host posted on May 04, 2007 14:27
Carrying a small black bag, Dr. Suzana K. Everett Makowski melds all of the compassion and traditional services delivered by doctors from an earlier era with today's technology to offer her patients holistic and comprehensive treatment.
Medical director for the Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod, Dr. Makowski is the only doctor on the Cape practicing the specialty of palliative care and is one of only about 600 doctors nationwide who are fellowship-trained in this field.
Dr. Makowski defines the palliative specialty as care given to patients whose doctors have given them a prognosis of six months or less to live.
While treating the dying may seem like a depressing field in which to specialize, Dr. Makowski said she feels honored to witness such a sacred rite of passage. She explained that when she first began considering a career, she was advised to be very careful in her selection. She recalled that she was told if she chose a career in law, her life might be filled with adversity. If she chose a career in finance or business, her life might be filled with greed. By choosing a career in palliative care medicine, she said it has offered her the opportunity to witness human resilience and love and to see people rising above the worst of circumstances. "I get to see the best of human nature and it is such an honor," Dr. Makowski said.
With a passion for science and listening to people, Dr. Makowski decided to enter the medical profession. But during her medical training, it did not take long for her to realize that there are enormous amounts of pressure and stress on today's doctors. She said beyond managing large caseloads, there is endless paperwork that needs to be completed and consequently she soon discovered that there was limited time to fully treat her patients and their families.
But when she entered the field of palliative care, she found it was the perfect fit and was exactly what she had envisioned when she chose to enter the medical profession. As a doctor specializing in palliative care treatment, she was given the opportunity to not only manage the patient's pain but to address the emotional and social issues of her patients and their families.
Essentially, she said, palliative care takes the bedside manner to the next level.
She approaches managing a patient's physical pain with an understanding of the emotional and physical stresses that go with a terminal diagnosis and how those stresses can play significant roles in the physical pain experienced by the patient. She said for a patient to respond to treatments, their biological, psychological, and sociological needs, and those of their family, must be addressed.
Dr. Makowski pointed out that she does not replace an oncologist or cardiologist but rather she is a supplement to the treatments these specialists offer. "I am a complement to what the primary care doctors are providing," she said.
From the years that Dr. Makowski has been practicing in this field she recalls many emotionally moving moments that have occurred as a result of the counseling she provided to families. She has encouraged her patients to express sentiments of love and pride to their families so that when the patient died, there was no sense of regret, for the patient or the family members.
She recalled one patient who, up until the day she died, said she felt so good as a result of the care she had received and found it difficult to believe that she was dying.
Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod is a independent nonprofit organization that offers a number of programs and services to its clients. Among those services is the Mary McCarthy Hospice House, a 10-bed facility located on Service Road in Sandwich. The rooms inside the hospice are tastefully designed with large French doors that open onto a balcony. Sleep sofas in the room allow family members to stay overnight with the residents. Communications manager Melissa Roberts Weidman said that the goal of the facility is to be as close to a home as possible for the patients and their families.
With a caseload of between 100 and 125 patients, Dr. Makowski treats residents at the Mary McCarthy House, as well as makes house calls to patients who are able to be cared for at home.
Dr. Makowski said a sign that it is time to call on the services of a palliative care facility is when patients with a terminal prognosis find themselves spending the majority of their time scheduling and attending doctors and hospital visits rather than living a quality life during the days that are left.
"Palliative care is not about finding a place to die but about finding a place to live," the doctor said. "It is about complex symptom management. I try to maximize how well people can feel even in the most desperate of circumstances."