Hello all. My mom, who is on hospice care for stage 4 lung cancer with mets in the brain, is complaining of severe pain in her feet and she says her skin. We can barely touch her. It's not red and she doesn't have sores or anything like that. Has anyone had this experience? The doctors just gave her morphine, which she doesn't want to take.
These are good suggestions; I hadn't even thought of the cancer med side effects.
My sister developed a resistance to touch when she was also in stage 4 of metastatic breast cancer. Her feet were subject to a different situation; by the time the metastasis was that severe, she had developed drop-foot and walking was very difficult. I don't know how much of that aspect caused pain.
The pain worsened with a pleural effusion, but continued until her passing. She just couldn't stand to be touched.
I really don't know what options there might be, but I would make it clear to her medical team that she doesn't want a morphine solution at this point.
One thing that really did help my sister though was that the Infusion Center had a visiting Reiki practitioner. It was so helpful that she also asked for it during her last days.
Here's some info on Reiki if you're interested:
http://www.reikiconnectionmiami.com/
This one seemed a better company than some of the others I've found (I only did a quick check ), but if you do want to pursue this, I would ask nurses at the Infusion Center affiliated with the hospital, or ask the nurses at the performing doctors' practices. Or even call other hospitals' Infusion Centers and ask around.
BTW, this isn't what I would consider as New Age practice; it's a founded Japanese method, if I understand correctly.
Just got his diabetes back under some control and the itching ended. SIL also says many drugs will cause this--it's not dangerous but it's horribly annoying.
the chemicals used to treat cancer can damage other areas of the body.
Does the Hospice mom is with offer Reiki Therapy? It is a Japanese Technique that can promote stress relief and "healing" It can be a hands off therapy so there would be no touching of an area that is sensitive. (I personally have not tried it but if it might be of help anything is worth a shot even if it relieves a bit of the discomfort.)
I have read pro's and con's about it but if it can not hurt why not try it?
(This would not replace current medical advice just add to it)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5471084/