My mom has COPD pretty bad. She is on oxygen now and in hospice. She fell a week ago and they said she bursed her ribs and chest she has a lot of pain but the hospice nurse came and told me to give her 10 mg of morphine, every hour but this seem to make her weaker and she dose not want to eat or stay awake. I believe that hospice wants her to die sooner. Should I take her out of hospice?
Sending you a hug and a prayer today, my friend.
She was declining visibly over a month or so when she fell, broke her wrist and had facial injuries. Although she had rehabbed from worse than that in the past, there simply seemed to be no fight left in her and she was clearly in pain. Due to aphasia from a prior stroke, she was unable to tell us what hurt.
We made the excruciatingly difficult decision to put her on hospice in order to get her adequate pain relief (nothing the NH was giving was alleviating her pain). She declined gently and peacefully over the course of several days.
At the end of life, I've found, there are no "good" or "right" decisions. There is only a choice among a bunch of poor choices, each with their own up and down side.
In mom's case, she had always stressed to us that she didn't mind dying, but did NOT want to be in pain. I try to remind myself of that whenever I start to second guess myself now, 2 years later.
"hospice" is not this thing that is trying to take your mom's life prematurely. It is designed to give comfort and care for those in the EOL situation. I personally think it's a godsend.
Think: what would be the 'upside' to 'hospice' taking your mother's life sooner? Just speaking realistically, that's a bad business plan.
If it makes YOU feel better to see mom be more alert, then lower her morphine dose, but please don't make her suffer, so you feel better.