Sunday, August 1, 2010

At what point in cancer treatment do they prescribe morphine

At what point in cancer treatment do they prescribe morphine?
A guy at work has a cancer in his neck, he seems pretty healthy and just has had his first cycle of chemo with the catheter and all stage IV the hospice nurse just gave him a morphine prescription. I always thought morphine was the last thing they give you before the patient passed away. Does this mean that they think his time is coming already? he is working and seems healthy
Cancer - 7 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
no. they might be giving him a low dosage of morphine. i am a nurse and when we give morphine, its to releive the pain. but yes we also give it to them if there dying.
2 :
For chronic pain.
3 :
My son was on morphine the first 3 weeks in the hospital for all the pain he was in. My father was on a low dose for 3 years before he passed. It's more for pain and comfort.
4 :
no not at all my cancer was not life threatening but the radiotherapy caused me great pain and morphine was prescribed unfortunely 18 months later i am addicted to it.like you i always thought it was the last medication given to dying patients but it's not so.
5 :
The use of morphine has nothing to do with what stage a patient is. It can be prescribed for patients who are undergoing curative treatment for their cancer or it can be used in palliative patients for symptom control. The decision to use morphine is based on the patient's pain level. If the pain is mild, a simple anti-inflammatory can be used. Once the pain progresses, the next step is a weak narcotic, such as hydrocodone or oxycodone. If this still doesn't alleviate the pain, the next step is to proceed with a stronger narcotic such as morphine or dilaudid. The goal is to get the pain under control. The pain may be due to the cancer or side effects from the cancer treatments. If the cancer is curable, then once the side effects have resolved, the patient will be weaned off of the morphine. If it is a palliative scenario, the patient may be on morphine until they pass away. Dr. Kelly www.canceranswersonline.com
6 :
Morphine is typically used for what they call "breakthrough pain", pain that is unresponsive to most other pain medications, patches, and/or relief techniques. They do give it to people who are terminal but they also give it to people who have a good prognosis. It all depends on the severity of the pain, not how bad off a patient is or if they are terminal or not.
7 :
No , it does not mean he is dying. Its called pain management, which is what I was on. If he was dying, he would not be at work but in a hospital bed with an I.V. and would be on liquid morphine. He is probably taking mild morphine like dilaudids to help lessen the pain or some other generic name brand. Be happy he is there, support him. Stage 4 is not a good thing. He should be glad he has friends like you who care enough to get informed. Life is short, what time we have on this earth is precious. The saying is so true:"There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving".



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