Urgent - ethics around pain med for 93 yr old

[yesmen]

Hi. Urgent help needed if anybody is around.

Mum is 93 and in her own home.

She is immobile, needing to be turned every two hours. she has two massive bedsore - one on each hip.

She is in pain all the time and a volcano of pain when we turn her.

At the moment she gets 5 mls of panadol liquid every four hours. In my opinion it is touching her pain.

I want to insist on morphine prescription. DB does not. He thinks it is unethical and may kill her.

I say it is about her comfort now.

He says it will hurry up the process and she has a right to the process.

Thoughts from anybody at all are gratefully read.

I’m so pleased you’ve got this sorted

Wishing you all peace and gentleness x

My mum was always stoic with pain. Labour, well not a walk in the park but absolutely doable. Horrendous migraines, just a bit of a sick headache, arterial bleed, a bit of a cut. When she had dementia it was obvious she was in pain as she would wince and gasp and flinch. Asking are you in pain mum brought the normal and expected answer no I'm fine. As the dementia grew worse so did the pain but she wasn't able to tell us where it was or what hurt. I tried working my way around her body, pressing gently to see if the slight pressure brought on a wince just so we could localise where or what the pain was. She was by that time in a nursing home and the GP in consultation with the nurses and me prescribed morphine patches. She was also prescribed it as a liquid for any breakthrough pain. We never did find out where the pain was or what it was or what caused it. But she was in her last month of life and was in pain from something. I just wanted her pain free if possible. This meant that in that last month she was definitely not flinching as much and on the occasion that she did a dribble of oral morphine was given to her and she was more relaxed. Obviously she wasn't really speaking but my son and I used to read to her, each picking up from where the last one of us had read to. To have left her flinching in pain and not able to tell us what hurt must have been beyond awful. To have a supportive GP was great.

Contact your local social services ASAP, and also her GP!

Her GP may also contact social services for proper pain medication to be administered by you or the carers.

I'm surprised the carers haven't reported this back to their supervisors!! It's negligence!!

The doctor has been and its all sorted now

Why would he think morphine would kill her? It won't be given to her in massive doses. Of course you should insist on giving her anything at all that will make her a bit less miserable. Only thing with morphine is that it can make you constipated but they should be able to help with that if it happens

Absolutely right!
Morphine titrated carefully {and anti~ emetics given if she feels nauseous} is quite safe...{I'm not a medic}

My elderly neighbour was given an injection of it by an ambulance crew {she was 90} after falling and breaking her thigh, and it brought the colour back into her cheeks, and the pained, drawn expression on her face changed and her eyes sparkled.
It was a remarkable thing to see...and she began chatting, where before she was just semi whimpering.

Constipation is the real downside, but there are meds that help - the GP will be well aware of what to do.

Hopefully the pressure sores can be treated too, and new ones prevented from forming.

Good. I'm relieved for you all. X

I hope your Mother is now much more comfortable. Well done for advocating for her.

Sending good wishes to you all. I am so glad that the proper pain relief is now being given. It is a difficult time, but the important thing is that your mother should be out of pain and able to depart this life peacefully.

OP, its good that things have evened out for you all now. Its an incredibly difficult time and its good you dont have rhe extra stress of a falling out with your DB. Xx

Oh thank goodness for your poor mum, and you. Been thinking of you this evening. Thanks for the update and for advocating for your mum.