Dying Is Not A Medical Event
Dying is not a medical situation. In the hours to minutes, often even days before death, we don’t need medical assistance. We don’t need doctors or nurses or hospitals or...
Something to Think About: a blog on end of life
Dynamics of Dying
Thoughts of Suicide
Most people diagnosed with a life threatening illness think about suicide. Suicidal thoughts are normal thoughts in someone who has been told they can’t be fixed. We think about it...
Labor of the Dying
We live inside of our bodies so it is no secret to us when death from disease or old age is close. We may not share the knowledge with anyone...
I Just Want to Die
Frequently I will hear a person say “I am ready to die,” “I just want to die,” “Why am I not dead yet?” or “Why is this taking so long?”...
THE MOMENT OF DEATH
I have been at the bedside of many, many people at their exact moment of death. Those people have taught me what happens in the hours to minutes before death....
Treatment, Treatment, Treatment, Why?
What would you like me to write about? Bargaining--the patient (with terminal brain cancer) trying to find a cure; trying to find holistic cures to save his life and spending...
Living With a Chronic, Life-threatening Illness
I received a letter from a person whose chronic illness has put her at “death's door” many times over the years. She requested my thoughts on her ongoing illness and...
What If a Person Can't Hear or Understand You?
Question: How do we communicate with a person who is deaf, who has a brain tumor, who is trapped inside a body from a stroke, has dementia, or is in...
Seeing the Dead
QUESTION: Please write about when a person is approaching death and they see or ask about people who have already died. In the weeks before death from disease a person...
How Long to Live?
QUESTION: As toxins build in the body because your body isn’t working right anymore, what signs are there that you are shutting down? Stage 4 liver disease, hepatitis C. I...
Do Children Know When They Are Dying?
QUESTION: Should children be told of their impending death or do they somehow know it? It is interesting to me that we can talk about adults approaching death and all...
Dementia and Family Care Giving
At this point in her disease process really the only medications your Mom needs to be taking are for pain. You could crush up the pills (make sure they are...