What to expect Mams Lung Cancer End of Life
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2 posts since
18 Jan 2020
Hi, I’m new here. My mam has been living with lung cancer for the best part of four years – Adenocarcinoma with a pleural effusion. There have been ups and downs, and as a family we’ve all coped together with them and through it the specialist and Macmillan nurses at the hospital had been great.
Things took a turn for the worse at the end of November when we were told the immunotherapy treatment wasn’t working for her and since then she has deteriorated. We’ve not really had, or I guess needed much in the way of support since then, but in the last couple of weeks she has gone down hill quite quickly.
The GP came out to my parents yesterday for a review and they discussed and agreed a do not attempt CPR – I guess what they used to be a DNR and gave my dad a presectiption for several injectible meds and said to call the district nurse or 111 if she needs them.
Whilst I guess I knew this stage was coming, they seem to have given very little info around this. I called the district nurse line today to try and understand what we need to do when and the nurse I was put through to was really helpful, so we know if the pain ge ya too much for the oromorph to take it away or if she gets nauseous or agitated we can call them to start her on the meds the GP prescribed.
She is taking 5ml of oromorph every two hours which the GP said can be upped to 7.5ml and can be increased to every hour as needed. They also upped her slow release morphine to 40mg twice daily and stopped all her other meds for her blood pressure, stomach acid, abdominal cramps, partly I guess cos she’s now having trouble swallowing and also because I guess there’s not much point to her taking them at this stage.
I asked the district nurse if there was an estimate of how long my mam has left, because the GP hadn’t put anything in the notes she couldn’t advise me, but I guess it’s now getting more like days than weeks but how do you tell?
My mam is at peace with the fact she is dying and she feels she hasn’t got too long left, but for me and my Dad we’re kind of not quite knowing how things will progress now on.
1 posts since
18 Jan 2020
Hi, my Dad also had a DNA CPR put on him on New Years Eve. It came out of the blue for us. The doctor explained that it was due to my Dad being so frail that it could cause more harm and distress to him and us to attempt the physical act of CPR. My Dad is very frail so any attempt at CPR would most likely result in several broken ribs, etc. It’s awful facing that realisation that they will no longer attempt to save them if they take a turn for the worse.
My Dad is in hospital but we’ve been told, due to his frailty, he likely only has around 3 months left.
I hope your Mum doesn’t suffer too much and the oromorph keeps her comfortable xx
82 posts since
29 Nov 2018
hello,
my dad went down hill quickly also with lung cancer, i did alot of research on end of life signs which really helped me when i was looking after him, they were helpful to me but i supposed everyone is different, id say when she is sleeping more and not eating or drinking then you need to be with her all the time, but saying that my dad drank 3pints of milk the day he passed away so everyone is different, have they spoke about a driver yet ? dad had that and it saved us fighting to get pills down him or the oral morphine which just wasnt taking the edge off his pain, once he had the driver he was more settled, but we still have to call the nurses out a couple of times near the end to administer more pain meds,
my thoughts are with you at this horrendous time, x be strong and spend as much time as you can with her and tell her you love her everytime you leave
L x
2 posts since
18 Jan 2020
Thank you both for your replies, I only wish none of us or our families had to go through what this horrid disease brings x
Right now everything seems so surreal. At Xmas my mam managed to have some dinner at the table, all be it she needed to get back to her comfy seat pretty soon. They had a stair lift fitted a week gone Friday as mam was struggling with my dad helping her upstairs and even on Tuesday she was sat downstairs (granted with cushions etc so she could be in a comfortable position)
By Friday she could only manage to be laid back in bed and eased up to swallow oromorph from the little plastic cup thing and split slow release capsules with some juice, now today she needed to be flat, and as the day has gone on has struggled to take enough oromorph from the syringe it comes with, to the point we had Marie Curie nurses out to give her a shot of morphine to ease her pain and they said to call again if she needs more through the night. The nurses were lovely and said they’re going to get the district nurses to sort a driver tomorrow for her.
I’m staying up my parents tonight as I just couldn’t leave. I think I just needed to write this to try and get it out of my head and try and get some sleep.
82 posts since
29 Nov 2018
hello,
it sounds like she needs the driver ASAP you dont want her to be in pain, plus they can put extra medication into that if she gets anxious ( my dad did and he got aggitated ) we had a hospital bed downstairs for my dad he couldnt stand up at all near the end to be honest, it was horrendous but it was also a blessing when he passed because he was in no more pain, just spend time with your mum, play her favourtite music or read a book to her, she will know your there even if you think she is sleeping she might be just resting.. what you are going through is horrid, but its totally out of your control so you just have to ride the ride im afraid.
take care and give yourself a rest too
L x
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