tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500936220214961312.post154570991900117000..comments2023-10-02T04:06:53.185-04:00Comments on Brass and Ivory: Life with MS and RA: End of LifeLisa Emrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10862232056342347990noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500936220214961312.post-32558531785792670322010-03-09T13:45:04.202-05:002010-03-09T13:45:04.202-05:00Even if you know a person's wishes for end-of-...Even if you know a person's wishes for end-of-life care, you can be faced with situations where it's hard to know what they would want you to do. My father was very clear about not wanting extraordinary measures taken to keep him alive. OK, fine. Got it. When he wound up in intensive care, on a respirator, dialysis, the whole 9 yards, do you do surgery? When he's still alive after the first surgery, do you do another? For each decision, there is a range of possible outcomes. You have to guess what kind of quality of life is the most likely result, knowing there are some he would thank you for, and some he would not.<br /><br />As it turned out, he lived, and he's glad we made the choices we did, but it could very easily have gone another way. I thought I knew what my dad would have wanted if he were able to make the decisions himself, but when the situation arose it was a lot harder than I expected. Had we not talked about it in advance, it would've been harder still.zoomdoggieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11576886847864593216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500936220214961312.post-72505646767724443642010-03-09T12:29:20.176-05:002010-03-09T12:29:20.176-05:00[resubmitted due to typos!]
Lisa,
This topic see...[resubmitted due to typos!]<br /><br />Lisa,<br /><br />This topic seems to be coming up a lot lately. I would really like to encourage folks to do an Advanced Directive (Living Will) and other documents before they need to. As a previous Hospice volunteer, I'd always meant to do so but found myself working on them a couple weeks before brain surgery. Really bad timing.<br /><br />I like the one page slide. Is a good place to start a conversation with my family. People think they know, but today the decisions are so much more complicated than "pull the plug". And, depending on the scenario, you may choose to avoid going there.<br /><br />Thanks for bringing this up Lisa.<br /><br />DonnaBibliotekarenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06896112760553996504noreply@blogger.com