LivingSouth Asked July 2016
Anyone on here used palliative care and if it helped cut down the number of doctor visits?
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I am so fed up with WAITING on all of these doctor offices to call me back. Parents have multiple problems, so it's not unusual for us to have at least two visits per week. Does Palliative Care deal with the doctors, or does the caregiver still deal with them? I have sat around for two days trying to deal with their offices and they often don't even call you back when they say they will. It takes 25 minutes to just get one office on the phone.
Already worn out from dealing with home repairs, my own health problems and this aggravation is kind of the last straw. I know that PC only comes once a month, so I am wondering if it would make any difference in getting them to come?
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Today my mother started in again about being in pain and wanting to see a doctor. They only give her Tramadol and it makes her even more crazy, but that is the only thing she can take with other prescriptions. She says that 'no one cares that she is in pain.' And she would drive if she could... I hear this everyday.
Regardless, she wants another solution. My father has went to the same doctor three times in one month wanting a different diagnosis ( or maybe he just forgot that he had already been there) Now my father is sick, also. He just saw his primary doctor the other day (and he always tells him that he is 'fine', so I have to shake my head - no!
My siblings have taken them to some appointments, and I think they are getting irritated.
At any given time I am dealing with about fifteen things that I am trying to do, and dealing with
the doctors on top of all that is driving me crazy. I never get time to do anything for myself.
And I never get gratitude, just accusations that I am not 'fixing' everything.
To Living South, I don't know the details with your folks but the two remedies that come to my mind are:
Just cut out the unnessary appointments.
Get them into care where they have visiting docs on staff.
I know this is all easier said than done but the hospitals and docs usually have no clue and could care less what all these check up and monitoring appts are like for the elders and caregivers. It's like a professional arrogance.
Mom ended up in the hospital and then independent living ( it didn6happen overnight). Once in IL, the lovely geriatrics guy there took over mom's care. He took her off most of her meds except for bp stuff, and had her see a geriatric psychiatrist for her anxiety.
In my opinion, a good geriatrics doc is what someone over, say, 85, needs. Less is more in terms of meds and tests. That might be an alternative to official palliative care.
If a doctor said I didn't need mammograms any more, I'd be doing a happy dance.
I found that a small practice where they have no PA's is better. I found that a place with lots of doctors and PAs results in too many patients, over booking, strained support staff, and never seeing a doctor when you're sick. Only when you have an appointment for months do you see the doctor. If you are sick and go in, it's just a PA. I don't like that.
I can just recount my experience. Most of my loved one's visits are to check her diabetes, which is for comfort care. If her blood sugars are too high or low she may suffer physically, so we have to keep check on that. And also she's treated for fractures. If not for those things, I think her visits would be down.
I discussed it with her doctor in detail, so we are on the same page. We get her immunizations, treat pain, and opt for non-invasive courses of action.
My parents primary doctor wanted to see both of them every 3 months... all she did was check their heart, pulse, ears, etc. and asked how they felt..... it was like an instant replay of their visit 3 months prior.
I thought palliative care was called in just before hospice was called. I would think the caregiver would still be taking their parent(s) to the doctors.
It was times like this that I wished my parents would have moved to Independent Living where there was a doctor's office on site, to which they could go every week if they wished.
It got to a point where I didn't visit my own doctors because I was so sick of waiting rooms, plus I didn't have any more vacation days or sick days to use from work :(
My mother just got a CT scan because they saw something on her lung. The test said that she had a possible aneurism on her spleen ( not sure what this means) She had me take her to an ENT for a lump on her neck and the doctor told her that she was 'supposed to have a gland there on your neck.'
She is also having pain problems and constantly wants to go to this or that doctor. There have been weeks when they had four appointments in that week.
The local hospice is pushing palliative care for anyone with a chronic condition, so I wondered if getting them done to just the family doctor though the program would help?
Yesterday my whole day was thrown away because I was waiting on a call and I couldn't call anyone because I had to keep the line open. They finally called about 4 pm.
I would suggest that you determine based on your parents Advanced Directive what you as their healthcare representative feel is appropriate care. Once you decide that, make an appointment to talk with their doctor without your folks being present and explain to him what your care plan goals are. If your goals are reasonable and he doesn't agree then it's time to start looking for another doc. Not all docs are good at end of life care.
There is one thing to understand, if you do not have legal Healthcare Power of Attorney or if your folks have not signed a release of information the doctor and his staff may not be able to discuss your parents with you. That's the law. So, you'll want to be sure you have one of those. It's also important to share your parents Advanced Directive with the doctor so he'll know what their wishes are.
Another thing to remember is that your parents have the right to refuse treatment. That includes lab tests, referrals etc. It's important to remember that in America most healthcare is a business with a goal to make money. Sometimes, we as caring family members have to step in and just say "NO" it's not in my loved one's best interest.
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