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Sundance489 Asked April 2019

Mother 87 dying from terminal ovarian cancer stays up all night. Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

My Mom age 87 is bedridden with cancer and has been declining steadily. She has wanted to stay in her home to die and we are honoring that wish to best of our ability. My siblings and I take turns staying with her overnight and hospice staff come during the day along with home health aides.


She has not been sleeping and wakes us repeatedly by calling out and asking us to bring her ice, pudding, to move her, to remove a blanket, etc,. She is agitated and sometimes talking to someone who is not in the room. She is uncooperative about taking meds and puts up a fight.


We started giving her .4 ml of Lorazepam to calm her but that is not working either. Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

faeriefiles Apr 2019
@cwillie has a good idea. Another point to ponder is that if her digestive system is slowing down oral medications may not work as well as they could. You can try other medications but you can also try suppositories which sometimes work better. Talk to her doctor and see if there's anything that can be done.

cwillie Apr 2019
Ask your hospice providers if starting haldol would be appropriate at this point.

"Haloperidol is the most effective medication for treating agitation. This drug is less sedating than lorazepam; also, lorazepam has proven ineffective in treating delirium. When the patient reaches EOL, benzodiazepines and sedating neuroleptics are considered equally effective in controlling agitation."

https://www.americannursetoday.com/managing-end-of-life-symptoms/

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