Kat 103.7 Radiothon for Children's Nebraska: Doctor Patrick Lloyd Palliative Care

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The purpose of our team is to really focus on
how well children with either complex medical illness or potentially
life limiting illness can live. How do we help them
live as best as they can despite their diagnosis and
with their diagnosis. I think a lot of times there's
a potential misconception of palliative care's hospice and plative care

(00:24):
is a subset of hospice. It's like subspecialty level palliative care.
So palliative care is the umbrella where we don't necessarily
want to talk about hospice if we don't have to.
If we do, we will. But our goal again is
really focused on quality of life for as long as
that can possibly be. So there are families that we're
involved with for years, and we get to know them
very very well of our very long period of time

(00:46):
in and outside the hospital, and we help with things
like symptoms or just things that they really enjoy to do,
like how do we get them to go to school
with their illnesses? Things like that. And then there are
some kids that we get to know for a much
shorter period of time and we try to do as
much as we can to again help them live as
well as they can. Knowing that their life will be shorter,
and you know, it's it's always sad when that happens.

(01:10):
And we are always hoping for there to be as
much quantity as we can, but our team really specifically
focuses on quality, and so yeah, it's it's really meaningful
for me and it's a it holds a very near
and dear place in my heart. So I appreciate that
chance to talk with you about today. I don't think
I could do this job if it was all sadness.

(01:30):
There is absolutely sadness in there, but I think I
take the view and I like to think that our
families take the viewpoint too, that in spite of the
sadness there's still joy and love and compassion to be found,
and I think the stories of a lot of our
families are proof of that. And so it's it's the
focus we take is really how do we how do

(01:53):
we pack as much goodness into the sadness that we have?
And those are not mutually exclusive, and I think that's
the hard thing sometimes for all of us to wrap
our heads around. What are the things that you've learned
from the kids that you've helped to serve It's a
really good question. There's so many ways. I mean, loving

(02:14):
your family and not sweating the little things. I think
everybody has a different definition of what the little things are,
but recognizing that every day is a miracle and important
and meaningful in and of itself, and you can find
meaning even in the things that we don't necessarily think
of as meaningful. So going to the grocery store with
your parent or with your sibling, there's meaning there. There's

(02:37):
a ton of meaning there, and there's a ton of
love there, and something so mundane is going to a
grocery store, Like, there is a lot of good that
can come from very little things, And so not discounting
the power of the time that we have together and
the meaning to be found in that time, I think
is probably the most important one that I see very frequently.

(02:59):
I hope I take a good grasp, but mhm.