Something to Think About

The bottom line is that no one can possibly imagine the ongoing challenges of living with and caring for a person with dementia until they find themselves caring for a...

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...

Remember we all do the best we can in any given situation. None of us sets out to do a “bad” job, to live life poorly, to make mistakes, or...

It’s okay for our loved one not to eat once they have entered the dying process. They are reaching a point of just not being able to eat. The body doesn’t want...

Comment: “How sad it is. My brother, age 51, is a single dad with one son and (my brother is) dying of kidney cancer. He gave a fight but he's...

Hi Barbara, I just finished a CNA/HHA program and am looking for a career in hospice work. What options do I have? I took hospice training in 2001 through Kaiser...

There is a saying, “Live each day as if it were your last.” It makes sense that the last day of our lives is the day we would want to...

Afraid to Talk About Dying? Why are we so afraid to talk about dying, our own or someone else’s? I have a booklet about living with a life threatening illness....

QUESTION: Talk about dying at home, in the hospital, or in a hospice care facility. I think it is fair to say that most people, given the choice, would like...

QUESTION: “Life sustaining vs. comfort care, where do you draw the line?” This is a question everyone faced with a life threatening illness and their significant others asks themselves. We...

Many physicians are reluctant to recommend hospice. It is sad and confusing why they would not give their patients the guidance and comfort that trained hospice professionals can offer. Maybe...

Write something to the living who are young and dying. Signs of what are to come ect... I put these two questions together even though they came from different sources...

Question: Is there anything a person can do to help family members break through denial? Boy, is it unpleasant to be the truth-teller to a person who isn’t ready to...

Question: How do you grieve a suicide as a result of terminal illness and for no apparent reason? But there is a reason and that reason is the terminal illness....

Question: I have been diagnosed terminally ill with lung cancer and liver cancer. I am not at this moment yet, but wonder, how long? No one can be specific as...

People with unpleasant personalities while living will still have unpleasant personalities while dying. It is just that the closer to death they get, the less energy they will have to...

What does a dying person look like in the hours to minutes before death? Generally they are non responsive, their eyes are partially open, the skin color is palish often...

While individual differences may be seen in the time of days to weeks before death, everyone who is dying will have the signs of approaching death that occur hours to...

Most religions of the world teach us that when we are dead we are in a better place. I add to that that being dead is easy while being alive...

Question: “I would like to share my Hospice frustration with you and my culture. I am a Jew. I am an 11th Hour volunteer and a bereavement counselor in a...

QUESTION: Can you talk about dis-ease and how we bring this upon ourselves? Another great controversial question. Although there is more and more research which points to stress being related...