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Old Mon Dec 10, 2012, 12:35 AM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Getting the right pain medication and the right dose are important. Doctors may not guess right on the first try. Your mom may be getting more than she needs (and high doses are more likely to cause hallucinations and disorientation) but too little would leave her in pain, which is even worse. There are also alternatives to morphine that may not have the same side effects. Morphine made my wife nauseous but hydrocodone did not, so her doctor switched her. They didn't have a way to know which to give her in advance.

If there are pain specialists available to help your mom, they'll be more attuned to your mom's specific needs. Don't be shy about asking who is in charge of her pain medications, how they determined the drug and dose, if they are monitoring the side effects, and whether other choices would be appropriate given the side effects.

I'm sorry you have to deal with so much.
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