Hospice and morphine...

So sorry to hear about you going through this. The role of hospice is to support a natural death through pain relief and symptom management. It is definitely not to hasten death. Please feel reassured this would not be their agenda to quicken her death - it would be to relieve her severe pain. Unfortunately pain medications often have side effects like drowsiness and sleepiness. There's really nothing that can be done for that, and it is better she is not in pain. After she gets used to the pain medicine she may become more alert.

These are such difficult waters to navigate - ask about lowering the dosage but don't withhold it if she is showing any signs of discomfort, the morphine will relieve her pain and make her breathing easier. Keep in mind she is on hospice because the end of her life is near. ((hugs))

If I were in a lot of pain, and had conditions that made me qualify for hospice care, I’d think that not eating and being sleepy would be good things. A medicine designed to bring pain relief most often also brings sleepiness. I’m sorry you’re going through this, and I wish peace for both you and your mother

I'm so sorry you're going through such a sad experience with your mom. Take the thought out of your mind that hospice wants your mother to 'die sooner'. In reality, they want your mother to stop feeling the excruciating pain associated with burst ribs. I don't know if you've ever had even a fractured rib, but if you have, you know the pain is terrible. Allow your mother to experience the comfort care that hospice can provide her now without worrying that they are trying to cause her harm. They are not.
Sending you a hug and a prayer today, my friend.

My mom had a similar situation, although she had CHF, not copd.

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 the best place for her. As others have stated, the morphine will ease her pain, though it may make her sleepy.

Are you considering the alternative here though? She will be in excruciating pain. Is that what you want? You want her to live out the rest of her live in pain & suffering? All too often we forgot to consider the alternative. A usual dose of oral solution morphine (what hospice tends to use) for an adult is 10-20mg. Sleepiness is a common side affect. You can ask the nurse to lower the dosage and see how your mom does but if she’s still in pain, don’t let her suffer.

It is hard to administer the morphine and then watch our LO's sleep away..but it is calming and makes the end of life not so gruesome and awful.

"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.

I'd read about the dying process and how people turn inward towards the end, not really wanting to engage. Since she is also in pain and has breathing difficulty, I don't see the upside to keeping her awake, especially, against her wishes.