Essay On Terminal Cancer

- Palliative care and lack of it (the patient with torturous pains caused by side effects of full dose rounds of chemotherapy and ovarian cancer did not get the right of controlled analgesia).

According to Allen et al. (2012), “millions of people with chronic illnesses endure unrelieved pain, uncontrolled physical symptoms and unresolved psychosocial or spiritual problems.” This issue occurs because palliative care is often considered a form of end-of-life care. Palliative care is a treatment that can be used for patients who suffer from chronic illnesses and diseases while receiving curative treatment. (Horowitz, Grambling & Quill, 2014) purposely states the misconceptions of palliative care and advocated for seriously ill patients that education must bring under control the misconceptions. Some patients do not receive appropriate symptom management because the palliative care treatment needed is often confused with end-of-life care. However, end-of-life care attempts to relieve pain and suffering when a disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment. Pain and suffering could ultimately be controlled or even eliminated through the proper utilization of palliative care. Patients who are not referred to palliative care in a timely manner is more likely to have poor quality of life, uncontrolled symptom management and increased amounts of visits to the emergency room during the disease process. Patients with life limiting illnesses bear the burden of increased discomfort and increased suffering. Nurses experience clinical practice issues and difficulties in the clinical setting during the delivery of comfort and symptom management. These issues

Pain is one of the most common and feared complications of cancer. It is exacerbated by stress, anxiety, fatigue, and malaise which accompany advanced cancer. Pain is generally absent in the early stages of cancer, but it is a significant factor as the illness progresses to advanced stages. Cancer-associated pain can arise from a variety of direct and indirect mechanisms including direct pressure, obstruction, and invasion of a sensitive structure, stretching of visceral surfaces, tissue destruction, infection, and inflammation (McCance 2010). Pain is generally accepted as whatever the patient says it is, wherever the patient says it is. Treatment of pain and its associated symptoms is a primary responsibility of the healthcare team. Treatment modalities for pain include the use of opioid analgesics, patient-controlled analgesia, psychological interventions, and preventing recurrence of pain. Reinforcing the reporting of pain by the patient is important, as is a respect for the social and cultural differences with respect to pain perception.

Adequate pain and symptom management is an essential component of palliative and end-of-life care and has a direct impact on patient and caregiver experience. In September 2014, the Champlain CCAC, in collaboration with regional pharmacies, service provider organizations, the Regional Palliative Consultation Team and community palliative care physicians, introduced a Champlain Wide Pain and Symptom Management Kit (SMK). The SMK is a standard package of medications and related medical supplies placed in the home of a patient who is approaching the end-of-life for the purpose of relieving unanticipated or rapidly escalating symptoms in a timely manner.

Identification of pain has been the most feared and common symptom of cancer (Sloan, et al. 1999). The joint project that includes primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care were successful in breaking down the barriers that crossed traditional boundaries in cancer care. Steering committee member were identified and meetings took place between multi-professional teams and project coordinators to identify their issues and concerns and communication, discharge, pain management and symptom control were identified. Multidisciplinary groups worked were

Previously, many families chose to send their loved one into hospice care, but with the recent advancements in medical research, fewer people are choosing this treatment route. According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), “In the 1970’s, cancer patients made up the largest percentage of hospice admissions. Today, cancer diagnoses account for less than half

WHAT WE HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH - A standardized set of measures for dealing with pain within the first 48 hours of patient admission to hospice

Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients;

Some people are fortunate enough to have the ability to pay to get proper care. While others are not, as fortunate. Could you image having cancer, and making the decision if you had the time or money to be treated. Many people cannot even begin to fathom about making a choice like that. But Crissy Knibble was put in a situation where she might of have to.

How would one finish one’s life if he or she were only given six months to live? Brittany Maynard and Kara Tippetts answered this question in two very different ways. Both were too young to face death, but they could not escape their realities. Plagued by terminal cancer, they would suffer in a considerable amount of pain, ultimately ending in death. Maynard tried to lighten her experience by ending her life with medication to escape the full reality. News broadcasts and magazines highly publicized Maynard’s decision. On the other hand, Tippetts chose to live until her life naturally ended. However, her story was documented on the radio; in a book, The Hardest Peace; and her blog, “Mundane Faithfulness.” Although Maynard and Tippetts both suffered terminal cancer, they dealt with their circumstances, convictions, and choices differently.

When you are 12 year old you start to see and hear about cancer. Never thinking your mom would get it. I and my 9 year old sister were walking home from school on a hot sunny day. We usually get home before my mom. But today my mom got home before us. Walking in the door it felt weird felt like something was wrong. I went up stairs to see my mom and see how her day went. She was sleeping. Dinner time came around and we were having my favourite food for dinner chicken broccoli casserole. My mom was being quiet and I saw her struggling to tell me and my sister that she had news for us. Finally after seeing her struggling for some time she finally told us she went to the doctors and they told her she has stage 4 rapidly growing breast cancer. She instantly started crying. I and my sister were both confused why my mom was crying. We did not really know about cancer. Weeks went on and my mom had to have 6 chemotherapy’s and 21 radiations. My dad was never really there for my mom to take care of her. He always stayed out late or would work late always and always have an excuse for not coming home. So imagine at 12 years old checking up with your mom every few hours. Trying to hang with friends and go to school if I went. Then repeat that for a few months and also her siblings came over and try to do as much as they could. It sucked having no life at 12 years old. It was hard not to get sick myself. I felt guilty when I got sick and I was not being able to be

Cancer patients are usually unwilling to be managed with morphine as they fear its adverse effect and the risk of addiction or they have it as solely a comfort for the dying rather than a legitimate

In its brief overview of palliative care (Improving palliative care, August 2003), the Institute of Medicine emphasized purpose: “to prevent or lessen the severity of pain and other symptoms and to achieve the best quality of life for people dying or suffering from a long-term disease” (p. 2). Immediate pain reduction, if not outright elimination, facilitates satisfaction of other, more emotional or introspective end-of-life matters (e.g., working through spiritual issues, resolving family differences).

These symptoms can either manifest themselves as pain, anxiety, dyspnea, and/or delirium. It is a reprioritization of the patients, as well as their families’, preferences regarding their plan of care. The inclination is to optimize the patient’s quality of life by reducing the amount of suffering they experience with their chronic illness (e.g. COPD, cancer, autoimmune disorders).

2. Carr, D. B., Fischer, D. S. & Markman, M. (1994). Cancer: when to focus on palliation. Patient Care, 28, (3), 123–126.