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I was dying on April 5, 1957 and have been every day since.
Well, if you make it to 94 you'll be a helluva lot closer to it than you are now. And if your body is "breaking down somehow starting with your hands" at age 94 I'd say you've got some sort of actual condition or disease (other than simply old age) that's the root cause of your demise. Morphine sounds like the least of one's problems at that point. Not trying to be cruel, just realistic.
It's really wonderful how modern medical science can keep a rotting corpse alive in intensive care. They can feed them through their veins and a machine will do the work of the kidneys. A pacemaker will keep the heart beating as long as there is a muscle to beat, and IV nutrition will keep that muscle alive.
Hospice was created as an alternative to someone imprisoned in a stinking, rotting corpse who was not allowed to die. If NancyDrew wants to go that way and she can afford to pay the bill, it's her choice. It's not a choice I would ever make. I hope that when my life is over I have the good sense to accept it.
Honestly, when we removed my BIL from life support following a "widow maker" heart attach, we were extremely grateful for the hospice nurse who generously injected morphine to painlessly speed his death.
That is not always a bad thing and I wish they had done that for my mother sooner. My mother was receiving in-home hospice visits and was not in a facility.
In February 2014 my mother was placed on "hospice." Remember hospice is for when death is expected shortly. She was heavily demented, and the last time she walked that I know of was Martin Luther King's Day that year when one of my sons and I heavily supported her. As it was she made it only about 60 yards, round trip. If that. My mother was suffering both a recurrence of uterine cancer and dementia.
As the year progressed it became obvious that they were supporting her living beyond the scope of hospice. I investigated and found that one of the two caregivers was instructed to give Ensure when she complained of being thirsty. When I asked hospice what that was all about they threatened to report me and the case to Adult Protective Services if I made any move to stop the practice, or to replace this particular hospice provider with another.
Finally that October I contacted my Rabbi, who referred to to a rights organization for end-of-life. They counseled me to seek a meeting with the Ethics Board of the hospice. The hospice agency took its time scheduling the meeting. And when they did and I tried to tell them that my mother had earlier in life expressed the desire not to be kept lingering, one of them said "shut up" and advised me to read the Living Will. Their point was that the living will preprinted form was quite limiting. My wife, who was present, asked to speak tot he fact that my mother had recently expressed the desire to "end it," the point being that this desire was expressed after the execution of the living will. They told her likewise to "shut up" saying she had no standing. I had to threaten to take her statement as testimony and reluctantly they let her speak.
Apparently they got the message. The meeting was on a Wednesday. The next Monday I was asked to give permission for her to get morphine. They said she winced a bit when moved to avoid bedsores or to change her diaper. I consented. She died about 48 hours later.
Let me guess - you live in a fundamentalist bible beating area where they think suffering is good for you. It's sad that you were faced with a bunch of control freaks who wanted to go far past the scope of hospice. It's also a cautionary tale to make very sure of what you put in a "living will," AKA an Advance Medical Directive.
The morphine caused my uncle to constantly try to drink but he was drowning in his own fluids and they don't use machines so it was really difficult. Yet he was obviously in pain so to prolong it via a machine was a concern. He appeared very anxious each time he wanted water, you could see it in his eyes when he had not the strength to even move a muscle to let me know. Morphine did curb his pain to some degree, but I am sure if he'd been in the hospital he would have had access to the complete array of meds, those that didn't cause him to endure such pain. Dying of dehydration is hell. But they have just a small array of approved drugs at their disposal. I NEVER saw a Physician, nor corresponded with one, not once. With all three hospice experiences.
I should've just admitted him to the hospital when it got that bad, sometimes being with family isn't the #1 concern. Their comfort is. Above you see an example of the hospice mentality, someone who's in oncology posting "Never in my 15 years have I seen someone die due to hospice"
Obviously this is illogical and speaks for itself.
This is what scares me about hospice. I guess I should thank her for making my point
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Not everyone can tolerate morphine. It can have severe side effects, and be less than effective.
It's very common for terminal patients to be given a fentanyl patch to control pain. There is no necessity to give oral medications. Hospice had any drug in the pharmacy to ease his passing. I think there was a communication breakdown between the family and his doctor.
Really hard to say what killed him. Reading the death certificate there was nothing on it that was truly fatal. I think it was a general body breakdown that started a year earlier with his hands, and then went on from there.
How do hands break down? I've never heard of that.
There has to be a cause of death on a death certificate and the secondary cause.
FYI-if you take a patient out of the hospital when they were not officially released, you can be arrested
That's absurd. If a patient wants to leave the hospital and you take him home no crime has been committed. You are not kidnapping anyone. A few years ago I saw no reason to spend another night in the hospital. The doctor would have preferred that I stayed. I didn't. My girlfriend was there visiting me and she took me home. There was NO thought to try to stop me or have her arrested. Hospitals aren't prisons, you are free to go whenever you choose,
What if that goes against the wishes of the patient? It sounds like you are advocating that the patient's family should take the patient prisoner.
Your point of view is irrational, but to answer your question the patient or the medical POA can choose to end hospice care at any time.
Yes, at home, screaming in pain, scaring the hell out of children in the house, needing a family member to clean up after their bowel movements, etc. My mom kept both of her parents at home like that when they became incapacitated and made it very clear to my sister and me that she was not willing to burden us in that way.
See above. The vast majority of us who have had a loved one pass in hospice care consider it a blessing. Those who kept dying family members at home in days gone by would have loved to have had it.
And patients can receive hospice care at home, as far as that goes.
You have a cliff in your home?
We've had several relatives die at home and it wasn't great. The family couldn't get in to say goodbye to the body because the police had to investigate since no doctor was there when they passed. Police had to make sure that no crime had been committed. It was a mess and very unpleasant. We didn't know enough to get them into hospice. There were always people with them. They passed in their sleep.
Let me guess - you live in a fundamentalist bible beating area where they think suffering is good for you. It's sad that you were faced with a bunch of control freaks who wanted to go far past the scope of hospice. It's also a cautionary tale to make very sure of what you put in a "living will," AKA an Advance Medical Directive.
I live in Westchester County, which is as far from a Bible-thumping area as you can get. It was more a combination of their being control-freaks, and a love of revenues. They got lots of money from Medicare for sending out a nurse once a week who was obviously low-educated and low-paid. The profit spread must be huge, especially if you multiply my family's situation times the four or five probably on her daily caseload, or, just guessing, 25 to 30 on her overall docket. There's a lot of money at stake here.
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