Hospice medication changes

Quilting brings calm

Mom has been on hospice for two weeks. She’s been extremely anxious. Hasn’t left her room much at the AL, had her meals brought to her room. The first week she kept accusing me of abandoning her to the hospice staff( I was there 5 times in 9 days). The second week she called me 3 times a day with the same questions: what happened to me, what’s going on with me, why won’t anyone tell me anything, am I going to die? No matter what I tell her, she doesn’t believe me. She’s just sure something happened to cause her confusion to increase ( nothing happened). She might have had a UTI, but that’s cleared up with an antibiotic.You can’t prove a negative especially to someone who can’t understand logic or remember a conversation.

So last Friday the hospice doctor added in Seroquel. Today Ativan was added. She is already on sertraline and mirtrazipine. The hospice nurse said she would stay on those.

The doctor wants to take her off gabapentin - he thinks it is no longer effective. I told the nurse the gabapentin was for her neuropathy and that it was effective at controlling her burning and tingling. I also said they could take it off - but they might need to put it right back on.

So what does everyone think about these changes? Likely to work or not?

M1

They sound like reasonable moves, obviously time will tell. The gabapentin is not doing any harm so makes sense to leave it alone. Keep us posted how she does