I have accepted a per diem position with a local visiting nurse agency which provides both palliative care and hospice care to people in our region. Since I became a nurse in 1996, I have worked in the urban areas which are located just under an hour from our home. I have always commuted elsewhere to work, and subsequently have never provided nursing care here in my own county.For several reasons,
What is palliative care?'Palliative Care', also called 'comfort care', is primarily directed at providing relief to a person having incurable illness through symptom management and pain management. The goal is not to cure, but to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life for as long as life remains. Well-rounded palliative care programs also address mental health and spiritual needs. The focus is not on death, but on compassionate specialized care for the living. Palliative care is well suited to an interdisciplinary team model that provides support for the whole person and those who are sharing the person's journey in love. For most patients, physical pain is only one of several symptoms. Relief of pain should therefore be seen as part of a comprehensive pattern of
Mom was better after a long good rest of sleep. Father was the same: no big change in his secondary liver cancer, yet more active than yesterday.
Fathers belly is getting as big as well: you know those pictures of kids in Africa that are skinny with a big belly… That’s what fathers’ cancer looks [...]
Try to smell the flowers, like going in your garden and discover the first spring flowers…
That’s what I do to set my mind away from the daily care of fathers’ secondary liver cancer. Each time I watch the flowers, I cry, yet it keeps me sane. If I pretend nothing is wrong, I can imagine [...]
One of moms’ sisters (a retired nurse and care giver in an elderly care home) dropped by today to have a look how we were coping in giving care to father’s metastatic liver cancer. She already stayed with mom a week, so she is a real help. The great thing is that :
She doesn’t [...]
I keep on getting asked: don’t you have palliative care to help you out? As when you have palliative care, all should be smooth and easy…
Oh yes we do have palliative care and oh yes we really need all the help we can get as this metastatic liver cancer is really sucking the energy out [...]
Mom is caregiver to help father with his metastatic liver cancer.
Sounds great, yet mom is 75 years old yet 20 years in spirits. But her body is feeling the fatigue so hard, that now her back is in tremendous pain.
Tramadol
Mom takes a painkiller listed in my Top 10 pain killers. For those who remember [...]
System: General Subject: Cancer Abstract: Palliative care means a relief of suffering for people with serious medical diseases. Cancer is probably the best example. Website: http://www.kavokin.com (http://www.kavokin.com/)Reference: http://www.rdoctor.com (http://www.rdoctor.com/) Reference 2: http://www.symptomat.com (http://www.symptomat.com/) Trackback URL: http://rdoctor.com/medical_link/wp-trackback.php?p=17 (http://rdoctor.com/medical_link/wp-trackback.php?p=17)
