Help Father has terminal cancer?!
Question: Help Father has terminal cancer.?
My problem is he has stage 4 cancer he is nearing the end of his life and he doesn't believe in hospice! The problem is I am the one who administers his medicine and the simple fact of the matter is it terrifies me.. What can I expect to happen.? HELP (Colon Cancer, Metastatic Liver)Health Question & Answer
Answers:
At stage 4, you and your dad need all the resources you can get to help him through the last moments.
I just want to clarify the following resources that you can tap into.
Long Term Care - Hospice: Where your dad can go into a nursing home type facility, and the nursing staff will provide the end of life care there. Basically, your dad will die at this facility.
Home Hospice: The patient stays home and opts to pass on in his own residence. Your insurance will provide the medical equipment (oxygen, bed, commodes, medicine, etc), and periodic nursing care visits and possibly ADL (acitivities of daily living) care at your residence.
No Hospice: This makes it so difficult for everyone involved. When there's a crisis for the patient, the caregivers have no choice but to resort to calling 911 each time there is a problem like an infection or shortness of breath, or severe pain.
I hope for your sake, that your dad will consent to the hospice care, and that your insurance will cover it. Otherwise, maybe, at the very least, your insurance will send a home health care nurse to come make sure his medications are effective, and take his vital signs once in a while.
As a previous case manager and discharge planner, I know that you are entitled to these services through your insurance.
Wish you much luckHealth Question & Answer
I just want to clarify the following resources that you can tap into.
Long Term Care - Hospice: Where your dad can go into a nursing home type facility, and the nursing staff will provide the end of life care there. Basically, your dad will die at this facility.
Home Hospice: The patient stays home and opts to pass on in his own residence. Your insurance will provide the medical equipment (oxygen, bed, commodes, medicine, etc), and periodic nursing care visits and possibly ADL (acitivities of daily living) care at your residence.
No Hospice: This makes it so difficult for everyone involved. When there's a crisis for the patient, the caregivers have no choice but to resort to calling 911 each time there is a problem like an infection or shortness of breath, or severe pain.
I hope for your sake, that your dad will consent to the hospice care, and that your insurance will cover it. Otherwise, maybe, at the very least, your insurance will send a home health care nurse to come make sure his medications are effective, and take his vital signs once in a while.
As a previous case manager and discharge planner, I know that you are entitled to these services through your insurance.
Wish you much luckHealth Question & Answer
End stage colon and liver cancer may prove to be an extreme challenge to you for nursing care as the end draws closer. I imagine your father fears hospice because he wishes to avoid the thought that the end is coming. Hospice would mean he accepts that. The biggest challenge is usually with pain control, and not knowing where you live it's hard to say what sort of assistance you could provide him while he is still at home. He will gradually get weaker and weaker, and sleep more. It's difficult to say exactly what will happen as the end draws nearer. He may become incontinent and disoriented, he may not. I think it's time perhaps you, he and his doctor had a very frank discussion about what he and you face in the future, and your ability to provide for his needs. It will also help if you get him to admit what his precise objections to hospice care are, and see if you can address those. I have had elderly patients who were adamant about the desire to die in their own beds, at home with their family, because they feared dying alone in a strange place. A visit to a hospice may help him overcome this. It may also come down to a honest discussion with the doctor, if the means to control his pain at home will be limited, to get him to accept the necessity of hospice care as the end draws close. He can remain at home as long as possible, and perhaps some assistance can be provided to you with the day to day nursing care and medicine administration until it becomes no longer possible. I'm sorry you are facing this sort of challenge, and that your father is being somewhat unreasonable. It is understandable though, fear is an awful thing. If all else fails, you can also know that should he become incapacitated, the doctor can admit him to hospice directly. Hopefully it will not reach that point, and you can get your father to come to more reasonable arrangements before that happens. If not, do the best you can do, as nobody can ask you for more than that. And if you need help, relief or assistance, for heaven's sake speak up and get it, no matter what he thinks. Dying is the relatively easy part, it's the nursing and surviving that is hard sometimes.Health Question & Answer
I would STRONGLY suggest that you contact your local Visiting Nurse Service. Have somebody pay you a visit and find out what services are available to you.
A nurse can oversee or even administer medications (depending on how frequently they are taken.)
In the end it will come down to the amount of medical attention that he will need. If it is more than you are capable and/or qualified to do and more than can be done by a visiting nurse, there may be no alternative to finding some sort of facility to give him the care that is necessary. If it comes down to that -- hospice would probably be preferable to a hospital or nursing home.Health Question & Answer
A nurse can oversee or even administer medications (depending on how frequently they are taken.)
In the end it will come down to the amount of medical attention that he will need. If it is more than you are capable and/or qualified to do and more than can be done by a visiting nurse, there may be no alternative to finding some sort of facility to give him the care that is necessary. If it comes down to that -- hospice would probably be preferable to a hospital or nursing home.Health Question & Answer
is he in pain:pain meds are administered in IV and:as a patch.
My dad is in a nursing home,i see the nursing aids use the pain patch:its much stronger than morphine.
I know it sounds bad, but if his liver is failing, he may go into a coma.
You cant look after a comatosed patient:he will be in a hospital.
Health Question & Answer
My dad is in a nursing home,i see the nursing aids use the pain patch:its much stronger than morphine.
I know it sounds bad, but if his liver is failing, he may go into a coma.
You cant look after a comatosed patient:he will be in a hospital.
Health Question & Answer