Can anyone give me any suggestions for dealing with agitation with dying patients.
I have had three such patients where nothing seemed to help.
One gentleman had not experienced any pain throughout his dying process, no pain meds were used. He was not on any medications his last few days. He began hallucinating. His family was at his bedside 24/7, "fixing the plow...getting the parts...etc" His family did not want any narcotics. We used Benadryl the last day to help him rest for brief moments.
A middle aged woman with ovarian cancer. She had pain control with DCN until the final week in which her pain became more intense, tried oxycodone, Morphine (threw up) and Fentanyl (rash). She could only sleep for a few hours at a time, then was just wild. Hallucinations, anger, bound and determined to get up and get somewhere yet too weak to lift her head from the pillow. We tried Lorazepam, Haldol, scents of lavender, pastor care...
What have you used to help? Thanks:)