As a geriatrician and palliative care physician, I am occasionally called for new "urgent" palliative consults on the weekends. These are usually patients with acute symptoms that need to be addressed quickly and aggressively. One Sunday while I was in the hospital, I was called to see Ms. C, a 50-year-old woman with end-stage recurrent ovarian cancer for symptom management. She had generalized pain and debility, a bowel obstruction, severe anisarca, and was groaning in pain with minimal verbalizations. She did not have a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order, and her spouse was her proxy. I interrupted my geriatric rounding schedule to see her urgently for symptom management.
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