When one is diagnosed with any “Big-ticket clinical illness.”
With the onset of health issues like dementia heart failure, culinary fibrosis, any cancers of significance, Parkinson’s disease, etc.
Listen to your heart
And we know if we listened to our own hearts, they’re going to guide us on what they would want and not want. How do we do that in the setting of a very, very stern system that is medicine and this imposing in a long white coat who may tell us, you don’t need a palliative care referral? You’re not ready for that, and you might not need that now. Every person should follow their own little voice.
You are the patient
You’re a patient, but more than that you are a human being, you are a customer too! You have the right to know the truth, and you have the right to make the call. You also have the right to seek something which you feel might support your journey.
You should realize that you are the ultimate boss of your journey and that you are writing the chapters of your life.
How do you want it?
Understanding and recognizing that you need palliative healthcare along with your regular therapies might help the palliative care physician understand why your quality of life might potentially be at risk. The physiologic care that you are getting might negatively influence you, and that might help them define the risk vs. benefit of a particular intervention.