Putting Our House In Order
In the days to weeks before gradual death occurs a person realizes, at last, that they are dying. They may not share that realization with anyone, but they know. If...
In the days to weeks before gradual death occurs a person realizes, at last, that they are dying. They may not share that realization with anyone, but they know. If...
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...
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...
I want the medical profession, the medical model we find in doctors’ offices and hospitals, to do everything possible to help me not only regain my health, but to return...
I also thought as we get older that question tends to come out of hiding more easily. The older we are the more the question lies in the back of...
I think the reason hospice gets their referrals in the weeks before death rather than months is because hospice implies death will come. We look for and hope for a...
Deciding not to “tell mom she can’t be fixed" takes away that gift. Who are we (yes, even family) to determine what a person needs to or does not need...
Know that all of these signs of approaching death, whether indicating months or weeks, are just guideposts. Some people will show all of them...
Our children are not supposed to die before we do. I cannot think of any grief more intense than watching our child deteriorate before our eyes. We grieve their dying...
Our job as an end of life specialist is to address the elephant in the room, to be direct and honest in the gentlest way possible. We are not doing...
There are many of the same circumstances with today’s coronavirus as we faced with HIV/AIDS in the early years— lack of medical knowledge, lack of guidance, and fear. I think...
Isolation from others is teaching me this about my self ——- I do a lot for others, for their thoughts of me, why else do I wear makeup? Get dressed?...