Whatever your elderly family member is facing with the later stages of kidney disease, she may have decided that curative therapies, like dialysis, are no longer what she wants. That’s when hospice may be helpful for you and for her.
Treatment Options Might Be Different
In the earlier stages of kidney disease, your senior might feel as if she has a lot of different options. Toward the end of her battle, those options might be a little more limited. They might even still be available to your senior, but for one reason or another she’s opting to not go that route. Focusing on the treatments that she does want and that do help her can be the right path.
Getting Those Treatments Might Be More Difficult
Depending on the treatments your senior is opting for, it might not be as easy as it once was to get to where she needs to go. Her treatment plan may help her to have some of those treatments at home rather than having to travel somewhere else. Or if she’s opted to discontinue the majority of her treatments for kidney disease, hospice care services can help her to be as comfortable as possible.
There Are Other Issues, Too
Kidney disease doesn’t just affect her kidneys, it affects her entire body. That’s because the function of the kidneys is to flush fluids and waste from all of the organs in her body. When they’re not working properly, she might be experiencing all sorts of symptoms, including edema, or swelling in her extremities. She might also be unable to eat or in pain and experiencing weakness when she’s trying to do things. All of these changes can be difficult for her to accept and to manage.
There’s Plenty of Anxiety and Stress to Go Around
As if that weren’t enough, you and your senior might be experiencing anxiety and stress about what she’s facing. It’s difficult to help her to be as comfortable as possible when she’s never sure what symptoms and issues she’s going to be facing. Hospice care providers can help you to try to anticipate what your senior needs and what might help her the most. This can ease your stress a bit.
What your elderly family member planned for her kidney disease a few years ago might have changed now that she’s in the later stages. That happens often and that is when hospice care providers can help.
If you or your aging loved one could benefit from Hospice Care in Elloree SC, contact the caring staff at Grove Park Hospice, (803) 536-6644.
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