There's a lot of discussion in the physician community now about encouraging palliative therapy in cases where prolonged treatment of disease processes isn't going to do anything but drag out a painful life.
Sarah Palin would probably call this a "death panel."
My aunt, who is a palliative care nurse, despises the whole death panel bullshit. She loathes Palin utterly for that.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
There's a lot of discussion in the physician community now about encouraging palliative therapy in cases where prolonged treatment of disease processes isn't going to do anything but drag out a painful life.
Sarah Palin would probably call this a "death panel."
My aunt, who is a palliative care nurse, despises the whole death panel bullshit. She loathes Palin utterly for that.
Sarah Palin would probably call your aunt another Dr. Kevorkian.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
There's a lot of discussion in the physician community now about encouraging palliative therapy in cases where prolonged treatment of disease processes isn't going to do anything but drag out a painful life.
Sarah Palin would probably call this a "death panel."
My aunt, who is a palliative care nurse, despises the whole death panel bullshit. She loathes Palin utterly for that.
Sarah Palin would probably call your aunt another Dr. Kevorkian.
Well, to be fair my aunt is apparently up there in whatever bragging rights ladder palliative nurses have.
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AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
It's the only job, outside morticians, where it's impossible to get an honest survey from your consumer.
If I'm correct in thinking that palliative therapy for a terminal illness would amount to basically doping the patient up into some euphoric state of semi-consciousness and allowing them to die in a relatively steady, blissfully unaware state, that's how I'd want things to go down for me if that's the hand I'm eventually dealt.
If I'm correct in thinking that palliative therapy for a terminal illness would amount to basically doping the patient up into some euphoric state of semi-consciousness and allowing them to die in a relatively steady, blissfully unaware state, that's how I'd want things to go down for me if that's the hand I'm eventually dealt.
It doesn't have to be that oblivious.
Especially in cases of cancer, the various chemotherapies, radiation, and excising surgeries can be extremely painful and debilitating. Palliative care in those instances would basically eschew all that, and just treat whatever symptoms came along. If your prognosis is pretty grim, you could choose to live six months (or whatever) relatively pain free right up until the end, or a year of agony with little chance for recovery.
Personally, when my time comes I want to douse myself in gasoline and jump off a tall building during lunch hour so everyone can see me go out in a blaze of glory.
That would be awesome.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
If I'm correct in thinking that palliative therapy for a terminal illness would amount to basically doping the patient up into some euphoric state of semi-consciousness and allowing them to die in a relatively steady, blissfully unaware state, that's how I'd want things to go down for me if that's the hand I'm eventually dealt.
It doesn't have to be that oblivious.
Especially in cases of cancer, the various chemotherapies, radiation, and excising surgeries can be extremely painful and debilitating. Palliative care in those instances would basically eschew all that, and just treat whatever symptoms came along. If your prognosis is pretty grim, you could choose to live six months (or whatever) relatively pain free right up until the end, or a year of agony with little chance for recovery.
Among palliative care specialists there is also a push to get medicare to allow people to receive hospice style care without signing away their right to receive other types of care. Right now some patients bounce back and forth in and out of hospice care each time they hear about a new type of treatment and in a lot of ways that is worse for everyone. Plus several (admittedly small) studies have shown that patients receiving hospice/aggressive palliative care along with cure directed care live longer and are less expensive to care for.
So it isn't necessarily a case of giving up, more that there needs to be a shift and recognition that symptom control is as important as cure directed therapy in some patients.
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Sarah Palin would probably call your aunt another Dr. Kevorkian.
Well, to be fair my aunt is apparently up there in whatever bragging rights ladder palliative nurses have.
It doesn't have to be that oblivious.
Especially in cases of cancer, the various chemotherapies, radiation, and excising surgeries can be extremely painful and debilitating. Palliative care in those instances would basically eschew all that, and just treat whatever symptoms came along. If your prognosis is pretty grim, you could choose to live six months (or whatever) relatively pain free right up until the end, or a year of agony with little chance for recovery.
That would be awesome.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1000678#t=articleBackground
So it isn't necessarily a case of giving up, more that there needs to be a shift and recognition that symptom control is as important as cure directed therapy in some patients.