Since I’m a regular volunteer at the Community Hospice of Washington DC — and a lot of people I know wonder why I would devote most Friday mornings to tasks they consider “totally depressing” (to quote one of my best friends) — I think I’m in a fairly good position to explain a bit about [...]
Dear Judy,
I hear you get a lot of emails from people who don’t think dying is the worst thing that can happen to a person. But I do. My father is in hospice care, and my mother and sister want his feeding tube removed. I think that’s about on a par with murder.
My father has thyroid [...]
Dear Judy,
My friend was a dynamic 86-year-old who had all the tools in place for a peaceful end. He had a health care proxy, a Living Will and a loving family who supported his wish for just palliative care. In other words: he wanted no life-prolonging measures after cancer invaded his bones.
He was so [...]
It’s important for anyone who receives an unhappy diagnosis to realize that although the phrase ”terminal illness” isn’t exactly a mood-enhancer, it also doesn’t necessarily signal a future of bad pain. Pancreatic cancer patients, for example, often experience no pain.
But for those of you who are experiencing pain — or are friends or relatives of those who may be [...]
Dear Judy,
One of my closest friends has received a terminal diagnosis — six months to a year, best we can tell. She has told me she is planning to kill herself before the pain gets really bad, and she wants me to help her out in those last hours, get information, administer the drugs or [...]
Dear Judy,
My mother, who has a very aggressive kind of breast cancer (second recurrence and it has spread to her bones) is thinking about the future. So am I.
If this is really the end for her, she says, she would prefer to die at home. But her question — and mine for you — is: [...]
Dear Judy,
My mother is dying slowly. She has congestive heart failure, which happens these days on a weekly basis — and each time, a bit more of her brain dies. She is at home now with a full-time care-giver.
I am tempted to use hospice care — but does that mean she cannot be taken [...]
Hi Judy,
Thanks so much for such a thoughtful Web Site. My question: At what stage should we become familiar with the hospice choices in our communities? Is it too early to begin making contacts — say, on retirement?
Also: Should hospice care be stipulated as part of living wills? That may be too many questions, so [...]
”Why is Medicare considering lowering the reimbursement rates for hospice care?” a reader just wrote in yesterday. “I realize that hospice is the fastest growing segment of the Medicare program, but the number of dying Americans is not going down.“
That is correct. People in the United States are still dying – roughly at the [...]
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Posted on January 24th, 2009