At what stage would 'McMillan' nurses help?

Dizzy_Ditzy

mcmillan will get involved any time you ask them to

phone your sons team (or the secretary) and ask them for the number of the mcmillan nurse- not all teams have a dedicated one but should be able to put you in touch with someone who can help

Hope the diagnosis is one of the better ones

candygirl

The local hospice nurses helped my Dad.They weren't from Macmillan, but we found their website fab for advice xx:D:D

Armchair23

MacMillan nurses deal with pain relief. They do not change dressings stay overnight or get involved in other nursing issues. They might be attached to a hospice and they might be involved in arranging Occupational therapists, physio and things of that ilk. Marie Curie nurses are that, nurses, they are highly skilled nurses who specialise mainly in end of life care in the home.
Feel free to correct me, but this comes from recent personal experience of having a husband die from cancer who received care from a Macmillan nurse.
You are supposed to have a specific person who should pull all of these services together for you. The terminology for this varies from hospital to hospital and health authority. Frankly good luck with that, ours managed to be totally invisible for three years.

floss2

Armchair23 wrote: »

MacMillan nurses deal with pain relief. They do not change dressings stay overnight or get involved in other nursing issues. They might be attached to a hospice and they might be involved in arranging Occupational therapists, physio and things of that ilk. Marie Curie nurses are that, nurses, they are highly skilled nurses who specialise mainly in end of life care in the home.
Feel free to correct me, but this comes from recent personal experience of having a husband die from cancer who received care from a Macmillan nurse.
You are supposed to have a specific person who should pull all of these services together for you. The terminology for this varies from hospital to hospital and health authority. Frankly good luck with that, ours managed to be totally invisible for three years.

I'm sorry for your loss, but I just wanted to add to your experience of Macmillan nurses to say that they DO provide first-class nursing care, change dressings etc. I know because I have seen them nursing my father and attending at all hours of the day & night to manage his palliative care.

What IS different is whether your area will have any active nurses, which is 100% down to the charity's funding in that area. Where I live is a Marie Curie area, where my family live 50 miles away in a different HA it is a Macmillan area.

Regardless of this, their website & phone line are available to all no matter where you live.

gratefulforhelp_2

No useful info, but God Bless your boy and your family. x

sock-knitter

a friend of mine, her husband has terminal cancer, and he wanted to be at home for his final days, unfortunatly where we live, mc millan nurses only come at the very very end, they told my friend they only attend the poorly person's final 2 days. as a result her husband is now in a hospice, as my friend could not provide 24 hour care for her sick husband

DS4215

Write to each of his creditors telling them what the situation is, and include a letter from your doctor to confirm the diagnosis/prognosis. Ask them to hold the debts while he recouperates. If any of them don't help you out, let the papers know - they love to hear about heartless companies.

Hope he recovers soon.

itzmee

Armchair23 wrote: »

MacMillan nurses deal with pain relief. They do not change dressings stay overnight or get involved in other nursing issues. They might be attached to a hospice and they might be involved in arranging Occupational therapists, physio and things of that ilk. Marie Curie nurses are that, nurses, they are highly skilled nurses who specialise mainly in end of life care in the home.
Feel free to correct me, but this comes from recent personal experience of having a husband die from cancer who received care from a Macmillan nurse.
You are supposed to have a specific person who should pull all of these services together for you. The terminology for this varies from hospital to hospital and health authority. Frankly good luck with that, ours managed to be totally invisible for three years.

MIL was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year and was put under the care of McMillan nurses. We were all under the impression that they actually nurse but they basically just advised on benefits, arranged for equipment to be brought to the house as MIL didn't want to stay in hospital, and organised Marie Curie carers to do the actual nursing who were really lovely and caring.

We felt that McMillan were next to useless as we had to chase after them for any help. The nurse told us that even though MIL had been given a six month diagnosis, in her opinion she only had a few weeks left and doctors had to give a minimum 6 month timescale to allow people to claim any benefits they are entitled to :eek::eek: This shocked us but she was right as MIL died less than 3 weeks later. The whole family were disgusted at the way McMillan acted after she died as they basically swooped to collect all their equipment almost immediately, and seemed so cold and clinical about it as though they had done their bit now. After this experience we would be happy to support any cancer charity except McMillan.

NuttyFaggot

I have never seen anyone be critical about MacMillan before so have always held my tongue so I must thank Itzmee for being the first. My experience with them is basically the same, my husband said that she wasn't there to help him live but was there to help him die. In fact, the stupid woman nearly did kill him by prescribing him something I knew was wrong and refused to give it to him. When I told the Dr what had happened she agreed with me. Don't get me wrong, MacMillan nurse knew how to claim the benefits which really helped but to basically sum her up: when my husband went into the hospice, the wonderful nurse on her first visit (who was actually based at the hospice) promised him all kinds of treatment/support but was never seen again - and neither was the treatment. Am I bitter about her? Too bloody right I am, she was bloody dangerous, she thought she knew everything about cancer but she blatantly didn't. \rant off

candygirl

itzmee wrote: »

MIL was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year and was put under the care of McMillan nurses. We were all under the impression that they actually nurse but they basically just advised on benefits, arranged for equipment to be brought to the house as MIL didn't want to stay in hospital, and organised Marie Curie carers to do the actual nursing who were really lovely and caring.

We felt that McMillan were next to useless as we had to chase after them for any help. The nurse told us that even though MIL had been given a six month diagnosis, in her opinion she only had a few weeks left and doctors had to give a minimum 6 month timescale to allow people to claim any benefits they are entitled to :eek::eek: This shocked us but she was right as MIL died less than 3 weeks later. The whole family were disgusted at the way McMillan acted after she died as they basically swooped to collect all their equipment almost immediately, and seemed so cold and clinical about it as though they had done their bit now. After this experience we would be happy to support any cancer charity except McMillan.

NuttyFaggot wrote: »

I have never seen anyone be critical about MacMillan before so have always held my tongue so I must thank Itzmee for being the first. My experience with them is basically the same, my husband said that she wasn't there to help him live but was there to help him die. In fact, the stupid woman nearly did kill him by prescribing him something I knew was wrong and refused to give it to him. When I told the Dr what had happened she agreed with me. Don't get me wrong, MacMillan nurse knew how to claim the benefits which really helped but to basically sum her up: when my husband went into the hospice, the wonderful nurse on her first visit (who was actually based at the hospice) promised him all kinds of treatment/support but was never seen again - and neither was the treatment. Am I bitter about her? Too bloody right I am, she was bloody dangerous, she thought she knew everything about cancer but she blatantly didn't. \rant off

I'm really sorry to hear these stories.Luckily like I said before the hospice nurses were fab with my Dad and gave him all the help he needed.The Macmillan nurses came on the night he died and were ok but didn't have the personal touch IMO:o