For patients & families · A guide to home medications

The comfort pack.

Within a day or two of admission, a small kit of comfort medications arrives at the home. It lives in the refrigerator, untouched, until it's needed. This guide tells you what's in it, when each one is for, and how to give it. Always call us before giving any of these for the first time — we are happy to walk you through it.

Morphine

20 mg/mL oral concentrate

For pain & breathing

The most useful medication in the pack. A small dose under the tongue helps with both pain and the sensation of being short of breath. Onset is about 15 minutes. The dose is small — usually 0.25 to 0.5 mL — and can be repeated as the nurse directs.

Use the small oral syringe provided. Squirt slowly into the cheek pocket so the patient does not need to swallow. Wear gloves if possible.

Lorazepam

Ativan · 2 mg/mL oral concentrate

For anxiety & restlessness

For anxiety, agitation, or a quiet kind of restlessness — fidgeting, picking at the sheets, an unsettled look. A few drops under the tongue. Often used alongside morphine; they work well together.

Haloperidol

Haldol · 2 mg/mL oral concentrate

For agitation & nausea

For more pronounced agitation — confusion, hallucinations, or a kind of distress that lorazepam alone doesn't quiet. Also a strong anti-nausea medicine. Given under the tongue.

Atropine

1% ophthalmic drops

For noisy breathing

In the last hours, breathing can become loud and rattling — caused by saliva pooling in the back of the throat. It sounds distressing but rarely is to the patient. One or two drops under the tongue dries the secretions and quiets the sound.

Acetaminophen

Tylenol · 650 mg suppository

For fever or mild pain

If swallowing is hard and a fever rises, this rectal suppository brings the temperature down. Keep refrigerated. Wear gloves; a dab of lubricant helps.

Bisacodyl

Dulcolax · 10 mg suppository

For constipation

Pain medicines slow the bowels. If oral laxatives aren't enough — usually after three days without a movement — this rectal suppository helps. The nurse will guide timing.

·Safety & storage

Keep refrigerated in the original kit, with the patient's name on it. Do not move the medications to other bottles.
Lock it up if children or pets visit. Even small amounts of these medications are dangerous to anyone they were not prescribed for.
Wear gloves when giving anything orally; wash hands after.
Write down what you give. The nurse will leave a small log. The time, the dose, and what you observed afterward all help us adjust the plan.
Never share these medications. Diversion is a felony, and these doses are calibrated to your loved one.
At the end of care, leftover medications are destroyed by the hospice nurse in your presence, per DEA rules. Do not flush, give away, or keep "just in case."

Before the first dose

Always call us first.

The first time you reach for the comfort pack, call the 24-hour line. A nurse will help you decide which medicine, what dose, and when to repeat it. After the first time, you'll feel more confident — but the line is still there, every time.

☎

24-hour care line

(903) 470-1994

A nurse picks up. Walks you through it.