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Palliative Care: Support, Comfort and Relief for Chronic Illness
Comfort at the End of Life
Palliative care helps your loved one remain as comfortable and content as possible during his or her final days. It also helps your loved one determine what treatments are best.
Is hospice right for your loved one?Lehigh Valley Hospice can provide your loved one palliative care at the end of life, ensuring he or she is as comfortable and content as possible.
Think about goals for the end of lifeWe all want to be healthy for as long as we can. But, it pays to have a “plan B” in case things don’t go the way we hope they will. Different people want different things at different times. Palliative care helps your loved one think about these goals, which can help determine what treatments are best for him or her. Many doctors will “do everything” unless you tell them not to. This may be good for some people, but not so good for others.
Encourage your loved one to read these statements and decide which is closest to what he or she wants. Then, change the closest statement to say exactly what he or she wants.
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I want to live as long as I can, no matter what I have to go through – even if you have to try to bring me back from death. Even if I am in a coma and am on machines or feeding tubes, I want you to keep me alive.
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I want to live as long as I can, but I don’t want to go through too much. I will go to the hospital or take more medications. But I don’t want surgery, and I don’t want to be on a machine to breathe. If I am dying, let me go.
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I’m willing to risk having a difficult surgery if there is any chance it will make me better. But if things go badly, let me go.
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I want to be comfortable as long as I can. The length of my life is less important than being comfortable. I don’t want to go to the hospital, and I don’t want a lot of extra stuff done except to make me feel better. If I can’t eat or drink, I don’t want artificial feeding or hydration.
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I am ready to go, and the sooner the better. I don’t want to be treated for anything that might help me pass more quickly, not even an infection. Just keep me comfortable.
Once your loved one knows what he or she wants:
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Help your loved one talk to his or her doctor or another health care provider with whom he or she feels comfortable. The health care provider can help make sure everyone understands exactly what your loved one wants. Be sure to have your loved one put it in writing so that it is available for all doctors when needed.
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Encourage your loved one to talk to everyone in your family (including all of his or her children), and to not assume everyone already knows. It saves worry and guilt.
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Talk to your loved one about having a legal document. It doesn’t need to be drawn up by a lawyer or be notarized. Your loved one’s doctor has forms. A durable power of attorney appoints someone to make decisions if your loved one can’t speak for him or herself. An advance directive spells out details of what he or she wants. Your family situation and health condition will help your loved one decide which is best.
Keep in mind, your loved one may change his or her mind at any time. People often start in one place and end in another.
This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
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Palliative Care: Support, Comfort and Relief for Chronic Illness
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