Something to Think About
a blog on end of life
As a person enters the dying process, months before death occurs, they will gradually stop eating. Months before death they will stop eating meats, then fruits and vegetables, then soft...
Examine why you want to be a Death Midwife. What is bringing you to this area? If it is because you want to share your religious beliefs with others then...
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...
I used to say I could teach any nurse the skills needed for end of life care, but that it was the nurse's ability to be supportive and their people...
Dear Barbara, Please talk about unexpected youth death. In our minds we understand, that as sad as it is when an older adult dies,they have lived their life and death...
What do I personally think? If we want to die, VSED is a way of having total control. It is not illegal. It doesn’t involve others (which is illegal). It...
...There is no perfect relationship. There are good times and difficult times. Sometimes the difficulty we have with the person that is dying keeps us from being at the bedside....
If we did not relate to praying in living then we will not necessarily relate now. We die the way we have lived. We don’t change who we are just...
I do not think there is a need for narcotics just because death is approaching. Dying is not painful. Disease causes pain...
Most families are stressed, tempers can flare, nerves get frayed. It is up to us, as professionals, to use our communication skills to ease the tensions...
The congestion that occurs before death will depend upon how hydrated ordehydrated a person is. The more fluids in their body, the more congestion.Sometimes changing their position (laying them on...
Sometimes when we think that others think we are not doing enough, it may actually be us thinking that the others are not doing enough. When the worker bee caregiver...
Death for those who work in end of life is not failureor the enemy. It is the ending of the work we do. Our satisfaction in thedeath of a patient...
It is not too late to examine the lesson, to rethink your reaction to it and to put all those tormented thoughts and feelings to rest. I am not expecting...
In normal grieving, time begins to lessen the intensity of the emotional pain of our loss. There is a process to grief (see My Friend, I Care) and although we never forget...
If she has had no water of any kind for 16 days I would expect her to die at anytime--maybe before I write this.
A great question. You have actually touched on a line of thinking that a lot of people have about the use of narcotics at end of life: that the narcotic...
Dear Barbara, Talk about the dangers of giving morphine to one who is dying? I have written many articles on morphine yet I repeatedly get this question. What that tells...
I was just on the phone with a woman who told me the doctor told her friend he was surprised she had lived this long with the disease having spread...
Dear Barbara, what are the physical changes in appearance during the dying process? Also talk about not forcing food upon the dying. The physical changes in appearance during the dying...
