Best Hospice Services
Best Hospice Services Informing And Connecting Patients to Quality Care
LOS ANGELES (PRWEB)
January 19, 2020
End of Life Care for Cancer
Cancer is one of the most serious modern-day diseases, and its prevalence has increased drastically over the past years. This increased prevalence can be owed to multiple lifestyle factors. Many new treatments have been developed and are being developed to treat this dangerous disease but the mortality rate is still on the higher side. A lot of people come to know about their condition on the later stages. Once cancer spreads to the other organs of the body, it becomes almost impossible to treat it completely. The only option left is supportive care. That is when the role of end of life care for cancer jumps in. Let’s go into more details to understand the end of life care or hospice care.
What is End Stage Cancer?
Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of cells. This can happen in any tissue ranging from your skin to your brain. Cancer can involve your internal and external organs. Even a simple mole can transform into cancer. These rapidly proliferating cancer cells do not function like normal cells, and they keep on dividing unchecked making a big mass. This rapidly dividing mass not only utilizes a big amount of body’s energy, but also affects surrounding structures. It presses on other organs and causes symptoms.
These cells can also break off and go to the other parts of the body. Once it happens, cancer starts growing on multiple locations. On this stage, patient starts having severe symptoms like drastic weight loss, loss of appetite, severe pain, fever, nausea, vomiting and so on. Due to extensive involvement, curing the cancer becomes impossible. This is called end stage cancer or terminal cancer as it leads to death. [1]
How is Cancer Treated?
The usual treatment of cancer involves three main modalities; surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Surgery is done to remove the cancerous mass or decrease its size.
Chemotherapy consists of oral or injectable strong medications that kill cancer cells.
Radiotherapy uses radiations to damage and kill cancer cells.
There are other treatment modalities, such as brachytherapy, hormonal therapy etc. that are specific to some kinds of cancers. All of these treatment options are quite painful and come with their own complications. [2]
Why Do Patients Prefer Hospice Care Over Traditional Care?
As described above, usual cancer treatment consists of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The treatment choice is made according to the type and extent of cancer. More than one modality is used to treat or cure cancer. However, when cancer has spread beyond its original location, these modalities can only help control symptoms to some extent and do not cure the disease. Surgeries are performed to decrease the size of mass, so that it does not press on surrounding structures and cause problems, such as swallowing difficulties, swelling and pain. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy also help reduce the size.
However, this treatment is painful and causes many side effects and complications. These include infections, bleeding, nausea, vomiting, low hemoglobin, damage to surrounding structures, severe pain, headaches and what not. This can be very bothersome for the patient provided that cure is not possible. The treatment becomes more painful than beneficial. [3]
This is why, patients decide to skip all this pain and adopt hospice care over traditional cancer treatment. Hospice care ensures a better quality of life and in some cases, it has also been reported to be associated with a prolonged life.
What is Best Hospice Services?
Wake up and notice the other choices in receiving healthcare information and be connected to care. When people generally have serious life-threatening illnesses they are usually recommended to be in traditional treatments. Traditional treatments are associated with suffering and pain such as chemotherapy, surgery and many other pain-causing procedures. Driving back and forth to hospital visits and clinics can take a toll on the family and person. In some circumstances when the patient’s condition is not improving there is a choice called hospice care. Hospice care focuses on quality of life and comfort.
Best Hospice Services is a tool that connects patients to exceptional hospice services. Further, they have articles that answer common questions about hospice care. Best Hospice Services, in essence, is a resource to families and people. A resource where people can call asking questions about the service, and read more information on illnesses to become educated about hospice related issues. Our main goal is to educate families about the hospice process.
Best Hospice Services sits with industry leaders such as physicians and nurses collecting vital information about hospice services, end of life care diseases and publishes on our site. By educating patients and families we establish a higher level l of care. Our service providers are all quality assured and are only the best in the industry. Implementing quality assurance only hiring highly reviewed and recommended staff. Best Hospice Service goes the extra mile by conducting a customer satisfaction survey to improve the service.
What is Hospice Care?
Hospice care is a type of care plan designed for terminally ill patients. It focuses on improving the quality of patient’s life by managing pain and other symptoms. It not only treats physical symptoms, but also takes care of patient’s emotional needs. In simple words, hospice care focuses on making patient’s life as comfortable as possible in every possible way. It uses a holistic approach to solve patient’s problems.
Hospice care, also known as end of life care, is started once patient and his or her loved ones decide that traditional treatment to cure or reduce the severity of disease is not working anymore and is only bringing more pain and suffering to the patient. Hospice care is provided by trained staff who cater to patient’s need. This is a teamwork and usually involves a doctor, nurse, counselor, social worker, home health helpers, and some volunteers. They work together to ensure that patient’s rest of life is as good as it can be. Hospice care also involves family members. The team ensure that they are providing support to your family as well. [4]
What does Hospice Care for Cancer Include?
Cancer is a painful disease. It not only causes physical pain, but also leads to emotional trauma. Hospice care or end of life care for cancer focuses on all aspects of the disease and aim to keep patient as comfortable and symptom free as possible. Following are different components of the end of life care for cancer. [5]
A doctor
Nursing care
Painkillers to ease pain
Other medications, such as anti-sickness drugs, medications for fever etc.
In case of shortness of breath an oxygen cylinder is attached
Bowel and bladder care
Other symptomatic care
Dietary care
Chaplains for spiritual support
Counselors for emotional support
Home health aides that help with routine care like bathing and teeth brushing
Physical therapists
Massages
Art therapy as required
Support for family members in caring for the patient and grieving after the patient dies
What should the End of Life Care for Cancer Start?
The patient is a good candidate for hospice care if:
The cancer is terminal and traditional treatment is no longer working.
You and your doctor have stopped trying to treat.
According to doctor, the patient’s life span is 6 months if cancer takes its natural course.
You are more interested in a good quality of life rather than a longer life span.
Treatment is bringing more pain than comfort.
Does Hospice Care Mean Early Death in Terminal Cancer?
There is this misconception that hospice care can cause early death. It is true that all efforts to cure the disease are stopped when the end of life care starts. However, this does not necessarily mean that life span will be shortened. In fact, cancer treatment itself can be very painful for terminally ill patients and sometimes the complications and distress caused by it can lead to death.
On the other hand, a longer than expected life span has been observed in some patients who were receiving hospice care. There can be multiple reasons for it. The end of life care improves patient’s comfort and also caters to his or her emotional and spiritual needs that can help. [6]
Looking for hospice care for you or your loved one? Get in touch with us and ensure the best possible terminal care!
http://www.besthospiceservices.com
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26811/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3773981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537296/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4732180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3183935/
“We started with a team of three in 2014 and have grown to more than 150 employees today through our network,” said Sannia Iqbal, who holds a degree in medicine and surgery. “Our team members are core to everything we do to help practices thrive. We’re honored to be named one of the Best Customer Care experience in LA — it reflects the care we take to support our team, knowing their happiness and well-being contribute to our success.”
Find Out More:
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