Study: Pallative care helps patients live longer.

[KatieB]

Articles about the study actually came out a couple of days ago but here is the latest from Boston.

For some reason this article mae me think of Carole Hammett. I sure miss her presence here. She sure was special!

http://www.boston.com/news/health/artic ... er/?page=2

[Joppette]

Katie, thank you for sharing this. It's very important. My Mom was diagnosed stage IV, with mets to the brain, bones, and organs. She chose palliative care. They did radiation to her brain, but only to shrink the tumors that were causing her to have seizures.

All other care was to give her the best quality of life possible, as comfortably as possible. I'm so grateful for this. Her sister and brother were both diangosed stage IV - same situation, both of them only lived another 3 months with aggressive chemo and radiation.

My Mom lived almost a year after diagnosis. They had given her two to three weeks.

And it was a wonderful year. We did lots of shopping, going out for lunches and dinners, travels to fun places, and she worked on her art and sewing projects, and truly had an enjoyable time for the most part.

I think the most important part (and makes so many uncomfortable) is that she accepted that she was dying. We are all dying. But coming to that acceptance, and living life as fully as possible, enjoying it to the fullest was what helped me have peace when she passed.

I found this article very interesting, and I am going to put it in my Favorites in case one day I may need something like this.

Judy in MI

[BreathEasy]

I actually wasn't aware what Palliative care was until I read this article (and then researched the term). It really goes to show you that sometimes alleviating the symptoms can help prolong one's life and keep one going. So many people want to just give up because the pain/symptoms are so bad -- which is positively heartbreaking. Maybe Palliative care is simply the best way to go sometimes. .

[KatieB]

they made pallative care sound like hospice care (which when explained to us 8 years ago) was essentially giving up. Aggressive treatment (with poor outcome) was basically our only option aside from "giving up".

I'm glad this study is out now and people are willing to discuss and explore the benefits of this.

[Joppette]

And Katie, let me tell you that Hospice care is not "giving up" as I believe you understand now. When we put my Mom in Hospice care, she said "but it means I'm giving up." And I carefully explained that they were not there to help her die, they were there to help her LIVE WELL.

And they did help her to live well. Because she was in Hospice, her medications (which were thousands of dollars a month) were paid for and delivered by Hospice. They did excellent pain control and advocated for us with the doctors reluctant to give the pain meds. They were amazing people, and I tend to think of them as the ultimate in pallative care.

Obviously this is something I feel strongly about. It is so important to recognize when quality of life outweighs quantity of life.

And yet....still such a delicate topic to discuss because we all crave and want to live! I know that and get it.

Judy