BeLoved Hospice offers an intensive program focused on the specific needs of patients diagnosed with end-stage liver disease.
Patients with ESLD suffer from a variety of issues that can be addressed by the BeLoved Hospice team. Physical symptoms often include pain, breathlessness, muscle cramps, and sleep disturbances. Pain can be a challenging symptom to treat in this population due to the increased risk for adverse effects from many commonly-used analgesics. In addition, opioids, while often used, are sometimes impacted by impaired hepatic metabolism and sedating effects. Therefore, BeLoved Hospice approaches ESLD pain and symptom management through focused selection of medications specific to the patient’s diagnosis, symptoms and history of response to treatment.
Additionally, many ESLD patients suffer from painful symptoms like ascites. While ascites can be managed with dietary restriction and diuretic therapy, many patients are in need of therapeutic paracentesis to reduce fluid volume. BeLoved Hospice offers bedside paracentesis for patients experiencing tense ascites in addition to the management of indwelling catheters to reduce fluid volume.
Finally, the psychosocial and spiritual team at BeLoved Hospice can help provide assistance with many of the psychological and emotional issues for our Portland area ESLD patients at the end of life. Our psychosocial team works with community partners to help connect patients to available community assistance programs as well as added counseling resources for patients facing emotional symptoms such as social isolation and spiritual disconnectedness.
