My mother passed away from cancer in 1975. She was in hospital the last weeks of life. She got pain meds every 4 hours but towards the end, they eased off their potency at about 3 hrs. I remember speaking to the charge nurse and asking why they didn't give her the meds since she was terminal anyway. The answer was, "because as we decline, we get weaker and the nurse administering it doesn't want to give the dose that may cause her death!" ???????????? In other words, it would be layered on too close to the previous one and weaken the heart. I didn't argue but this didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. This was before Hospice. Back then, in our community, they didn't even recommend allowing her to go home to die. Apparently it would be too hard on family in the caring of the person. Times have changed for sure. I've heard many people say that Hospice is wonderful!!
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