Something to Think About

My message throughout all this time has been to educate, educate, educate. Educate anyone who will listen about how people die. To help people understand how death comes, what it...

...Fortunately, I suppose, my mother is now bed-bound and we were able toget Hospice to help out, so she now fits the bill for a 'model patient'... but itstill seems...

As we get older, life presents us with different challenges. We adapt to them in the same way we have lived our life and dealt with all the challenges in...

From the moment of a diagnosis of a life threatening illness we begin grieving. We grieve not just the eventual losses that come with serious illness but the approaching death...

There have been many changes in hospice care since it began. Some for the better, some not so much. What I am suggesting as representing a “good” hospice is becoming...

When we die we work to leave our body. That work begins months before death from disease actually occurs but we only really see the work happening when death is...

...not telling a person they can’t be fixed is taking away their opportunity to do and say that which is important to them. It is taking away their ability to...

It is because end of life care is different than caring for someone who is going to get better that we think the care being provided is causing harm. It...

We need to look at the promises made, evaluate them as to: can it be done, should it be done, and am I willing to do it? 

I believe that everyone has the right to decide how they will live and how they will die. There are people that no matter the disease will want to have...

Many years ago I attended a workshop at The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. The topic was about when a clinician enters the administration work field. I don’t remember much...

We must talk about end of life issues NOW while we are healthy, and our thoughts are not clouded with fear. Right now when emotions don’t affect our thinking. When we can...

What happens at the moment of death or in the hours before death, is generally just normal body actions. A tear is natural -- the eyes are partially open and...

Have a conversation with those people that are closest to you about your ideas of “the perfect death”. “If I can’t speak for myself, here is what I want you...

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...

How to let go and stop feeling guilty? At first you probably aren't even aware of your feelings. When someone close to us dies, even if we are told it...

I know “dying of a broken heart” is used frequently when death comes as a result of a tragic life event. I’m not sure that is actually why the person...

If you teach your families well about the approaching end of life there will be no problems with them understanding the labor of dying. Having someone you care about dying is...

Timing of the “hospice” talk is important as well as having an end of life talk before having the hospice talk. 

Is life worth living with all this assistance? For some it will be, for others is won’t...

Unresolved grief is not having figured out how to go on living after the death of a loved one. There are a lot of reasons why this happens. Here are...