Have you seen a Palliative Care clinician?

[wingate]

Have any of you seen a clinician specializing in palliative medicine? If so, how did it go?

My healthcare insurance offers palliative care, and I wonder if it would provide any benefit. (In contrast to hospice, a patient does not need to have a terminal illness to be eligible for this sort of care.)

They employ a team of various clinicians (social workers, nurses, physicians, etc.) to address a patient's physical symptoms and/or psychosocial issues that arise from having a serious illness.

I wonder if these doctors, although perhaps not familiar with ME/CFS in particular, could provide symptomatic relief for a patient with ME/CFS, because of their focus on serious illness (kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, etc.)

If anyone has had an experience with palliative care, I would be interested in learning more about how things went.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

I wonder if these doctors, although perhaps not familiar with ME/CFS in particular, could provide symptomatic relief for a patient with ME/CFS, because of their focus on serious illness (kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, etc.)

@wingate
It's my instinctive sense, and keep in mind that I've had some pretty .... uhhh.... interesting experiences with Drs, so I'm a little jaundiced, that Drs who deal with tangible, lab test-responsive diseases whose effects are visible both to the eye and, especially, the lab might be inclined to dismiss your ME as imaginary or all in your head unless they have real knowledge of ME/CFS

I'm not sure about this evaluation, it's just a gut sense. Am hoping that others will find this thread and have more tangible and tested input for you. For now, you might want to wait til you hear more from others who actually know something before leaping in with high hopes.