Do You Know What Paliative Care Is?

Discussion in 'Health & Wellness' started by Lon Tanner, Jan 4, 2019.

  1. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Well, I didn't, and never even heard about it until last month. As a resident in a Assisted Living Facility I am also receiving Paliative Care.

    PALIATIVE CARE

    Palliative care is for patients with chronic illness who can continue to receive curative treatments, while hospice care is for patients with terminal illness who have typically chosen to forgo curative treatments. Learn more about palliative care vs. hospice.
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    It’s not that they forgo treatment but there is nothing that can be done anymore in hospice.... chosen is the wrong word to use...my husband didn’t choose....

    My husband would gladly have gone thru more chemo but it just wasn’t an option anymore.

    In Hospice you have to meet the 6 month criteria.

    They won’t throw you out if you go over and some have but most don’t.

    Actually my husband only was in hospice care 6 weeks before he died. Before that he was in hospitals and had some nursing care come to the house and I took care of him.
     
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  3. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Yeah, @Chrissy Cross in order to qualify for Hospice under Medicare, you have to have a 6-month prognosis or less, but I have never seen anyone actually expelled. Medicare or insurance may request another evaluation, I have seen one or two patients last as long as two years in hospice, but that is very rare. I have had patients who were projected to last months die with days of diagnosis, and I have had them last for 6-9 months. I personally have not had anyone last over 9 months.

    Palliative care generally means relieving the symptoms as much as possible, but the medical and insurance definitions are not necessarily the same, but they are similar. You can receive palliative care without a DNR order, but, at least for us, Hospice requires that a DNR order be signed.
     
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  4. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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  5. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes @Don Alaska ....my good friend Bev who was my husband’s hospice volunteer told me she even had one person go off of hospice because they weren’t terminal anymore...forget what they had but it’s very rare for that to happen...a miracle.

    Like I said, My husband was given 6 months and died in 6 weeks. I think he just took a turn for the worse with an infection...nobody was expecting his death the night it happened.

    Actually took him about 24 hrs to die. I actually wished he would hurry up and I felt guilty about that for a while.

    It was very torturous and he wasn’t really with it but would moan even with all they gave him...morphine, methadone, Vicodin, Valium and who knows what else....I’ve forgotten.

    Ugh...hate even remembering it. :(

    The methadone surprised me when hospice put him on it....I always thought it was for people getting off heroin....but it does help with pain.

    Yes, we had to sign a DNR order also...forgot to mention that.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Chrissy, I think that is one of the hardest things when someone you love is dying, and I went through that with my mother when she was dying, and also with my father-in-law.
    I even went through that when Chipper was ready to be put to sleep.

    It is NOT that we are truly wishing for our loved one to die, it is that we love them SO MUCH, and it hurts us so terribly to watch them suffer, and we are only wishing that their suffering would end soon.
    When there is no hope of recovery, then part of our heart knows that the only end will be the loss of the one we love , and we want them out of pain more than we want to keep them; so it is actually a very unselfish desire when we wish for them to die under this circumstance.

    There was a movie that I saw many years ago, and at the beginning, a car with a man and woman went over a small cliff, and then caught fire. The wife was able to get out but her husband was trapped in the burning car, and he begged her to shoot him because she was not able to drag him loose from the vehicle, even though she desperately tried.
    I can’t imagine anything more awful than having to kill someone, but it was the only way she could stop him from burning to death. It really helped me to understand why people can do a mercy killing when a spouse or other loved one is in pain and there is no hope of saving them.
     
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  7. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes..that’s does make sense @Yvonne Smith

    I’ll have to remember that when and if that time comes when I’ll have to put Pickles down....Ive never
    had to do that with a pet. I dread it but think about it at times...:(

    And that’s the moment I give him an unexpected extra hug...like now. :)
     
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