Palliative Care

[sandyRoe]

Can someone with a terminal illness be sure that their end will come without pain?

[scorpiojo]

Scroll down to the section on breakthrough pain, Sandy.

http://palliativecare.org.au/resources/learn-more-about-pain-and-pain-management

[vetuste_ennemi]

Sure? I don't known about that, Sandy. But pain relief such as morphine appears work. My wife died - as far as I can judge - painlessly.

PS: I hope you're asking this question for hypothetical reasons.

[anneasquith]

It is the wish of all medical professionals that anyone who is approaching death ,receive the best possible care. I'm a great believer in having written instructions when our death is approaching as to what treatment we wish/ or not .

[LadyCG]

Having worked in Oncology for the last several years, and some years previously, I know only of one person whose pain couldn't be controlled at the end but she had developed leptomeningeal carcimomatosis (malignant meningitis) from her metastatic breast cancer.

Pretty much always, death from cancer is peaceful and painless at the end.

On occasion the patient can become anxious and panicked if they know what is happening but, more often than not, they are unaware (with the help of a syringe driver).

[anneasquith]

Might be worth pointing out, the syringe driver contains drugs. Syringe drivers on there own are not analgesia.

[LadyCG]

And the award for stating the obvious goes to ... ^^^

[anneasquith]

:-)

[LadyCG]

Have you ANY experience in medicine, Anne? Your post at 02:48 does not yield any clue or suggest that you possess any medical knowledge.

I was stunned not so long ago to discover that a so-called "Nurse" did not know Zopiclone was prescribed as an anti-depressant. Bizarre.

[silliemillie]

I didn't know that (I'm not a nurse) but my Mum takes those for sleeping,and she's still as miserable as sin.

[mallyh]

hi silliemillie sounds like you have a difficult time with your mum xx

[LadyCG]

They don't work on everyone, Millie.

I once too Amytriptyline for insomnia and it caused me to have severely low mood.

[murraymints]

much depends on whether the person is at home..in hospice/hospital..what care in the home is like... certainly the nursing profession gives excellent end of life care...Zopiclone is a common treatment for Depression...

[murraymints]

Amitryp is essentially an anti-depressant which can also be used for pain relief..don't know how it works for both..but it does seem to cause a good few side effects for some...dad had to stop taking it for his peripheral neuropathy...

[LadyCG]

Amytriptyline is a neuropathic pain block in doses of around 200mg, or an anti-depressant at doses of 10 to 40mg.

It made me feel zombified.

[murraymints]

ah right..ta CG..had the same effect on dad.terrible low moods...

[anneasquith]

Zopiclone is a night sedation .( My apologies Sandy for side tracking your thread ).

[LadyCG]

It's also an anti-depressant, Anne.

[ummmm]

LadyC - you should stop being so rude!!

[Sqad]

All very good answers particularly those of LadyC who's practical experience is apparent.

"Can someone with a terminal illness be sure that their end will come without pain?"

The simple answer is NO.
I think that one is assuming that the question is alluding to terminal cancer in all it 's forms.
I would guess in my opinion that 90% of terminal cancer patients die painlessly and that bony involvement is the main problem.
Not everyone can take morphine as they are react in a way that can involve extreme nausea and vomiting.
However.......pain relief IS avauilable......but not to all.

[woofgang]

Sorry but my answer to this auestion is no....and I do have experince of people dying of cancer.