The Need Palliative Care During A Battle With Cancer

Added: 11/02/2007

Those who need palliative care are often in the end stages of cancer, but could also be suffering from some other terminal illness from which they are not expected to recover. Palliative care is not only gentle, informed end-of-life care designed to make the patient comfortable but also meant to educate and prepare the family and patient for death in a comforting manner and to see them through. Care provided might be something as simple as helping the patient with meals or by doing their shopping, or be full time care, especially in the days closest to death.

Despite modern medical advances, there are still thousands of people who lose their battle with cancer every year. In decades past, the diagnosis of cancer was a definite, grim one that few people survived. Treatments were sometimes in vain and could just make the person suffer more horrendously. Palliative care came into existence around this time for people who wanted a more humane end with less suffering in their final days. Those in their ends days during a battle with cancer need palliative care to help ease the pain but it can also be beneficial to those they love. It can offer a more humane ending to life for those who are dying but also their loved ones who are watching them die.

The need for palliative care, also known as hospice care, might become evident in the last month or less when a person is battling cancer. Usually hospice care is decided upon when there are no remaining treatment options left. Whether the battle with cancer has been a short one or a long one, the person has no more available treatment options to them. Sometimes palliative care consists of continued treatments despite the prognosis that has been laid out, mainly to ease discomfort caused by the cancer or another condition that might have come about as a result of treating cancer. Patients need palliative care when their needs have become great, requiring nursing assistance or help from another person if not on a daily basis at least needing help a few times a week. Having been hospitalised several times in the past few months due to treatment, being on lots of medications, needing assistance with everyday activities like eating and bathing, and being told that life expectancy is limited are all qualifications for having hospice/a need for palliative care in most systems for a number of reasons besides just cancer. But cancer is the most common reason for hospice.

So what does hospice do and why have their assistance? Different cancers and other illnesses all have special needs specific to the treatment of the illness, and end-of-life care is no different. If anything, those who need palliative care at this point require greater care than at any other time in their lives. The focus on palliative care is on comfort for both the person who is terminally ill and their family. There will be exceptional medical care and comfort provided, but also spiritual help and help in understanding the dying and grieving processes. The focus is on comfort and understanding, and to help with acceptance. Whatever type of cancer is at hand, the family and patient will be educated fully on all treatment options including ones that are available to the patient. There will be nurses and doctors available to assist in caring for the cancer patient so that the family is not burdened by providing all the care but will be enabled to enjoy this remaining time with their loved one. And then, when death finally comes, the family has comfort in the wake of their loss, provided with assistance and understanding from those who not only know all about death but also knew their loved one as well. The family may not have realised it until death was at hand, but to need palliative care is not just a need for the patient.

Cancer patients can expect nurses who stop by periodically to assist in bathing, eating, running errands or doing personal shopping, simply being someone to visit with, or someone who will educate them about their condition. Doctors will also be visiting periodically to check on the patient and their health condition. Usually both the nurses and the doctors will discuss treatments but also end-of-life wishes such as being allowed to pass away at home, not being on a ventilator, or arrangements for burial. As bleak as some of the duties and topics that might be encountered when there is a need for palliative care, these people are often angels in disguise and have a difficult job that most would not wish to be doing. It is a difficult thing, to see someone dying and provide their family with care and comfort, but often the people who choose this area of the medical profession are exceptional and what they do cannot be matched by any other deeds.

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