By Jennifer S. Scherer, MD
Living with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) presents many challenges. You may sleep poorly, feel weak or tired. Your skin can itch. Food tastes different, and you just don’t feel like eating much. It’s difficult to get around because your feet and ankles are swollen. All in all, it’s hard to get through the day and do many of the things you and your family used to enjoy.
But you don’t have to go through this alone. There are ways to improve your quality of life. Palliative care can help.
Palliative Care Focuses on Quality of Life
Palliative care (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv) is specialized medical care for people living with serious illnesses, such as advanced CKD. This type of care is focused on relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care is provided by a specially trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with other medical treatment.
Palliative care teams are expertly trained to manage the symptoms, side effects, and stresses of serious illnesses like CKD. They will spend as much time with you as you need, talking to you about the symptoms you’re having, the side effects of treatments, and your goals of care. They can suggest ways that may help to ease symptoms and side effects. For example, using a thick moisturizing cream on your skin every day may relieve itching by keeping your skin from getting dry. Mind-body and relaxation techniques can help to relieve pain.
Palliative Care Can Help You and Your Family
Your palliative care team understands that every patient and family is different. They can help you achieve your personal goals while living with CKD. If you’re feeling depressed and anxious, they can offer reassurance that this is normal. You are going through major life changes and facing decisions that will affect both you and the people you love. Your team will support you to make the choices that are right for you and your family.
How to Get Palliative Care
If you are living with advanced CKD, ask your doctor for a palliative care referral. Quinlan Palliative Care is a division of Quinlan Care Concepts and our palliative care teams is available for home visits. More information is available on GetPalliativeCare.org.
Jennifer Scherer is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at NYU School of Medicine in New York, in both the divisions of Palliative Care and Nephrology. Her clinical and research interests focus on the care and quality of life of patients with advanced kidney disease that integrate palliative care into routine nephrology care. She opened an outpatient interdisciplinary palliative care program at NYU called the Kidney CARES (Comprehensive Advanced Renal Disease and ESRD Support) Program