I gave Mom morphine

Tonight my Mom had her terrible cough again, despite giving her benedryl.

So finally, I decided to give her some morphine. Not much. I have no idea how it will affect her.

I also gave her some atrophine, which is suppose to dry up the secretions.
I was careful to only give her a little, as the last time, she had hallucinations for 2 days.

I don't know what else to do. All I can do is make her comfortable. She still seems somewhat "with it". I just hate for her to be miserable, and that is why we have these drugs.

Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we will have a hard freeze. I think most of her problem is allergies, and a hard freeze will take care of that.

If that's not the culprit, then she is dying.

Well, she is dying. The question is, how soon?

Mom is coughing again

Mom starting coughing yesterday evening.

I gave her ice chips, but that didn't seem to really help. Maybe it felt good, but it didn't stop the coughing. I am quite certain this coughing is caused by drainage from allergies. Mom has always had a problem with allergies.

Finally, after an hour or so, the cough not yet going away, I put a few drops of Atropine in her mouth. This is to dry up secretions.

I also turned her on her side, and put both Vick's Vapor rub and muscle cream on her back. Thinking, if nothing else, maybe the fumes will clear up her sinuses.

I pulled her up straighter, and told her to take a deep breath. She did this a couple of times, and was able to get out a good cough.

Then I mixed up some honey and lemon juice, and gave it to her by drops. I took a straw and dipped it in the mixture, put my finger over the end of the straw to hold the liquid in the straw, and then put it in her mouth. Guess I should try and buy and eye dropper.

My brother came last night. I asked him to check on her every so often. I called him around midnight, he said she had coughed, but not as much.

This morning she seems OK.

I just hate it when this happens. I always think "is this the end?"

I crushed up an allergy pill to give to her this morning. Perhaps that will help throughout the day.

The cough syrup doesn't seem to really do the trick.

I guess once we have the first hard freeze, this will be over. No wonder Mom has always liked winter.

Mom quit coughing (and not because she died)

My mom had a cough this last week. I thought it was allergies, so I gave her allergy pills, which helped for 3 days. Then it started again, so after doing some research on the internet (so as not to kill her off) I decided some cough syrup wouldn't hurt.
So for the last 2 nights I have been giving her cough syrup.

This morning, amazing! She hasn't been this talkative in weeks.

Maybe it was the cough syrup. Maybe it's the allergy pills. Maybe it's because it's been raining, which took the pollen out of the air.

Whatever it was, mom is doing much, much better. At least as far as talking and eating, and not sleeping as much.

But that's for today. Who knows what next week will bring.

She continues to loose weight. The skin on her behind is loose. The nurse commented how mom is so thin, that anywhere she puts the stethoscope on the chest area, she can hear a heartbeat. The nurse confirmed her lungs are clear, which was my main concern.

Everything I have read, talks about the "gurgling sounds" which patients make when the lungs are filling up. They say it often bothers the family, but that it is not painful.

Well, how would they really know this?

I remember when everyone use to say a hook in a fish's mouth didn't hurt them either. I never believed it, and recently there has been a change of opinion about the fish.

Maybe they will change their mind about this also.

I just hope and pray when my mom dies, that it is quick.

Well, forget that pray bit. I'm kind of mad at God. He hasn't answered those other prayers, so I don't know why I would get this one answered.

Now I know why the Greeks had more than one God.