
Something to Think About
a blog on end of life
- All posts
- addiction
- advance directive
- alzheimers
- anticipation
- anticipatory grief
- Approaching Death
- assisted care
- assisted death
- Assisted Living
- bereaved
- Bereavement
- burnout
- cancer
- caregiver
- caregiver fatigue
- caregiver support
- caregiving at end of life
- children
- Clinician
- comfort care
- covid 19
- Death
- death and dying
- death cafe
- death call
- death care
- death doula
- death education
- death midwife
- death of a pet
- death ritual
- dementia
- dementia doula
- diagnosis
- Director of Education
- disease
- DNR
- doctors
- dying
- dying pet
- dying process
- Dynamics of Dying
- Eating or not eating
- elderly
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- end of life
- end of life doula
- euthanasia
- family
- family caregiver
- father
- Fear
- Feeding
- Food
- Funeral
- gift
- Gone From My Sight
- graduating from hospice
- gratitude
- Grief
- Grief Counselor
- grief support
- Guilt
- holidays
- Home Care
- home death
- home health
- home healthcare
- Hospice
- Hospice Blue Book
- hospice care
- hospice chaplain
- hospice education
- hospice end of life care
- hospice for pets
- hospice nurse
- hospice nurses
- hospice patient
- hospice physician
- Hospice Social Worker
- Hospice Staff
- hospice volunteer
- hospital
- How Do I Know You ?
- How Do I Know You? Dementia at the End of Life
- Hydration or dehydration
- infant death
- labor
- life limiting
- life support
- loss
- media
- Medicade
- Medicare
- medication
- medications
- memory care
- midwife
- moment of death
- morphine
- mother
- My Friend I Care
- narcotics
- New Rules For End Of Life Care
- No Code
- Not Eating
- nurse
- Nursing facility
- Nursing home
- nutrition
- Old Age
- older pet
- orientation
- oxygen
- pain
- pain at end of life
- pain management
- pain relief
- palliative care
- palliative sedation
- pandemic
- personality
- Pet death
- Pet illness
- physician
- podcast
- POLST
- prepare for death
- quality of life
- religion
- Retirement Home
- sacred
- self care
- sleep
- Social Worker
- spanish grief literature
- stages of grief
- Suicide
- Supervisors
- support
- terminal
- terminal agitation
- terminal diagnosis
- terminal restlessness
- The Eleventh Hour
- The Final Act of Living
- This Is How People Die
- Time
- Time of Death
- trauma
- treatments
- volunteer
- volunteers
- washing the body
- widow
- wife
- You Need Care Too
We often think because a person is facing the end of their life we have to do whatever they want us to, regardless of how it affects us. We treat...
Barbara, I have a 23 year old daughter that has a chronic illness. She says she is tired of fighting. I don't want to lose her. I am lost. Having...
I appreciate how much you love your mother. I see the challenge you are dealing with in her attitude and behavior. As much as we love someone our feelings can...
Barbara, People have asked me when and how I can offer others your booklets. With anyone, an acquaintance or close friend, you can always just say, “I have some materials...
In the End of Life Care and Bereavement Group I have on Facebook some of us who are or have been hospice nurses were talking about what we, as hospice...
Grief is a reaction to loss. Loss equates to a death, a death of something or someone. Death comes in many ways, many forms. There is the death of a...
In non medical words I would call terminal delirium confusion with or without restlessness. In the weeks before death a person who has entered the dying process is sleeping most...
Question: How much is comprehended by the patient as they approach end of life? Do they know who is present, if someone is absent? How does the patient feel knowing...
When someone is dying a gradual death from disease and is hours tominutes from death they don't need a doctor, nurse, social worker, or evena chaplain. They need someone who...
As death comes closer we tend to see that families have a hard time with the fact that the patient does NOT want to eat or drink. Not wanting to...
Being a type A personality I am moving and doing something most of the time. Tasks are finished before they need to be. Goals are the drive behind me, not...
QUESTION: The doctor recommended hospice for my father today (89, congestive heart failure). I believe this is probably the right thing, but how do I know this isn't about money...
Over the years people have told me stories of a friend or neighbor who was dealing with end of life issues. They then have asked that I call that person...
Don’t tell Grandma. There has been many a time when I did a hospice assessment and a family member has said to me “Don’t tell Grandma she can’t be fixed....
We have all sorts of fears around dying and death so we keep thoughts of end of life at bay. We are like ostriches who bury their heads in the...
Mary Nell’s son in law, Ted, sent me this writing. It is so poignant I asked him if I could share it with my blog readers. It is longer than...
October 15 was National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I’ve been asked to write about the grief experienced with the loss of a baby through miscarriage or stillbirth. I...
My husband tells the story of me asking our hospice nurse how long she thought my mother had to live (a question all families ask). My husband knew that I...
QUESTION: If a family member suffers a stroke what is the right decision about whether to use a feeding tube? I think it depends on what a person’s mind and...
QUESTION: What to do if the Doctor suggests stopping life support? RESPONSE: No one wants to be in the position of determining when a person dies, not doctors, not family....
QUESTION: What are we trying to achieve by treatment? That is THE question everyone involved in medical decision making needs to ask. Who is everyone? Physician, patient, and family. Most...