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Mom will be 91 in a few weeks. Her knees are basically bone on bone. So she is almost bedridden. She manages to get to the chair in the living room for 5-7 hours of the 24 hour day to watch The Walton’s. There is a potty chair beside the recliner and one beside her bed. That is the extent of her movement.
She started wearing a daily transdermal nitro patch this last year. Her current cardio doctor won't do tele medicine visits. I'm requesting one of his colleagues (who does do telemedicine visits) waive the initial in-person visit and just read the charts from the other doctor. Still waiting/hoping this goes through.
In meantime, because it is such a waiting game, I reached out to the primary doctor to ask if they could simply take over writing the Rx for the transdermal patches. Mom will not be having any surgeries or procedures for her heart. They will not assume this responsibility and the person who left a message suggested palliative care so she could get her meds.
I don't really understand why that was suggested. Can anyone enlighten me to the ins and outs of western medicine in this respect?
Sorry for the long explanation.

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What does it mean when a patient is put on palliative care?

Overview. Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness. It also can help you cope with side effects from medical treatments. The availability of palliative care does not depend on whether your condition can be cured.

If your mother doesn't want curative treatments and only relief from pain, standard doctors won't keep writing prescriptions for pain pills or patches. They are limited by law and DEA regulations. Palliative care focuses on pain relief and other meds to cope with life when an elder has issues such as your mom does at 91, and not wanting knee replacement or heart surgery.

Good luck.
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Reply to lealonnie1
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So, I'm not wrong to be confused. She wants and needs the nitro patches. I don't understand why they suggested Palliative care as a means for her to get her prescriptions. Thank you for your reply!!!
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Reply to Laineyisat
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So, I'm not wrong to be confused. She wants and needs the nitro patches. I don't understand why they suggested Palliative care as a means for her to get her prescriptions. Thank you for your reply!!!
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Reply to Laineyisat
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It’s likely that the palliative care physician would be willing to take over writing ALL her current scripts including her nitro patches . You could have this one doctor handle everything . This doctor would be her new primary doctor and the only doctor she ever deals with going forward . It’s meant for people who no longer want curative measures like surgeries, procedures , diagnostic testing etc. The very elderly are usually DNR / DNI status as well . It’s for people who are not ready for hospice yet .
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Reply to waytomisery
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ALL FOR IT. A palliative care MD will not require testing and treatments your mother no longer wishes to take part in and they are MUCH more liberal with medications and prescription. Look up what Palliative care is and I would suggest that you GO FOR IT. One and done would likely be the way of it with visits if that's what you wish. You can discuss Hospice easily with them when and if your mother is amenable.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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waytomisery Aug 21, 2024
I agree . This is the way to go .
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Another advantage is that a palliative care practitioner can come to the home, to eliminate the need for office visits or even telehealth. We didn’t have the option of a physician for my husband, but rather a nurse practitioner so had to keep his primary care physician. That was no problem because essentially the nurse practitioner took over his care, including writing prescriptions. He told me he never thought his pain would be as well-controlled as it was, which was a gift in his last months.
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