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anonymous581817 Asked April 2019

What exactly is palliative care??

My Mother is in the hospital for dehydration.. She also has a version of dysphagia.. but is eating "honey" textured food. She also has dementia but knows who I am and can speak to me and also recognizes people and can carry some conversations. She was giving alot of medications that she wasnt use to( from no BP meds to 5 BP meds) and was knocked out from the meds and in the hospital they are suppose to adjust the meds. But now I got a call from Palliative care to make an appointment to talk..


I dont want my mother on either hospice or palliative care unless I see that she doesnt want to live which at this point is not the case.


So what do you think they will discuss at this meeting and when should someone go on Palliative care?

BarbBrooklyn Apr 2019
For us , Palliative Care meant that we stopped having mom sent to the hospital for things like pneumonia and UTIs. They could be handled in the NH and if they couldn't, we made our peace with that.

The ambulance rides and hospitals stays do more harm than good at some point. You need to decide where that point is.

shad250 Apr 2019
MONEY

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Daughterof1930 Apr 2019
Palliative literally means “not a cure” It’s care designed to provide for ongoing needs while realizing there won’t be a cure or fix possible.


worriedinCali Apr 2019
Palliative care is specialized care, where the focus is in relieving the patients symptoms in order to improve the quality of life. The palliative care team met with the family about my FIL, who has been hospitalized for 4 months now. I didn’t go to the meeting myself, my husband went and he said they wanted the 3 kids to take FIL home & take care of him themselves. Because they were having a hard time finding a rehab to take him. What I have gathered is that they were recommending palliative care (comfort care) to treat his systems & keep him comfortable rather than keeping him in the hospital trying to cure every problem that crept up.

dont feel pressured to agree to anything. Weigh the options. Ask lots of questions. And please, consider your mothers quality of life above all else. Making these kind of decisions is extremely difficult! I am so sorry.

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