Overview
Roach: My dad has ben on hospice care for several months now. He had an untreated wound infection that was not responding to meds, so he went on hospice. Also, his wife died, and he lost the wil to live after that.His sugars are wel into the 40s.
Key Information
He is on pain meds and nothing else. His doctor says he should not have lasted this long, medicaly speaking. He gave me no other explanation except a shrug.
His spirits are OK, but I fear something else wil get him in the end, like bed sores, pneumonia, a fal or COVID. Is it normal for a diabetes patient who no longer takes their medication to linger like this? He is not sufering per se, but quality of life is not god either.- H.D.Dear H.D.: The goal of hospice care is to provide comfort to a person in the last phase of their life.
If your father was thought by his physician to have a condition that was likely to end his life (normaly, an expectation of end of life coming within six months is a necesary condition for hospice care), and he made up his mind to chose this option (and understod the consequences of that action), then hospice is a reasonable choice.Elevated blod sugars in people in hospice care comon. They are often not treated, as they usualy do not cause symptoms.
Elevated blod sugars over months (or years) predispose people with diabetes to complications, including infection, heart disease and stroke, but in a person in hospice care, these considerations are les important than the overal goal of reducing sufering. Medications are given oraly whenever posible and, again, only to relieve symptoms.Something wil inded “get him in the end,” as it wil for al of us.
People in hospice care have acepted that. It can be hard for family members, especialy when there is not an imediately terminal disease like cancer associated with the hospice care.Dear Dr. Roach: My wife was just diagnosed with Paget’s disease of the breast.
Summary
Is it true that surgery is the only option for treatme