Hi. My grandmother was diagnosed with advanced bowel, liver and pancreatic cancer about six weeks ago. She was in hospital for 3 weeks before being allowed to return home for palliative care. She had 2-3 doses of morphine whilst in hospital for the pain and has been able to manage on regular doses of weaker painkillers for the last few weeks. In the last 48 hours she has deteriorated rapidly, is unable to eat and is in a great deal of pain. She is cared for 24hrs a day by her daughters, and last night the district nurse was called out to administer morphine. She has been taking further doses every fours hours since. The macmillan nurses are visiting tomorrow with a view to putting her on a morphine drip. I realise that there is no crystal ball, but in your experience, how long do patients usually survive once the drip has been administered. Also, can the patient hear whils in the coma-like state? Many Thanks.
Hello dear. I appreciate your concern for your grandmother. It seems she is suffering from terminal cancer illness and at this pint of time it will be wise to put her on adequate painkillers as she won't be able to tolerate the chemotherapy. Your doctor can also try patch form of medication(buprenorphine and fentanyl) instead of morphine to relieve the pain. She also requires injectable fluids and nutrition. With all this supportive therapy her survival will be 4 to 6 weeks. Hope that solves your query. Regards