If you have end-stage renal illness, we know you’re scared, anxious, and overwhelmed. You may be concerned about coping with this disease’s physical and psychological demands. Chronic renal disease affects nearly every body system. You are not the only one going through this, do not worry; palliative care can help.
Palliative care is appropriate for end-stage renal disease patients and those with cancer, heart illness, or ALS. In this blog, we’ll discuss how palliative care can improve patients’ lives and how Melodia Care differs from other hospice and palliative care providers.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is a medical specialty for seriously ill patients. Palliative care focuses on symptom management and reducing pain. Care goals are set with patients, primary care physicians, and other team members. Palliative care alleviates pain, discomfort, and stress caused by severe diseases.
How Does Palliative Care Help Those With End Stage Renal Disease?
You don’t have to wait until your renal illness is terminal to receive palliative care. Any age or stage of sickness can receive services. Palliative care helps kidney disease patients manage pain, symptoms, and stress in five ways. These are:
End-Stage Renal Disease Pain Management Through Palliative Care
Our palliative care nurse practices help with chronic kidney disease discomfort. Doctors’ pain and symptom management skills can improve renal failure patients’ quality of life.
Palliative Care Aids Other Conditions
Additional health issues often accompany renal illness or chronic renal disease. This usually includes excessive blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. We coordinate your treatments and drugs to ensure you follow your treatment plan.
End-Stage Renal Disease Patients Benefit From Palliative Care
Palliative treatment helps end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Palliative care improves the quality of life for people with serious illnesses, including ESRD. It relieves symptoms and stress rather than curing the disease.
Here are some ways palliative care can help ESRD patients:
Symptom Management: ESRD sufferers commonly experience discomfort, nausea, exhaustion, and shortness of breath. Palliative care experts can alleviate these symptoms, improving comfort and well-being.
Emotional and Psychological Support: ESRD patients and their families might struggle emotionally. Palliative care teams help patients cope with disease-related stress.
Holistic Care: Palliative care involves a holistic approach to patient care. It addresses the patient’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
Decision-making Support: As ESRD advances, individuals must make difficult medical decisions about therapy, dialysis, and end-of-life care. Palliative care teams help patients and families make values-based decisions.
Communication: Through open and honest communication, palliative care teams ensure that patients, relatives, and healthcare providers understand the patient’s care objectives and treatment alternatives.
Advanced Care Planning: Palliative care helps patients express their medical and end-of-life desires in advance.
Improved Care Transitions: Palliative care can help ESRD patients shift between hospital facilities or curative and palliative treatments.
Caregiver Support: Palliative care recognizes the issues ESRD caregivers encounter and provides them with resources and counseling.
It’s crucial to remember that palliative care isn’t just end-of-life care. It can be added to the patient’s treatment plan at any time, including early ESRD, to support and improve quality of life.
Palliative Care Educates About Renal Disease
Fear of the unexpected can produce excessive tension, worry, and frustration. We can assist you and your family understand treatment options and how to manage symptoms because we have expertise in treating this illness.
Palliative Care Monitors Disease Issues
Other renal disease-related health issues we can monitor include:
- Infection prevention—kidney disease patients have weakened immune systems.
- Anemia
- Pericarditis, an inflamed heart membrane
Palliative Care vs. Hospice: What’s the Difference?
These words are often different, although many people use them interchangeably.
Palliative care, often called palliative medicine, is specialist medical care for critical illnesses. Regardless of diagnosis, it relieves patients’ symptoms and stress from serious diseases. Disease treatment continues while you’re in palliative care.
Palliative care assists people with illnesses like:
Hospice care is used when curative treatments are no longer possible or requested and life expectancy is six months or less.
How May Palliative Care Aid Kidney Disease Patients?
If you have kidney disease, you must take special care of your body. Kidney disease management can be a 24/7 endeavor that strains the sufferer and family. Kidney disease patients can benefit from palliative care in numerous ways. For instance,
Kidney Disease pain management: Curative treatment is accompanied by palliative care. A team provides palliative care. Palliative care aids kidney transplants and dialysis. If your health declines, specialists in palliative care can assist you in stopping dialysis. Palliative care specialists can help you stop dialysis. Palliative care is utilized before, during, and after kidney transplants. Palliative care supports your nephrologist and transplant team regardless of treatment.
Describe what to expect during the illness: Your palliative care team will take as much time as needed to help you and your family understand your condition and treatments and communicate better.
Help with anxiety, stress, and depression: Symptoms, tough care decisions, and emotional, spiritual, and practical considerations can make renal disease and failure difficult. Palliative care comforts patients and relatives. For mental and spiritual stress, your palliative care team may offer massages, talk therapy, and relaxation exercises.
If you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them for you. Please contact us so that a healthcare team member can discuss whether you qualify for our palliative care program.
Please fill out our form to receive additional information regarding how we may assist you or a family member. Do not delay.
