How long does it take?
 

I don't know if this seems out of line to ask here, but I have no where else to ask.

My mom is not good. She is still having fever that the antibiotic has not broken. They have stopped giving her food, but are still hydrating her. She is on morphine and a fentanyl patch.

She did not recognize me or my father today. When she opens her eyes you can tell she does not know where she is. When my dad touched her hand today she jumped and said "Where are you taking me".

My wish is that she would pass soon. The doctor said it could take weeks. I don't know if I can take it that long. Is this true? Will it take weeks of suffering for her to pass away?

Yaka

why are they not giving her food? I wish you could get her to an expert in the mds field hon. probably what is causing her to do these things is the morphine and fentyle patches. I am so sorry this is happening! my prayers are with you all right now.

Getting the right pain medication and the right dose are important. Doctors may not guess right on the first try. Your mom may be getting more than she needs (and high doses are more likely to cause hallucinations and disorientation) but too little would leave her in pain, which is even worse. There are also alternatives to morphine that may not have the same side effects. Morphine made my wife nauseous but hydrocodone did not, so her doctor switched her. They didn't have a way to know which to give her in advance.

If there are pain specialists available to help your mom, they'll be more attuned to your mom's specific needs. Don't be shy about asking who is in charge of her pain medications, how they determined the drug and dose, if they are monitoring the side effects, and whether other choices would be appropriate given the side effects.

I'm sorry you have to deal with so much.

Thanks for the response.

They weren't giving her food because she couldn't swallow. Today they said they are going to give her mashed food.

My mom cannot take anything codeine based. She is allergic. It was the weekend so I think a lot of people were not in the hospital.

Yaka