restless dying

[Zoe Girl]

Zoe, my condolences on the death of your grandmother. Isnt is great that you all saw her so recently? Good show.

Thank you, I won't be able to go for the funeral in 2 weeks so I am very glad we saw her when she was pretty healthy and happy. My mom agrees that it was better to see her alive than to make time for the funeral.

[Teacher Terry]

My friend with Alzheier's and cancer died a slow restless death. It was horrible. They gave her morphine every hour. After about 45 minutes she would get really bad but by law they had to wait that hour. They called on Friday and said she would not live through the night. We got up there Sat AM and she did not die until Monday. She was one of the kindest people I have ever met and everyone thought the world of her. It was purely physical pain from the cancer.

[iris lilies]

My friend with Alzheier's and cancer died a slow restless death. It was horrible. They gave her morphine every hour. After about 45 minutes she would get really bad but by law they had to wait that hour. They called on Friday and said she would not live through the night. We got up there Sat AM and she did not die until Monday. She was one of the kindest people I have ever met and everyone thought the world of her. It was purely physical pain from the cancer.

Is that state law you are referencing?

[Teacher Terry]

I would assume so.

[Tammy]

Somebody dropped the ball. In palliative care you can give morphine to the level of comfort. Maybe she wasn’t in a hospice type situation ...

[Teacher Terry]

She was on hospice in a nursing home.

[iris lilies]

Somebody dropped the ball. In palliative care you can give morphine to the level of comfort. Maybe she wasn’t in a hospice type situation ...

I was hoping you would chime in here.

[ApatheticNoMore]

There are several ideas about that, but one is that the dying person just didnt want others around for this Big Passing.

about a month before my dad died when he wasn't in that bad shape and we thought he would live but was in the hospital he asked "what are you here for, standing around to watch me die?". From that I kind of got a sense he wouldn't really particularly want us doing that (but we were really just visiting him at that point). So a month later when he died I don't mind that we missed it, my mom planned to stay with him but he was doped up on massive amounts of morphine so really died in a morphine sleep anyway in all likelihood.

[henrysmom]

Rare poster but long time nurse and old hospice nurse. Sadly the poor woman with cancer pain was inadequately treated. They were only giving the morphine every hour because that’s what doctor ordered. There are so many things that could have been done, increasing dosage, morphine sub q pump, fentanyl patch,etc. Nurses probably didn’t call hospice doc to change order. Also there is often a psychic pain during the dying process which can be distressing to the patient and to friends and loved ones and can be hard to treat, especially by inexperienced staff and family. Dying is a messy business but could have been handled so much better.

[catherine]

Rare poster but long time nurse and old hospice nurse. Sadly the poor woman with cancer pain was inadequately treated. They were only giving the morphine every hour because that’s what doctor ordered. There are so many things that could have been done, increasing dosage, morphine sub q pump, fentanyl patch,etc. Nurses probably didn’t call hospice doc to change order. Also there is often a psychic pain during the dying process which can be distressing to the patient and to friends and loved ones and can be hard to treat, especially by inexperienced staff and family. Dying is a messy business but could have been handled so much better.

Thank you for weighing in. Dying is a messy business, but thank God for you guys who are there to help us scared, grieving people navigate through it.