Palliative Care Makes Me Feel Normal

Tina’s Palliative Care Story

Tina has always enjoyed the outdoors, being on the water, and experiencing nature. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, her life began to change dramatically.

Today, at age 56, after battling three different cancers, Tina spends most of her days inside her Selah home, reading, cross-stitching, making blankets for her grandchildren, and looking out her window at the birds. She especially loves finches. If she has a good day, she ventures out to her porch with her new walker.

Finally, Being Heard

Beyond the physical changes to her body, chronic pain, and a suppressed immune system, the biggest challenge Tina has experienced has been the emotional impact of living with a serious illness.

“You feel like you are not being heard,” she says. “I needed help, and I wasn’t getting the help I needed.”

Twelve years after her first of three cancer diagnoses, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, internal and external radiation, and lung resection surgery, Tina found Heartlinks Palliative Care. Once a month, or more often if needed, she talks to Charlotte Davis, one of Heartlinks’ Palliative Care Nurse Practitioners, by phone or video call.

“If I need her, all I have to do is call,” says Tina. “I feel like I talk a lot, but nobody hears me. I don’t feel like that with Charlotte.”

Whether or not you have a good or less than good relationship with your providers, Heartlinks works diligently to collaborate with your entire healthcare team.

No Longer Alone

Tina says that she doesn’t feel alone anymore and has support.

“It’s been a very lonely process,” Tina recalls about her journey. “I’ve lost friends because they couldn’t deal with it. I have withdrawn. I am paranoid of germs, so I put my mask on. I have isolated. That’s not necessarily a good thing.”

Additionally, she had to let go of being her mother’s primary caregiver and rely on other family members.

“My mom took care of my dying grandmother and my dad, who passed away of lung cancer,” she says. “My mom lost my brother after my diagnosis. It’s a really difficult situation because my mom doesn’t have the same support she gave to others*.”

Feeling Safe

Yet, through all the trials, Tina says that Palliative care makes her feel normal.

“Things are a lot simpler to me,” she says. “Charlotte explains things to me, and I feel like we are on the same page. [Heartlinks] is on top of things and it just makes me feel safe.”

Because of her pain, doctors have encouraged Tina to get a hip replacement, but she has decided not to go through another surgery. Instead, she asked Charlotte about getting a walker. Summer, Heartlinks’ palliative care coordinator, was able to answer this simple, yet powerful request at no cost to Tina.

“I move so much faster with my walker,” Tina says. “I am not embarrassed. I like my walker.”

Palliative Care Changed Her Life

Tina doesn’t understand why more people don’t have palliative care. She said it has totally changed her life.

“People have it stuck in their head that you give up on life being on palliative care. No, I did not give up on life. I am trying to continue life but in a safe manner, so I can be here as long as I can be here. That’s my goal,” she says.

Tina doesn’t know when cancer may take her life, but she plans to be in hospice care to the end. She says she wants as much peace and comfort as possible.

“You don’t necessarily want to die,” she says. “My hope is that I do want to pass peacefully, and I want my loved ones to be okay with that, too. I want my kids to be okay. I want my grandbabies to be okay.”

Until then, she wants others to know her story and hopes more people can benefit from palliative care.

“I don’t expect them to save my life. They are helping me manage – to do this stretch,” she says. “As individuals, we can help each other through this journey. That’s all we can do, and that’s all I want.”

Anyone Can Make A Palliative Care Referral

If you or a loved one is considering adding palliative care to your care team, call 509-837-1676 or complete our Palliative Care Referral Form today. At Heartlinks, we are deeply honored to walk alongside individuals and families through some of life’s most meaningful and challenging moments. Our palliative care program exists to provide expert support, symptom relief, and compassionate care at any stage of a serious illness.

*Since publishing this story, Tina’s mother peacefully passed away on Heartlinks’ Hospice Care.