Is AML leukemia painful?
My grandmother was diagnosed with AML leukemia (m5 subtype) two weeks ago. She is 90 years old and she is too weak to receive treatment, so now she is at her home with a nurse, under palliative care only. My question is, will death from AML be too painful? Is she going to require strong painkillers, and which ones are usually prescribed?
- midnightmoon62
Aml is not painful in the respect that you dont have a tumor pressing on anything causing pain.
However, the patient will be extremely anemic. This will cause shortness of breathe. A possible cod with aml is essentially suffucating. In this case, death is very painful.
Her platelet count will also be very low. Another possible cod is blood loss. If she is bleeding internally, it can be painful, especially if the bleed is in the brain. I am unsure how it would feel is she were to bleed out from a cut.
Her immune system is also shot. Cod could be an infection. In which case she would probably be in septic shock by the time she died and hallucinating.
Cardiac arrest, renal failure, bp dropping too low, dehydration are also possible cods. These are somewhat painful too.
None of these are a pretty death, but it could be worse. It will probably come quick, with in the next few weeks. Aml is very agressive and doesnt take long to kill with out treatment.
I cant be positive on what they would give in this situation, but in general aml patients are given meds like ativan, morphine, and oxycodone. The narcotic pain killers are given more because tylonal will mask a fever and these narcotics dont contain tylonal. It is very important to know if she has an infection.
I know most people wont agree with me, and this may not be the path for your grandmother, but I am a full supporter of human euthanization. In this case, all pain can be avoided.
Leukemia — Comprehensive overview covers symptoms, causes, risk factors, treatment of this blood-related cancer.
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