When Ed and Sherry Freund moved to their house in Panama City, Fla., last May, they intended to make it their retirement home.

But at the end of January, Mrs. Freund, who had been diagnosed about a year earlier with colangiocarcinoma, chose to return to Sharon and enter the hospice program at Sharon Regional Health System. That allowed her to pass away peacefully in her home, surrounded by her family, instead of in a hospital far away.

When she was first diagnosed with colangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the colon and bowel area, doctors told Mrs. Freund, a former Sharon police clerk, she had six months to a year to live with chemotherapy.

After an operation in March 2001 to remove a tumor on her liver, the Freunds decided to move to Florida. They thought Mrs. Freund's cancer was beat.

"All indications we had then was the operation was 100 percent successful," Freund said.

The surgery was successful, but in early November Mrs. Freund started experiencing stomach cramps. She went into the hospital on Dec. 17, and on Jan. 10 an exploratory surgery revealed several large inoperable tumors on her stomach and intestinal area.

Freund asked his wife what she wanted to do. She chose to come back to Sharon. Mrs. Freund died peacefully a short time later in her home at age 58.

"Somebody needs to write a book on what the doctors don't tell you," Freund said. "They do not give you any sense of direction or alternatives."

But hospice provides an alternative.

Hospice is an alternative for terminally ill patients that allows them to spend their final days in their homes, surrounded by family and friends, rather than in a hospital, surrounded by tubes and machines. Patients eligible for hospice generally have a life expectancy of six months or less.

Hospice care concentrates more on easing the symptoms and pain of a disease rather than curing them. The philosophy behind hospice is to make a terminally ill patient as comfortable as possible during the last days, doing nothing to prolong life or hasten death.

Besides Sharon Regional, the UPMC Heath System also offers a hospice program. United Community Hospital in Pine Township does not have a certified hospice program but has a home health agency that provides care for the terminally ill.

Sometimes people have misconceptions about hospice, thinking that doctors are helping to shorten the lives of suffering patients.

"When we talk about easing pain and suffering, we are not in any way talking about hastening death," said Dr. George Garrow, medical director for oncology at Sharon Regional's Cancer Care center. "From a professional, medical standpoint, there's nothing I'm more opposed to than euthanasia."

Robert Elerby, 73, Sharon, entered Sharon Regional's hospice program in December. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer two years ago that has since spread to his brain and lungs.

His wife, Elsie, said her husband is basically a happy patient.

"Most of the days he's pretty good. He has a routine. He gets three or four naps in during the day," Mrs. Elerby said. "He gets active every now and then. He tries to sneak out of the bed."

Elerby is comfortable and listens well to the hospice nurses who come to the house to see him. When hospice nurse Ronnie Eppinger visited him on Jan. 30, he greeted her enthusiastically.

"They've got him spoiled," Mrs. Elerby said.

Mrs. Eppinger is one of four hospice nurses who make rounds to patients every day. Hospice nurses are available 24 hours a day in case the patient's condition changes or a family member just needs to talk.

"That's the idea behind hospice," Mrs. Eppinger said. "We're there for the patient and family."

Hospice nurses, while attending to the needs of the patients, also provide emotional support to family members. The nurses become such a vital part of the day-to-day routine that they become, as Mrs. Elerby said, part of the family.

The nurses make sure the families know each one of them, take turns being on call and let the families know who is available to them.

"We provide emotional support. That's probably the biggest thing we do," Mrs. Eppinger said. "We're not looking to cure the patient. The patients have all decided they want to be in their homes with their families."

The nurses also teach the patients' caregivers how to administer medicine and what signs to watch for.

"We see a lot of confusion with the progression of the disease and medication," Mrs. Eppinger said.

A difficult aspect of hospice is taking on a patient whose disease has progressed so rapidly the nurses don't have enough time to spend with the family to prepare them, Mrs. Eppinger said.

"You get very close with these families real quick," she said.

The families are informed of the signs and symptoms of imminent death and are given instructions on what to do.

"They call us, and we will go out ... we assess them for absence of vital signs, we make sure all the family has arrived if they want to see them one last time before they're removed," Mrs. Eppinger said. "We notify the physician, we call the funeral home. We stay while the body is being removed from the home."

After the body is taken away, the nurses remain with the family for a while. Most try to go to the funeral home.

"Because they are a part of our family, we cry with them when they cry," Mrs. Eppinger said.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Erin Remai at eremai@sharon- herald.com.