92.5 year old mom has wounds on both her legs now, pain is getting worse, although first leg has been healing well almost two years since it started. Pain in leg #2 is excruciating at times, she didn't have a stent put in that one. Currently she takes .25 to .5 mg Oxy on her wound care days three days a week. It's hard to see in her in so much pain. She has been on hospice 7 mos now, still walks a little with the walker, sleeps a lot more past couple months. No real co-morbidities, no dementia. We just don't know what to expect, I asked the hospice nurse and she said my mom could actually get better.
You don't get a medal for being 'brave'.
I have required taking opiates (albeit a very small dose) for the past 2 years so I can get up and function--yesterday I was up and down the stair multiple times and last night I could not get the pain in my knee and back to calm down until I took a double dose of my pain meds. I'm just NOW (8 hrs later) beginning to feel OK. And OK is the best I can hope for.
When dad was on Hospice, we pre-treated his pain with morphine drops and Valium ointment. We were able to find that happy medium between him being miserable and OK --yes, people were super judgy, but we didn't care.
Keeping him comfortable was the goal and we were all on board with the same idea. Give whatever he needed so he could have some level of pain relief.
im a wound care specialist. Does your mom still need care? I’m in NJ not sure where you are. I travel to patients homes in NJ
what has our medical system come to?
He is in pain. He wants to stay in bed. His legs and feet are extremely swollen. He is going to have hospice.
My sister thinks this might be the end. Told her I’ll fly back when she thinks his death is imminent.
Mom needs more pain meds than 3 times a week! She needs daily dose of Oxy now, to keep her comfortable and calm.
When Mom has sudden, intense pain, it is called "breakthrough pain" and is from not keeping a regular amount of DAILY pain meds in her system to prevent it. When she gets "breakthrough pain" it is very intense and hard to control. The amount she is taking now is a low dose and not lasting long enough in her system to prevent breakthrough pain.
Demand the Hospice Nurse talk to Doctor about increasing Mom's meds to daily doses, since only three times a week has now become inadequate.
Granted Oxy has a bad reputation from so many people getting addicted the last 10 years, BUT now is not is not the time to make a 92 year old woman on Hospice suffer because of it! Mom needs a low dose like she gets now, just more than 3 days a week.
I'm confused about what exactly is causing your mother to be in excruciating pain. You say she takes Oxy on wound care days 3x a week. Does that mean a wound care nurse is treating her? And why is Hospice nurse not changing the meds to manage the pain better?
If the hospice nurse advised that this is a condition which could actually get better, then perhaps you need to take mom to a doctor that can advise appropriate treatment for the condition. Hospice will not offer treatment for disease, but only comfort/ pain management when you are no longer seeking life-saving treatment.
One patient of mine: elderly female on hospice. Her son and daughter did not know I had worked as a nurse for many years before and neither did this hospice. Patient's son and daughter were talking one day how their mother was constantly in great pain and had not slept in 3 days. She had just gotten some morphine they said about 20 minutes ago and she was still in great pain. I heard them saying that it looked like such a small amount of morphine in those syringes, like a drop. That's when I let the kids know that I had been a nurse and would they mind if I looked at the morphine. I looked in the refrigerator and found the morphine bottle and the syringes of morphine. On the bottle, the prescription was written each dose to be given was 0.5 ml of morphine but in the syringes was 0.1 ml. I told, showed the son and daughter. They said they had asked the two RNs on this case about this, telling these 2 RN's that it seemed like such a small amount and their mother was still in pain. He said both RN's told them that what was in the syringes was correct! !!!!
My conclusion? It looked like two RN's were stealing the morphine.
They gave her 0.4 ml of morphine since she had gotten 0.1 ml just before I had arrived. They gave it to her and within minutes she was sound asleep and obviously out of pain.
People get into the medical profession for the wrong reasons... to steal drugs. I have run into too many nurses that are dishonest, lazy, doing horrible things to patients and also to us caregivers. Trying to get me to do their job!!!!
My husband told me his EX-wife, who was a nurse manager in a care home, would steal patient medications, and take them home for her own use, or to sell to friends. That was only one of her many flaws, and lies. He divorced her.
Being on hospice care is not to prevent someone from being well cared for.
Are you saying they only give her the oxy when they dress the wounds?
Perhaps you need to contact another hospice company to check out/compare her treatment with another company. They are not all the same.
People can be on hospice a long time and they can get better. Mom should not be in pain.
You need to raise a ruckus about this.