[mass55th]

I am keeping you, your wife and your sister in my prayers. My one sister with the lung cancer entered hospice care in Rochester, NY on July 1, 2011. The gave her Lorazepam drops...that helped her rest comfortably. There were times she was thrashing about, calling out to God to please help her, and it helped calm her down and rest peacefully.

She had a UTI which they couldn't treat because she was in hospice care. The nurse administrator wanted to put a catheter in her so she wouldn't keep wetting the bed, and have to be moved around constantly to change the bed, and her nightgown. My sister was still a bit conscious, and fought them whenever they tried to put one in. That procedure is much easier if the person is relaxed. The Administrator asked me what I thought they should do. I told them to knock her out, which meant giving her slightly more of the Lorazepam to put her asleep. They did that, and easily put the catheter in. It was in until she passed. They never gave her any other medication but the Lorazepam when it was needed. The last week of her life, she wasn't awake or moving around, took no fluids, and had already stopped eating anything at least the week before. Her illness was the first and only time I've dealt with hospice care. All my other family members passed in hospitals.

[Myrddin]

Foley catheters are not much fun on insertion. I woke up with one after my Whipple procedure. I had too much fluid in my system from all the IVs, so it was Lasix time to drain it off. Absent the catheter, I would have been running off to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Before the surgery, my left lower leg had significant edema. The Lasix fixed that problem and it has stayed pretty normal for the last year. That was a bonus fix added to the Whipple to remove the cancer.

There is definitely a place for palliative meds in the hospice phase. Many people are definitely in pain. That is a justifiable use of morphine.