[null and void]

Yeah. Mom is on home hospice care. They will not provide any medications or treatment for her Alzheimer's, (we're buying the meds out of pocket), will provide meds for all other "normal" ailments for a nonagenarian, and a "comfort pack" of morphine "for pain" and lorazepam "for restlessness and agitation".

The RN who dropped off the "comfort pack" meds was sad and mopey and barely talked.

We administered them very sparingly, starting with the recommended dose of morphine and cutting it back to ¼ the indicated dose which sufficed to relieve pain without doping her up (which she hated).

When we reported this to the RN on her next weekly visit she immediately brightened and has ever since engaged in small talk at every visit.

Although we haven't directly asked, we are convinced that her typical experience is new patients 'quietly slip away' in an over medicated state within a week or two.

[metmom]

Morphine can suppress breathing and heart rate.

IMO, they are not handing that out for her comfort to but to kill her off more quickly, knowing exactly what it can do to someone.