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Hospice: Getting Back Control of Your Life
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Comments (2)Hospice is a wonderful service that gives control back to patients and their families. When people find out that they have an incurable illness, they often feel powerless in light of the situation and think they can’t control the outcome of their lives. Hospice gives that control back to patients by allowing them to refuse or modify the treatment depending on their pain level. If the current level of medication is not working, they can request more to help the pain. One myth is that a patient will become addicted to the medication or narcotic. However, this is not accurate. The hospicenet.org Web site states, “A narcotic addiction is defined as dependence on the regular use of narcotics to satisfy physical, emotional, and psychological needs rather than for medical reasons.” Someone in pain has a medical reason to take narcotics and is not considered an addict. In his article entitled “Pain Control: Dispelling the Myths,” Dr. Joel Potash asserts that hospice patients “usually don’t have drug-seeking behavior. When their pain is in good control, they don’t desire more opiates.”
Since there is little chance of addiction, patients can work with their hospice nurse to determine the best means for proper pain relief. Because the control is in the patients’ hands, they can request the care required to ease their pain and suffering. Pain is one of the most common fears when someone finds out that he or she is dying, but it doesn’t have to be. In most cases pain can be easily managed with medications so the patients can live without pain and suffering. Hospice gives patients the opportunity to control their pain, as well as their overall care by allowing them the final say.
Spreading the word—
April Smith
Posted in: Tranquility while Dying, What to Expect from Hospice
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