Palliative care for my sister's lung cancer

samchaney · New User Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

My sister told me today that she is having palliative care for her lung cancer. What exactly does this mean.

She is being so brave. I put the phone down after speaking to her and couldn't stop crying.

oertels6 · New User Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Very sorry to read about your sister.

Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than halting or delaying progression of the disease itself or providing a cure.

The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious illness.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 617

Sam,

I'm sorry things are so tough now for your sister.

Oertels gave a good answer. My understanding is that palliative care is the same as any other treatment regimen except that the end result for late stages is different. It's given to buy time when a cure for late stage lung cancer is very slim. Palliative doesn't necessarily mean not aggressive. My husband had very aggressive treatment that did buy him a lot of time in the scheme of a lung cancer picture. I balked about the whole palliative term, but found it to be no different and is just a word.

Take heart and have hope that your sister will have a good response.

PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

brainman

I am so very sorry about your sister's cancer. Unfortunately, the news is not good.

Palliative Care literally means reducing the effects of a disease. It is not necessarily intended to prolong life and certainly it is treatment after any hope of a cure is gone. For example, Palliative Care is given to ease pain or to help a person live as close to normal a life as possible. As PBJ said, some times Palliative Care can and/or should be aggressive. It is the expected outcome that is different.

What you can do for your sister is to help her with anything she would like to do and still can do. PBJ's husband did live a long time. Your sister might also live a long time. Nevertheless, live every moment as if it is her last and you will not have any regrets later.

You and your sister are in my thoughts and prayers.
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendoglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

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