Something to Think About

Question: Will you talk about sedation at the end of life? There is a misconception that dying is painful therefore pain medicine/narcotics should be used routinely in the last days...

Question: Write something about the need for people to lose their negative attitudes about people who have “certain” diseases: HIV, cirrhosis, hepatitis, B&C, lung cancer. I’m not sure I am...

Question: Who decides it is time for you to die? Do we have input to this? Do we control our passing? I don’t know the answer to those questions. I’m...

Dying is not a medical situation. In the hours to minutes, often even days before death, we don’t need medical assistance. We don’t need doctors or nurses or hospitals or...

Question: My 87 year old father has cancer and about six months to live. He will not tell his wife (my mother) or my sister who lives close by and...

Most people diagnosed with a life threatening illness think about suicide. Suicidal thoughts are normal thoughts in someone who has been told they can’t be fixed. We think about it...

Caring for someone with a life threatening illness is more than just providing physical care 24/7. It is emotionally draining. All sorts of feelings seem to surface that, once there,...

Being active helps us poop therefore the less active we are, and people approaching the end of their life through disease or old age gradually have less and less energy...

Comment: “My son has died!” You have been with people when they die. Your book, The Final Act of Living, talks about body and spirit. How do you know? I...

We live inside of our bodies so it is no secret to us when death from disease or old age is close. We may not share the knowledge with anyone...

Frequently I will hear a person say “I am ready to die,” “I just want to die,” “Why am I not dead yet?” or “Why is this taking so long?”...

I have been at the bedside of many, many people at their exact moment of death. Those people have taught me what happens in the hours to minutes before death....

What do you want me to write about? Getting a terminally ill patient to accept hospice care that is being offered to them. They really need it. Hospice has a...

What would you like me to write about? Bargaining--the patient (with terminal brain cancer) trying to find a cure; trying to find holistic cures to save his life and spending...

I received a letter from a person whose chronic illness has put her at “death's door” many times over the years. She requested my thoughts on her ongoing illness and...

Question: How do we communicate with a person who is deaf, who has a brain tumor, who is trapped inside a body from a stroke, has dementia, or is in...

 Question: Your books, articles and blogs have helped our family through several deaths and dying situations. I just read your blog about animals. It was very close to my...

QUESTION: Please write about when a person is approaching death and they see or ask about people who have already died. In the weeks before death from disease a person...

Question: How do you handle your personal struggles when you have a family member or friend placed under hospice care and you are a hospice professional? How do you deal...

QUESTION: As toxins build in the body because your body isn’t working right anymore, what signs are there that you are shutting down? Stage 4 liver disease, hepatitis C. I...

REQUEST: Write about the role of a hospice nurse in working within a dysfunctional familial environment that involves the patient. What is the definition of “dysfunction,” really? The dictionary defines...