My mother has cancer. She sleeps all the time, has a pain pump, her urine looks like cola and has not eaten anything in 10 days or had a drink 8 oz in 4 days.

sounds like she has shut down, do you have hospice?

yes, is this the dying process starting??? how long do you think it will take, she takes maybe an ounce or two of liquid a day.

Amya, I'm not a medical person, but it sounds like, yes, it could be that your Mom is heading into her final days/weeks. You could talk to a doctor or nurse to find out more.

ohhh i can relate to this situation too. My mom had done that before, always sleeping, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink I came to using droppers on her lips and soaking cotton with liquid just to keep her hydrated. Thought she's gonna pass away but lo and behold! She's still alive... lol... it's not yet her time. This has actually happened two times already. I kid myself if this ever happens the 3rd time you figure what I will do :-) Well, one more thing. I guess she's near death because after many days of sleeping, she asked for a glass of very cold water, as in ice cold water. I remember many stories of near death people who came back to life and a glass of ice cold water was the 1st thing they asked.

Why not get someone to hook up a saline hydration line? When my mom is in ER or hospital, they have her hooked up all the time. I imagine that being on narcotics makes one sleepy, and the person will not wake to drink or even be aware of it.

Let me just give my uneducated ideas. Hospice can be really teriffic and they get it. Hopefully your mom is in as little discomfort as possible. This isn't easy kiddo. Love from Arizona.

The thing that's still not known, perhaps too late now, is: would she have gone unconscious if she had had saline drip all this time? When I had the hospice talk about Mom, when I really thought she might only have six months to live, I got the impression that once everyone made a decision to go that route, that if the person could not eat or drink by themselves, there would be no feeding tubes nor hydration lines provided. Personally, I think I'd rather have a more gradual and comfortable death being hydrated. Hmm, wonder how long a life can be extended providing just hydration? This is assuming that something else is really cause of death.

If she is in the process of dying, then it's been my experience, that once she is lying down all the time her breathing will start to get labored. Her heart will not be able to pump hard enough to clear out her lungs because of the fluid build up. Once that happens, then you start to hear the 'death rattle' which is the fluid in her lungs that she's trying to breathe thru. It's unnerving, to say the least, but it shouldn't be long after that. My father-in-law just stopped breathing all together, without any struggle when the 'death rattle' started. For as bad as it sounded, it was pretty silent when he died. I'm sorry about your mother.

There's a great book I reviewed when it first came out (being paid to read books, what a gig!) titled "How we Die" by Sherland Neuland
http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441

My massage therapist (when I could indulge in that) also taught a Jin Shin energy healing class. She said if you hold on to both big toes while the person is in the death process it will assist them for easier transition.

I mentioned this to my Reiki Master friend (Reiki also energy work, and she initiates people into doing Reiki herself), and darned if she wasn't with her father when he was dying (immediate cause of death was too MUCH oxygen pushed into him!). She remembered my comment and went to foot of bed to hold his toes. She said she could feel the effect immediately, and watched him go peacefully...all visible on the bedside monitors.

Well, sorry for the morbid tip, but some times it's nice to fall back on something to DO while waiting, something that may bring some comfort.

Amya how are you holding up? how are things going?