Difficult as it was, I assisted a nurse who had our client on a commode. She lifted this lovely lady, as volunteers are not to do this, while I wiped her bottom, and put two different creams on, one for each part of her body. We settled her back into her reclining wheelchair. The RN showed me the information sheet with various phone numbers. She put out the breakout morphine pills, in case she had the need for additional pain medications above the regular morphine dosage morning and night. These are pills I would simply pass to her.

My client has ALS and cannot speak. To my mind, that must be the most difficult disease. A steep decline, with no hope in a disease trajectory that is fast, predictable, and lets you keep your faculties. It is what is. We cannot weep or mope while there is work to do. We live in the present. We prepare for the future.
 Read more here, about disease trajectory, end-of-life decisions.