Pain relief for terminal cancer

[PaleoRules]

Please can anyone help?

My dearest friend is terminally ill with cancer and her pain is not being managed. She is currently on morphine and her doctor has told her just to increase the dose but she doesn't feel it's working.

What alternative pain meds are there out there?

Thank you x

I'm so so sorry about your friend

She should have a pain management team, they need to step in. If she hasn't already been referred to them then now is the time.

Is your friend in contact with a hospice? They are not just for end of life care, and are superb at sorting peoples pain using lots of different tactics.

There's some great stuff out there but I agree with Sock she needs help from the specialists.

It depends who's involved with her care at the moment but the people to ask would be GP, District Nurse team, Macmillan Nurse (if they have one assigned), the local Hospice (if they have one)

IMO once I fought and got DH1 a Macmillan nurse who operated out of the local hospice life was so much better.

Has your friend asked about Fentanyl? It might be helpful.

Please get her in touch with MacMillan and a hospice. Yes, there are alternatives out there! Morphine can be used in combination with drugs like ketamine for palliative pain relief; both can be administered in ways like syringe driver and PCA that might work better for her.

Thank you. I haven't mentioned the hospice word to her yet - I think we're both too scared of it, but think now is the time.

I will phone her tomorrow as I don't think that's a conversation I can have by text.

She hasn't mentioned a pain management team - I'll ask her.

Thank you x