Connect
← Return to Latest update and thank you: deciding to not pursue further treatment
Discussion
Latest update and thank you: deciding to not pursue further treatment
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Oct 15 6:37pm | Replies (14)Comment receiving replies
May your friend live on in the light and love of the Creator.
I too have said no to the two chemotherapy options offered to me. The doc told me that one might add 4 months the other might add 8 to 12 months to my life.
Last year on chemo I spent a total of 2 months in hospitals. Multiple infections, frequent falls, amputation of a toe…. My life as I knew it was destroyed. I became too weak and had to resign from life giving work I’d had and loved for the past five years. I was sick most of the time, had chemo-brain, was unable to eat…. On and on….
The doctor asked me to reflect upon or think about my choice. When I reported back that I would not continue with chemotherapy I explained to him that ‘if I have only a short period left I want quality of life.’ ‘What use are 8 extra months if the days are spent vomiting, too sick to enjoy extra days.’
Oddly I expected an affirmation of my choice but instead received what seemed to be disappointment in my choice.
Later, at the same session he explained the merits of hospice and pushed me to sign up for it. Fortunately I was aware that once I was a hospice patient he would remove me from his case load turning me over to hospice docs. Fortunately because I want to continue with bimonthly scans and bloodwork as well as an appointment to discuss the results and the progression of my cancer.
When I refused hospice (for the time being ) I explained that I was not ready. I continue to feel well and am able to work pert time. Mostly I am enjoying life as best I can. If there is a need palliative care is available.
He was obviously not pleased. I asked him to please write the orders for the next set of scans, bloodwork, and appointment. He agreed but nothing happened. So I messaged a few times before his nurse indicated the orders would be written and one of his nurse practitioners would in the future be following up with me.
Frankly, from my point of view, it was a lot of stress that I didn’t need.
New scans and bloodwork will take place soon.
This will give me a sense of how things are going; what time might be available and tasks that I need to accomplish.
Replies to "May your friend live on in the light and love of the Creator. I too have..."
Connect
that was pretty much his attitude, he never left the care of the palliative and oncology team. At the end he was admitted to our local hospital instead of 4 hours away and was there for the last 4.5 days of his life under comfort care.
there is no way your loved ones will ever be completely prepared for when you leave and what your body will go through at the end, but lord he tried to prepare me for it coming...And nothing i had read or had been told really prepared me for it....he had made sure everything was paid for, the only thing he didn't get done was the marker built he wanted.. but he told my husband how to do it... he told me last Wed that he had less than a week left and needed to go to hospice, so he knew...so i started making the arrangements but ended up having to take him to the hospital due to hallucinations etc and he never left there...but like i said I did what i promised, I was beside him...i had literally just laid down on the couch beside him and started the song "Go Rest High on the Mountain" on my phone so he could hear it and when it came to the line "Go to heaven a shouting" i heard him take his final breath.. i felt like that was God telling me he was safe..
I pray your new np will be more compassionate and understanding of your choice...after all as you say, what good is extra days if you're too sick to enjoy them.