I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen patients miss out on the support of a palliative care team because their doctor told them (incorrectly) that they didn’t need palliative care until chemotherapy stopped working.
Let’s clear something up once and for all:
Palliative care is specialized support that is available from the moment you receive a cancer diagnosis. Your palliative team is there to help you coordinate your care, think through tough treatment decisions with you, manage challenging symptoms, and anything else important to your quality of life.
In some cases, early palliative care has even been showed to IMPROVE your life expectancy like it did in this famous study.
Don’t let your doctor tell you it’s “too soon” for palliative care! If you’ve dealing with a serious illness that’s impacting your quality of life, it’s time for palliative care.
If you’d like to meet with a palliative team, just ask your doctor for a referral!
Now just as a heads up, there are still doctors out there that will hear “palliative care” and think you are talking about shifting to comfort care. You may need to clarify that’s NOT what you are talking about, and that you are seeking palliative care for additional support alongside the rest of your treatment.
Hope this helps!