Health Disclaimer : I am not a medical professional this post is based on my personal experience and is written as a guide. Always seeks professional advice from your medical team.
I am a stage 4 cancer patient and I write this post from my perspective of requiring a hospice. I have been scared to approach the subject of a hospice as it really does make it feel like the end
But I am going to explain what hospice care is and what’s it purposes, to hopefully make others understand a bit more about these wonderful places.
What is a hospice
A hospice is a place that works with adults and children who have life threatening / life shortening illnesses.
They might just have been diagnosed and need support or they might be in pain and require help with medication.
When do you need hospice care?
Now I have stage 4 breast cancer I am terminal, so I have been in touch with my local hospice.
What do you think of when you think of palliative care, I know what I think of is death?
The day I was first told I had secondary breast cancer in my liver and lungs they mentioned about getting in contact with a palliative care team to hear this at the same time as just been told that my breast cancer was back automatically thought “that’s it I’m going to be dead next week why else would they be wanting me to contact the palliative care team”
I live in Bristol my local palliative care team is based at St Peter’s Hospice which isn’t an NHS Hospice but a charity.
I have visited St Peter’s Hospice before. My dad spent some time here it is a lovely place, but it is hard to visit a hospice as that word to me automatically still means end of life.
I am slowly getting my head around that hospices don’t mean end of life and don’t mean I’m going to die next week. I wanted to visit at this stage of my cancer so I could get used to the place if I require the hospice in the future it might not be as scary.
St Peters were lovely and showed me round. The inpatient rooms are spacious and a little less like a hospital.
I attended a younger woman’s secondary breast cancer event held by breast cancer now and one of the talks what about palliative care from St Peter’s Hospice. It was hard and it was emotional, but it did give me the courage to contact the hospice and arrange a visit.
What services can a hospice offer
Each hospice may offer something different but in principal is about end of life care which I am not going to focus so much on as it scares me at the moment and improving quality of life.
I have learnt the palliative care does not necessarily mean immediate end of life. Palliative care teams can also be used for pain management, counselling and planning for the future.
Hospice care can vary from patients to patient based on their needs and requirements
My local Hospice in Bristol offers end of life care, respite, pain management, day outpatient appointments, drop-in centre and fun activities.
Hospices can also offer respite, there was a lady in my support group who became quite unwell during chemo as she was single and living on her own found it hard to cope. She managed to get to bed in a hospice which gave her the physical and emotional that she needed at this time in her treatment.
My dad was admitted to St Peters when he was bad, to get him out of the hospital that couldn’t give him enough care. They don’t only support patients they support families I got really upset when I went to visit him, and they took me into a side room and talked to me it was something that I really needed.
My hospice also has a volunteer taxi service so if you cannot drive to attend a drop-in session, they will offer transport. My mum has been to the hospice for exercise programme to help with her COPD and used the volunteer transport service.
They have an information centre and are a good source for information about life limiting illness. My hospice offers alternative therapies and have tried to help me with my fatigue by giving me some information and even some lemon oil which is supposed to help.
I was at breaking point sleeping 16 hours a day and rang them in tears and they gave me a listening ear which really helped me emotionally.
How to find a hospice near me
Your medical team can you tell where your closest hospice is. There seems to be one hospice per big town there are limited, and I think there should be a lot more hospices in the UK especially since they help with quality of life.
Hospice UK is a national charity for hospice and palliative care and has some useful information if you want to find out more about hospice care click here.
Hospice care at home
Hospice care at home provides short term care for patients in their own home. This is something that I will be looking into further as my needs increase as I want to die at home not in the hospice.
The care is provided by registered nurses they might come around to administer pain relief for example.
Also google is amazing try putting in cancer hospice care, or hospice in xx and you should get some results. I needed to be referred to the hospice by a healthcare professional.
At the time I had a district nurse coming into give me weekly line care and I asked her, and she did it, but you could ask oncologist, breast care nurse or GP.
How to support a hospice
Most hospices are not government funded and must get their funding from somewhere so they will have charity shops or hold fundraising events.
I support my local hospice by shopping and donating to their charity shops which are all over the city of Bristol. I have also donated to charity raffles and I do their local lotto where I buy a ticket and have a chance of winner a prize.
