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When to involve hospice?

jrcable18
jrcable18 CSN Member Posts: 1
in Lung Cancer #1

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

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Comments

  • jorola
    jorola CSN Member Posts: 243 Member
    edited July 2017 #2
    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.

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