Mom will be 91 in a few weeks. Her knees are basically bone on bone. So she is almost bedridden. She manages to get to the chair in the living room for 5-7 hours of the 24 hour day to watch The Walton’s. There is a potty chair beside the recliner and one beside her bed. That is the extent of her movement.
She started wearing a daily transdermal nitro patch this last year. Her current cardio doctor won't do tele medicine visits. I'm requesting one of his colleagues (who does do telemedicine visits) waive the initial in-person visit and just read the charts from the other doctor. Still waiting/hoping this goes through.
In meantime, because it is such a waiting game, I reached out to the primary doctor to ask if they could simply take over writing the Rx for the transdermal patches. Mom will not be having any surgeries or procedures for her heart. They will not assume this responsibility and the person who left a message suggested palliative care so she could get her meds.
I don't really understand why that was suggested. Can anyone enlighten me to the ins and outs of western medicine in this respect?
Sorry for the long explanation.
Overview. Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness. It also can help you cope with side effects from medical treatments. The availability of palliative care does not depend on whether your condition can be cured.
If your mother doesn't want curative treatments and only relief from pain, standard doctors won't keep writing prescriptions for pain pills or patches. They are limited by law and DEA regulations. Palliative care focuses on pain relief and other meds to cope with life when an elder has issues such as your mom does at 91, and not wanting knee replacement or heart surgery.
Good luck.