Something to Think About

I knew all the signs of approaching death, of labor beginning. What I didn’t know was how much we don’t want to see those signs, and by not wanting to see them,...

Addressing the timelines of approaching death also neutralizes the false hope that our person will get better, that there is more time.

When we begin the gradual dying process our personality tends to intensify. If we are an angry person we will get angrier. If we have a gentle personality we will...

Not everyone who is dying has pain. Disease causes pain. If pain is not present, a narcotic is not appropriate (except a tiny bit can ease labored breathing is present...

When doctors and healthcare professionals place a number on how long someone has to live they are doing that person a disservice.

We start off alone, then we have Mom and Dad, then family, friends, then the world of school, activities,and involvement in the bigger world around us. When we are leaving, we...

Anger in caregiving generally comes from a place of frustration, of fear, of sadness, of tiredness. All sorts of feelings with no outlet so they come bursting out.

The restlessness shows itself by random body movements, hands picking the air or clothing, mumbling, talking but not making sense, by just not being settled and quiet...

As for the “signs of what is to come” for someone who is young and dying, those signs are also the same for everyone, young and old. People dying from...

Hospice provides care and services for people in the last six months of their life. A doctor must specify, in his/her best opinion, that this person has less than  six...

We human beings are complicated creatures. We approach death in the way we have approached living and according to our personality. Our belief systems are part of that living. Sometimes...

Filling out an Advance Directive when you are healthy is different than filling one out when you are elderly or living with a serious illness...

Our base nature comes out when we are in pain, other worldly, and on high doses of all kinds of medications.  We are unconsciously expressing the terrible situation we were...

Number one, we are all going to die at some point. Of course the operative words here are “at some point.” If we are told death will be the outcome...

Hospice is widely known for providing end of life care. It has grown in size and in its original scope of services. Even its definition of “end of life care”...

All the work we do leads up to the moment of death. Our goal is to guide and support those present through the moment the last breath occurs.

It is our job, our responsibility as end of life workers to be honest with our patients. In a “don’t tell mom” situation I first assess where everyone is, who...

How tragic that none can come forward and say, "Your father is dying. Let's stop all these extras and keep him comfortable”. Family as well as many individual physicians do...

We cannot put a number on how long someone has to live. There are so many factors that affect the time of our gradual death that the closest anyone can...

When life has run its course (however many years it is) our body begins to "wind down" much like it “wound up” in the beginning...

From what you have told me I believe your mother's death was no one's fault, certainly not yours. Her body, after all the years of illness, couldn't continue and she...