What You Need to Know About Advanced Care Planning

What You Need to Know About Advanced Care Planning

Nobody wants to think about getting sick or being unable to take care of yourself.

But as you get older, these things become more and more of a possibility, and it’s better to plan for them than to pretend they’ll never happen and be blindsided when they do.

That’s where advanced care planning comes in.

It’s a way of mapping out your preferred medical treatment ahead of time, just in case there’s a scenario where you’re unable to make decisions on your own.

If you’d like to learn more about advanced care planning and how to best approach it, we’ve gathered some of the most important information below.

What Kind of Decisions Should You Be Making?

In dire circumstances, decisions need to be made regarding your health. Many times, these decisions will have pros and cons, and therefore the medical team will leave it up to the patients to decide for themselves.

When doing your advanced care planning, here are some decisions you’ll want to include.

CPR

Most people are probably aware of what CPR is. It stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and is used to restart your heartbeat in the case that’s either in a dangerously abnormal rhythm or has stopped completely.

The reason CPR should be included in your advanced planning is that there’s a chance it can break a rib or collapse a lung. It’s also not a guarantee that it can successfully restart the heart. Therefore, it’s important that you decide ahead of time whether you’d like to receive it. 

Ventilator

With COVID, the ventilator got a lot of publicity. Essentially, they’re designed to aid you in breathing by way of a tube that goes down your throat. Since this is obviously uncomfortable, sedation is often utilized. For some long-term cases, surgery can be performed to place the tube directly into the trachea by making a hole in the neck.

Due to the option of surgery and the invasiveness of ventilators, deciding how you’d like to be treated is an important decision to be made ahead of time.

Feeding Tubes and IVs

Another potentiality you’ll want to plan for is artificial feeding and hydration. Much as with ventilators, there is inherent invasiveness, as it involves having a tube either going through your nose, through a vein, or inserted directly into your stomach.

While recovering from an illness, artificial feeding and hydration can prove useful, but some may take issue with the invasiveness and the lack of meaningful results.

Plan While You Still Can

Advanced care planning isn’t easy, but it’s important to be a realist and not turn away from real possibilities.

What’s more, making these difficult decisions now will save your family and friends from the burden of making them for you.

We recommend discussing them with a doctor, in order to get the fullest understanding of the different scenarios you should plan for, as well as their respective pros and cons.

Are you considering hospice care for your loved one? Reach out to Divinity Hospice online or by phone (281-339-7079). We’ll give your loved one the respect, attention, and personalized care they deserve.