Elaine was a vibrant wife, mother of six, and grandmother. She was extremely health conscious going in on a yearly basis for her regular mammogram when unexpectedly she was told she had a cyst in her breast. Thinking nothing of it, Elaine scheduled to have the cyst removed on the advice of her doctor as a precautionary measure. This was the beginning of a very unfortunate turn of events for Elaine and her family. As it turned out, this “simple cyst” was actually breast cancer. Elaine was taken in for exploratory surgery to see how far the cancer had spread. The diagnosis was not good. Besides affecting the breast, the cancer had made its way to the lymph nodes under her arms. John Farndon notes, “the lymphatic system plays an important role in the body with fighting infection. The lymphatic system is the body’s sewer system, the network of pipes that drains waste from the cells.” The lymph nodes are filters along the lymphatic system that contain white blood cells called lymphocytes and their job is to neutralize or destroy bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. (Farndon) Elaine’s breasts had to be removed, after surgery followed by recovery Elaine began her journey and fight against breast cancer (Wilmes 112).
For the next year Elaine endured chemotherapy treatments and the side effects that came along with it. Losing her hair, the nausea and vomiting. Feeling like some days she just couldn’t get out of bed, she could just lay there forever. After a year, Elaine was given a clean bill of health and was declared cancer free. Shortly after being cleared of cancer Elaine resumed living her life, she even joined the Red Hat Society, began going on cruises with her husband. Sadly soon after, she began to feel weak again. She made a vi...
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...dicine 357; 4 (2007): 321- 324. Print.
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Nordqvist, Christian. “End-Of-Life Care For Elderly Often Too Aggressive.” Medicalnewstoday.com. Medical News Today, 6 Feb. 2013, Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
Wilmes, D.M. Seven Days of Hospice: A Memoir. Lincoln. iUniverse. 2007. Print.
God tells his children, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation). Death is one of the most frightening and confusing times a person can go through. Watching a loved one pass away is also one of the hardest trials a person can experience. Many people assume that death is a time of pain and the only thing that they can do is mourn and watch their loved one fade away from the earth. This is wrong. There are ways that people can turn a bad situation to good. Dying doesn’t have to be painful and full of suffering. The County Hospice staff makes sure of this. The Hospice staff not only takes care of passing patients physically, but they also take care of the patients emotionally and spiritually. Hospice staff also plays a key role in helping families during the grieving process.
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
Dworkin, Gerald. " The Nature of Medicine." Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: For and Against. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Being in hospice care is a better alternative than being stuck in the hospital to try to avoid the unavoidable. Common misconceptions about Hospice could include that hospice makes life more miserable; however, a physician expressed his findings in Hospice,“You can only fail a patient if you fail to understand and respond to their needs. We may not be able to cure all of our patients, but if we can make them comfortable in the last moments of their lives, we will not have failed them”..Hospice care gradually emerged in the 1970s, when groups like the National Hospice Organization were formed “in response to the unmet needs of dying patients and their families for whom traditional medical care was no longer effective.”Herbert Hendin, an executive director of the American Suicide Foundations illustrates a story of a young man diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia and was expected to have only a few months before he died. He persistently asked the doctor to assist him, but he eventually accepted the medical treatment. His doctor told him he can use his time wisely to become close to his family. Two days before he died, Tim talked about what he would have missed without the opportunity for a
Elderly when dealing with deaht and breavement is also an extreme. An elderly is close to death as is, but his or her friends are starting to die repidly and most of all a spouse is very close to end of life.
"Hospice Services and Expenses (About Hospice)." Home (Hospice Foundation of America). Web. 23 Jan. 2011. .
The Public Health Imperative measures the quality of life of an individual during times of severe chronic illness. This health imperative is characterized by: the potential to prevent suffering caused by the illness, major impact, and high burden. In the recent past is has become evident that care for older people, who have potential to become terminally ill, must be focused on. The types of patients may also lose the capability to make some of their most important decisions which include actions made by health professionals that are related to their end of life situation. Luckily actions were made to identify certain priorities pertaining to the public health and end of life issues. These priorities were established by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and the Healthy Aging Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These end of life health priorities which address short-term, medium-term and long-term needs are also called advanced care planning. It can be concluded that communication between professionals and among families about the patient can enhance the effectiveness of advanced care planning.
She’s been struggling everyday of her life for the past 10 years; battling and fighting this horrible disease has made it hard on her and her family. The cancer has now metastasized, making it difficult for her to take care of everyday responsibilities and participate in daily activities. Her 13-year-old daughter is watching as her mother suffers and becomes brittle and weak.
Horgan, John., Johnson, Johnny.. "Trends in Healthcare: Seeking a Better Way to Die." Scientific American 276. (1997):100-105. eLibrary. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
...nce that is necessary to provide primary care providers the tools necessary to provide care. Early hospice admission is statistically proven to be more effective in preventing pain at end of life. It is cost effective to do so and has been discussed within the confines of this project. A literature search using CINAHL proved that in different venues the fact that earlier admission does result in pain management was proven.
The care of patients at the end of their live should be as humane and respectful to help them cope with the accompanying prognosis of the end of their lives. The reality of this situation is that all too often, the care a patient receives at the end of their life is quite different and generally not performed well. The healthcare system of the United States does not perform well within the scope of providing the patient with by all means a distress and pain free palliative or hospice care plan. To often patients do not have a specific plan implemented on how they wish to have their end of life care carried out for them. End of life decisions are frequently left to the decision of family member's or physicians who may not know what the patient needs are beforehand or is not acting in the patient's best wishes. This places the unenviable task of choosing care for the patient instead of the patient having a carefully written out plan on how to carry out their final days. A strategy that can improve the rate of care that patients receive and improve the healthcare system in general would be to have the patient create a end of life care plan with their primary care physician one to two years prior to when the physician feels that the patient is near the end of their life. This would put the decision making power on the patient and it would improve the quality of care the patient receives when they are at the end of their life. By developing a specific care plan, the patient would be in control of their wishes on how they would like their care to be handled when the time of death nears. We can identify strengths and weakness with this strategy and implement changes to the strategy to improve the overall system of care with...
Steindorf, O’Daniell, and Joy T. didn’t realize their psychological distress was related to their cancer experience — they had survived, after a...
Candidate Handbook. (2013). National Board for Certificate for hospice and palliative care nurses. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://www.nbchpn.org/
Center for Bioethics: University of Minnesota. End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview. 2005. PDF.
The doctors removed it, but it was too late. The tumor had already spread throughout her body. Instead of having a lump on her back, she had a long stitched up incision. She couldn’t move around; Nancy’s parents had to help her go to the bathroom and do all the simple things that she used to do all by herself. Nancy would ask her grandmother to get up to take her younger sister, Linh, and herself outside so they could play.