Something to Think About

a blog on end of life

We love sharing helpful info on our blog.

About the BK Team
Helping A Family Decide Whether to End Life Support

If you have a good, amicable relationship then get them together and say, with caring in your heart, "I am going to tell you some things I have learned about...

We Euthanized our Cat Yesterday

She is gone, the house seems emptier. Baxter cat (who we let smell her before she left) seems at a bit of a loss, as he wanders the house. Is...

Let's View Living as More Than the Quantity of Breaths We Take

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...

When It Comes To End of Life Care, It Takes a Village

Hospice is widely known for providing end of life care. It has grown in size and in its original scope of services. Even its definition of “end of life care”...

Is Increased Sleep a Sign of Approaching Death?

With old age and no active debilitating disease process, all the signs of approaching death (less eating, more sleeping and gradual decline in social interests) occur, BUT they occur over...

The Sacred Moment of Death

All the work we do leads up to the moment of death. Our goal is to guide and support those present through the moment the last breath occurs.

How do you tell someone something they don’t want to hear?

It is our job, our responsibility as end of life workers to be honest with our patients. In a “don’t tell mom” situation I first assess where everyone is, who...

What Does a Funeral Do?

Funerals are for the living. They are to bring comfort. Recognizing the life lived by the person that died is comfort to the living...

Do I Stay In Contact After the Death?

We in health care, enter a family's life at a challenging, sad and fearful time. It is our acts of thoughtfulness that will be remembered and provide comfort.

Medical Interventions on a  Body That Can’t Be Fixed

How tragic that none can come forward and say, "Your father is dying. Let's stop all these extras and keep him comfortable”. Family as well as many individual physicians do...

Entering Into "Precious Time"

In our medical society today, it seems to be very difficult for physicians to tell patients and/or families that death is approaching; That this special person will die, and probably...

The True Value of End of Life Support

A hospice referral is a win-win. You win if they say it is too soon and youare not appropriate for hospice care, or you win by coming onto the hospiceprogram...

Hospice Services Pulled for Dementia Patient

There is a huge void in our medical system that so many families living with dementia fall into. These families have a loved one too sick and require too much...

Supporting Survivors of Suicide Loss

Part of normal grief is all the questions we will never have answers to, the whys and what if’s? With death by suicide those questions are ten fold. With a...

Do I Want FULL CODE or a NO CODE?

Medicine and medical technology can prolong our life but not indefinitely and it is generally at the expense of our quality of living. Or we can reframe how we think...

Caring For an Elder Who Needs to Eat

The elderly, after a fall or illness, often are not much interested in eating. If there are no other health issues, they gradually return to normal eating. In the meantime...

Holiday Celebrations and the Grief-Wound

We tend to play the “elephant in the room” game at the mention of our missing loved one. “If we don’t talk about how sad we are feeling we won’t...

IF I WERE -- a funeral home, a hospice worker, an attorney, a physician, a social worker, a nursing facility...

Dying isn't like it is in the movies. We don't know what it is like to die from disease or old age and while everyone is going to do it,...

Do We Choose When We Die?

Just think of a woman in labor and what she is thinking about—-getting that baby out. The person that is dying is in labor also, working to leave the physical...

Is Mom Waiting to Come Home?  FTD Dementia

Dementia causing illnesses, by whatever name we classify them, are becoming more and more prominent. Dementia, and how to care for people with it, has become a big healthcare issue...

Using "Baby Talk" With End of Life Patients

As end of life professionals we have to carefully walk a line.  We are in the tenuous position of caring intimately for adult strangers who often do act as children. ...

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