“We’re not ready for that,” is what I often here people say when someone mentions hospice for a terminally ill patient. It’s as if hospice is only good when you’re days away from death. As a volunteer, I’ve seen how wonderful hospice is, but it takes time for the staff at a hospice organization to… [Read more…]
June 16, 2010
A couple of times since I’ve been volunteering with hospice, I’ve said to people that they should consider hospice for an ailing loved one. Typically, the response is, “Well, I don’t think we’re there yet.” Doctors, as other volunteers told me just last night, often say the same thing. “We don’t want to give up… [Read more…]
June 11, 2010
I’ve been asked a number of times since The Art of Dying was released how I could have ended up writing it. I look too young, people have said. Well, there are a number of quick responses to that. As a hospice volunteer, I’ve been around dying people a considerable amount, and I’ve learned a… [Read more…]
May 6, 2010
I began exploring the issues that I eventually wrote about in The Art of Dying after visiting my great aunt who was dying of cancer. She was in a hospital bed that was in her apartment. I tell the full story in the book. But I left feeling that I simply didn’t know what to… [Read more…]
April 9, 2010
Today, I finally got to reading this article from The New York Times that strongly challenges the ideas presented in The Art of Dying. The challenge comes not from an argument but from a story of someone who decided to use every medical option to fight death until the very end. Dr. Pardi was a… [Read more…]
April 1, 2010
Two new studies show the importance of planning your end of life care. In the first, researchers in Australia followed hundreds of patients who were older than 80 and and had been admitted to the hospital. Almost half had received help with advanced care planning. Business Week reports that “Within six months, 56 of the… [Read more…]
March 15, 2010
I met a widower last week who told me about his wife’s breast cancer. She had received surgery then chemo and radiation, and for a few years the cancer went into remission. Then it returned. They fought it again, but this time with less success. With kids in school and hospital bills filling the mailbox,… [Read more…]
August 20, 2010
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