Acute pain is what we think of when we think of advanced cancer. We have all heard or seen with our own eyes how advanced cancer patients were gripped in intense pain in their last stage. My late mum's sister-in-law was one example. She died of advanced breast carcinoma and I remember how my uncle had to stay awake each night to rub Chinese analgesic lotion on her. She described her pain as being set on fire.
And that was the pain I feared for my mum in October last year. But thankfully, after my mum was given palliative care, she was comfortable. Her pain was so intense that the specialists gave her the Fentanyl patch so as to not overdose on morphine. She did not experience any pain at all from the moment she used the Fentanyl patch. (Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morhpine ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl)
Her tumor had grown and spread to her bones, lungs, chest wall, liver and brain. But she did not experience any pain. Not even up to her last conscious day. When I asked her if she was in pain, she'd shake her head. By that time, she could no longer speak.
Her discomfort came from breathlessness. Although oxygen mask and additional morphine were given, she was still gasping like a fish out of water. (Morphine helps to relieve breathlessness.)
I know this post is so out of "character", no one wants to read such topics. It's boring. Why did I write it? So that anyone whose family member has cancer would know that they do not need to suffer the pain. Ask your oncologists/surgeons to refer you to palliative care.
