Palliative Care for People with Kidney Disease

Kidney disease brings with it a lot of different challenges, especially if your family member has other health issues, too. Kidney disease affects how well your family member’s kidneys function. In later stages, dialysis brings with it additional difficulties that are challenging as well. Finding a way to navigate all of these issues is crucial and it can make all the difference in how well your family member manages her illness over time. Palliative care services can offer those tools for your entire family.

Palliative Therapies Can Be Added Right After Diagnosis

Palliative Care Manito Neighborhood, WA: Kidney Disease

Palliative Care Manito Neighborhood, WA: Kidney Disease

Unlike end-of-life treatment options, palliative care and therapies can be added to your family member’s care plan right after she’s diagnosed with kidney disease. This helps her to ensure that she’s covering all of her needs, not just her need for curative treatments. Palliative options help her to remain as comfortable as possible, even when her illness is making her life extremely uncomfortable.

The First Step with Palliative Treatment

The first stage of palliative treatment options involves providers getting to know your family member and her needs. They work closely with her doctors, so they understand her illness and how it is progressing. They also can keep your family member’s doctors apprised of how she’s doing, what symptoms are getting worse or better, and educate you and other family members. All of this provides the basis for the other types of care they can recommend to your family member.

Palliative Options Are Available for as Long as Necessary

Hospice care is typically available to people who are nearing the end of their journey with a disease and who usually have a short time left in their life. Palliative care, on the other hand, is there for your family member for as long as she wants to have that option available to her. Your family member may opt for continual ongoing palliative treatment or she may only want to have the option to access palliative treatments periodically. It’s up to her and what she needs as she faces kidney disease and its impact on her life.

Palliative Care Works Toward Comfort and Ease of Living

Primarily palliative care focuses on keeping your family member as comfortable and as happy as possible. What that means for your family member can change over time and it’s different for every single person who is facing kidney disease. By working with your family member’s medical providers, palliative care providers are able to fill in the gaps in her care plan and help her to have the best quality of life for as long as possible.

This type of support is crucial for your family member and for everyone who cares about her. Dealing with kidney disease takes both a physical and emotional toll on everyone involved. By making sure that your family member has all of the help that she could possibly need, you are helping to reduce stress and strain that could otherwise make her illness far worse for her to manage.

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Palliative Care in Manito Neighborhood, WA please contact the caring staff at Angel Senior Care today at (509) 326-4357.

Vaughn & Donna Young