I was fortunate to join the Hospice of the Valley team as the hospice medical director this year. I am thrilled about the opportunity to provide care to this community.  While I was born and raised in Texas, I moved to Colorado for residency training and fell in love with both my spouse and the state.  After a brief stay in Rochester, Minnesota for my fellowship at Mayo Clinic, my family and I were so excited to return to the state we call home.

I felt called to the field of hospice and palliative medicine early in my medical training.  I was fortunate to participate in a clinical rotation on the same hospice unit where my grandmother had passed away peacefully a few years earlier.  In addition to being a “full circle” moment, I quickly realized that hospice care exemplifies the type of care many of us hope to provide when we enter the medical field.

Many people are surprised when I tell them what type of medicine I practice.  My answer of “hospice and palliative medicine” is often met with comments along the lines of “oh, that must be so sad”.  This could not be further from the truth. There is nothing more honorable and fulfilling than ensuring that our patients are provided with a comfortable end-of-life process. 

September is pain awareness month and the interprofessional hospice team is uniquely well-suited to providing relief from many types of suffering. Pain is synonymous with suffering or discomfort and is not only a physical sensation.  As a hospice physician, I see and treat physical, emotional, and/or spiritual pain.  Most of the pain we see has many contributing factors. I use a variety of medications, including opioids, to ensure our patients are free from physical pain. While I have developed an expertise in managing physical pain and other symptoms, truthfully, it takes the expertise of all my colleagues to ensure that we are caring for all components of a patient’s suffering.

With the rise of the opioid epidemic, careful opioid prescribing is incredibly important.  While many patients or families are understandably nervous about using opioids to treat their pain and shortness of breath, the use of these medications is appropriate in terminally ill patients. These medications really are some of our best tools to ensure you are comfortable at the end of your life. There are several other tools to treat acute and chronic pain, such as interventional strategies, steroids, topical analgesics, NSAIDs, acetaminophen and even antidepressants or anticonvulsants. Treatment is individualized and will vary depending on the etiology of the pain. The team talks with our patients to determine how pain is interfering with their quality of life and function. We then try to adjust medications so that pain does not prevent them from doing the things they enjoy. When treating pain, my goal is to use the lowest effective dose of medication. To dispel another myth, it is important to highlight that studies show that carefully adjusted opioids such as Morphine, do NOT hasten death. In fact, patients with better pain control are better able to function and enjoy this precious stage of life.

Join Us:
Hospice of the Valley will host its First Annual Two Rivers Trek for Hospice.
To register, visit https://go.rallyup.com/hchotv or call 970-930-6008.