When to involve hospice?

jrcable18

Hello to all, forgive me if this has been answered somewhere in the forum already. I just truly do not have the time to spend researching between work and caring for my grandfather. About two months ago he was diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma and has a 12cm tumor on his mediastinum. He just received his 3rd chemo treatment (carbo/alimta) on Thursday. He is not eating anything and is drinking very little. He has no strength to do anything, sleeps all day and is so weak he can hardly speak sometimes. I know a lot of this is due to the recent chemo treatment. However, I'm wondering when should we think about involving hospice? Between my mother and Aunt and I switching off weekly periods of taking care of him he does get plenty of attention. He is scheduled for a PET scan in 1.5 weeks and I was leaning towards waiting to see what it showed before involving hospice. Does anyone have any advice/tips? Thank you all very much.

Best,

John

jorola

Why not call them in for an assessment?

Doesn't mean you have to use them right away but they can provide information that can help you make that decision.