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Just curious if anyone is using this option for a family member with alzheimers and if the experience was positive and delivered value
When my mom received palliative care, the palliative care nurse focused on helping ameliorate the things that were bothering her. For example, Mom often said that she had pain in her legs. To get help with this from her physician, she would have had to go to the physician's office (traveling, even for appointments, was an ordeal), wait for some amount of time, be seen for not very long by the physician, and receive the type of attention that physicians are trained to provide: "If I can diagnose something, I will try to fix it." The palliative care nurse came to Mom's home (while she was still living there) and then to the assisted-living memory care facility about once per month and took the approach that she might be able to help reduce the pain and that the underlying cause didn't need to be diagnosed or fixed. The visits from the palliative care nurse were at least 1 hour long, at Mom's speed, and the nurse made sure that we all felt comfortable with what was being discussed during the visits. The palliative care nurse made the recommendation for transition to hospice care.
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Reply to Rosered6
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"Palliative care adds support while fighting the disease; hospice provides comfort care when fighting stops."
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Reply to JoAnn29
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Palliative care is wonderful when you can get it and when the gerontologist or your MD are trained in it. I was shocked when in 2020 a huge hospital complex like Desert Regional in Palm Springs had no such thing. One of the Resident MDs told me it was her specialty and she was shocked as well. There is more and more of it now.

I think the wonder of Palliative is that it is the most HONEST care, other than Hospice, rendered today. It allows for what treatment you wish to take, but it recognizes that whatever choices you make are unlikely to substantially prolong your life, or cure anything much at all.

Palliative is my next step with now being 83 and having my second bout with TNBC (Triple Negative Breast Cancer). I have discussed with MDs what treatments I WILL take and what I will decline, circumstances under which I would do hospice and circumstances under which I would do MAid (Medical Assisted death), and have already been through the psychological required visits, and etc. It puts the power and the choices in your hands, or in the hands of the person you assigned to your wishes when you can no longer make them.

Read up. Discuss with Doc. Ask for a referral. The other thing you should know is that palliative care often allows for better and more effective "pain control" given that it is recognized that addiction to a need for medication will not substantially change your life or your life span.

Good luck.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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My father received palliative care through Kaiser for about a year. Doctors and PT for Parkinson’s all came to him. He wasn’t in pain, didn’t need a hospital bed and didn’t need bath aides. That all changed the day mom found him crumpled on the upstairs suite and permanently delirious, a predicted outcome of saying no to dialysis. Thats when we switched to hospice, who provided a hospice bed, a tank of oxygen, antibiotics in case of uti, unlimited diapers and hygiene supplies. The comfort meds took the edge off the pain and agitation that accompanies the dying process.

One major drawback of home hospice is that RNs are in charge of performing medical procedures that would typically only be done by an NP/PA. My sisters witnessed the hapless hospice RN fiddle with my dad’s penis trying to seat a foley until my obgyn surgeon sis took over. At least we had a doctor in the family.
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Reply to PeggySue2020
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I was using palliative care when I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2023. They tried to determine if I was suicidal, primarily. Then wrote prescriptions for antidepressants and that was it. In fact, they never bothered to check that the medication they prescribed was not recommended people over the age of 60. I was 66 at the time. The team was composed of a social worker and a doctor. They were patronizing and useless to me, acting as though they'd never dealt with a person going thru cancer before. Extremely tone deaf and not valuable to me in the least. When I needed a refill, the doctor had actually retired w/o letting his patients know!
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Reply to lealonnie1
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PeggySue2020 3 hours ago
In 2023 you were fighting the cancer into remission with chemo or immunotherapy. How were you eligible for palliative care, defined as exclusively symptom focused as opposed to life extending?

My dad was stage 4b ckd when admitted to KP palliative care. They continued his kidney meds but quit doing labs as my dad did not want dialysis.
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In July of 2018 I had hospice come out and do an assessment for my now late husband who had vascular dementia, and was told at that time that he didn't qualify for their hospice services yet but that he did qualify for their palliative care services which only meant a nurse coming out every 4-6 weeks to check on him and that was about it.
I at the time saw no need for that as that wouldn't help me or him at all. But by Dec. of that same year my husband was under full hospice care in our home where he remained until his death in Sept. 2020.
There's a HUGE difference between palliative care and hospice care, so make sure you understand exactly what you're signing your loved one up for.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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My mother, age 97, has dementia, congestive heart failure, and other aging-related conditions. She lives in an assisted-living memory care facility. She received palliative care for about 1 year; she's now receiving hospice care. We found the palliative care to be very helpful. It was positive and delivered value. I strongly encourage anyone who has access to palliative care for themselves or a loved one to try it.
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Reply to Rosered6
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JustBreathe8 5 hours ago
Hi Rosered-
can you please explain a bit about what the palliative care that your mom received consisted of? And whether you arranged that care through the memory care facility or through a hospital?

Thank you, JB
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