My mother was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer 18 months ago. She was 61, healthy. There were complications after her initial surgery and while in the hospital for the second time she had a stroke, which left her with right side paresis and (severely) cognitively compromised. Today she lives at home with 24 hr care. She has a G Tube, colostomy bag and a fistula in her pelvic area. Her condition is terminal. No health care team does not have an estimate of how long she will live. She lives at home with 24 caregivers. When the fistual appeared 3 weeks ago her oncologist advised us to call Hospice. We did, they came, and an RN immediately said she was going to die of septicemia. We were preparing for her death. 8 days later, due to lack of experience and professionalism, a different Hospice organization came in and immediately diagnosed the "hole in her stomach"as a fistula and that her death was not as imminent as we were told by the previous Hospice. Regardless, they continued my mother on morphine - 30 mg q 3 hours via G tube. Other than the fistula, my mother's condition has not changed. Yes she is depressed, confused, distracted... which is damage done by the stroke. But her vitals are stable and the only pain she refers to is that of her right side limbs, which she has been complaining of since her stroke 18 months ago. But in the past couple of weeks Hospice has decided that this pain/discomfort in her right leg/arm requires 190 mg of (recatally administered) morphine q 12 hrs. My mom has been suffering, we all have, but at least she was able to be present, as much as she could. She was able to sit and watch television... And I understand that she is dying. But she is not experiencing any retractable abdominal pain. With this increased dose of morphine she out, all the time. She looks dead. She barely arouses when we change her diaper. She is the worse I have ever seen her, and my mother looks bad a lot of the time. Is this a correct assessment by the hospice nurse, to have increased her morphine to such an amount? I understand giving that dose to her near the very end if she is in intense pain, but now? Please, what is the logic? I do plan on speaking to the nurse, but my step father is her power of attorney and he just goes with anything the medical staff says. And I don't want to voice my opinion (again) and approach this Hospice staff without knowing more. They will communicate my dissention, if you will, with my step father. And I don't want things to be more difficult than they already are. Please advise.