice care.
He so wanted to die at home and we did all we could to care for him. It reached a point that the stress from my Mom's behavior and the extreme fatigue of caring for him wore us out. He agreed to go to a hospice facility for just a few days to give us all a break.
She is suffering from severe myoclonus and seratonin toxicity and hospice wants to take her off Tramadol and replace it with something else. I can find no info at all on withdrawal and tapering protocol in elderly debilitated Alzheimer's patients. My mom can't speak or communicate and I am absolutely horrified at what she may experience. But the Tramadol side effects she is experiencing are life threatening.
They gave him Fentynal patches(heavey guns) and he claims that someone said that they contain just a small amout of Morphine. He has had some eally bad experiences with Morphine and he is scared to use the patch. I told him I would try to ask my new friends on MedHelp first.
Does anyone out there have a clue if this is true?, so he can put his patch on and kill his pain. Thanks............
My mother has been diagnosed with liver cancer from hepatitis C. Hospice has come in and she is now sleeping a lot and a cathereter put in. Her appetite has detirioated and her urine is still normal color. She is not jaundice as of yet but does slur her words occasionally and gets confused. How long do I have? I know there is no real answer but are we talking months, weeks or days?
In '96 my Dad passed away. Hospice situation. I rang hospice to let them know and while on the phone they told me to immediately flush all meds (morphine) down toilet. I did so. Years later I read about a private company testing the water in most of our major cities, they found antidepressants, narcotics, anxiety meds in our drinking water. I was shocked to read this. Now I'm here and see that that is the advice as well.
I would just sit down and be Honest with her and tell her of your fears and concerns.. That you love her and you do not want her to waste the life she has left in a drug induced stupor.. The last few days of my mom's life she was on so much morphine she was not with us I do not hold this against her as the multiple myeloma was so painful but it never hurts for your mom to hear the concern and love.. I will say a prayer and want to say I'm so sorry you are going through this..
She does have our help because she is un steady and weak. Hospice has placed her on morphine at a low dose. She was in pain with hydrocodine.. Her belly is about 2-3 times in size. She still is eating & drinking even though it is very little. Sometimes she does go the bathroom & other times she doesn't when she insists on going the bathroom. Any other signs for me too look for? Her breaths are about 1 to my 3. She is not in a coma at this time. How much longer do I have?
She panicked called her local GP,called in Hospice and substituted haldol,morphine and vallium for her heart medictions in one day.My mother was not in pain.This was 5/31/2007 one day before my return.On 5/3 before she knew I was coming the cardiologist said she was fine and continued her medications and to come back in four months.I took her to the hospital and my sisterbehind my back refused to allow her to be medicated same thing on discharge.
When it became evident that she was in the final stages and gasping for breath they administered morphine, orally, then a suppository, then orally again. It all happened so fast but when the last dose was given I was overwhelmed. Thankfully she lived for an additional 4 hours becasue I know now that I would have had a hand in her death by giving them permission to ease her pain. But I am left was such anguish that I could have helped to end her life. How do I cope with this feeling?
I swore that the morphine was making him hallucinate but the doctors said it was dementia. We took him home and hospice kept upping the dose of the morphine. Finally he got so bad we couldn't take care of him at home. He went to the hospital and finally a nursing facility for 11 days. He died there after his body shutdown. He wouldn't eat or drink anything. He knew all of his family until he died last week.
that she is dehydrated and malnourished and getting worse because the morphine is keeping her sedated and between the weakness from no food/water and morphine, she is being coaxed to death prematurely and unnecessarily. Her legs are tiny, but she never went for walks or exercised and rarely had reason to go out as she didn't have a social life of much, her life revolved around her husband. Every day I came back and she was induced further into slumber. And I was shocked.
) she has an incredible attitude, and the new meds that hospice has given us (phengran gel and morphine) have made her SO much more comfortable. I completely agree....only God knows and I trust that His plan will be what is best. FYI, all family members were here to visit her this weekend so all the bases are covered. Blessings to all of you!
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