Getting Ready to Die

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greenback44
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Getting Ready to Die

Post by greenback44 »

No, I'm not there yet. But this topic came up in the Trump forum.

Go read Atul Gawande's book, Being Mortal. It makes it clear that you need a plan for your parents and for yourself, and you need to communicate it to everyone under the sun. And it makes clear that you need to prepare your family with how to deal with resistance from the medical profession ("Uh, doctor, if this procedure that qualifies as torture even by John Yoo's standards prolongs my mom's life by only a month, then there's no [expletive] way you're doing that.") They are trained to prolong lives. They are not trained to figure out what you want (well, some of them are now since Gawande's book came out).

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lukethedrifter
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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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Gawande is one of my heroes.

tlombard
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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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I was actually thinking about this yesterday while reading some of the comments about the crippling cost of medical debt in the Politics section. I am seriously considering just doing nothing if I were to be diagnosed with something where the prognosis was that I only had a couple of months to live without expensive and grueling treatment such as pancreatic cancer or something. Instead of running up huge medical bills trying to prolong my life, maybe I'd just quit paying all bills above what's necessary to keep the utilities on and rent (I'll be gone before the eviction process could be complete LOL) and just go crazy enjoying the last of my time with family and friends while I can.

When it is my time, it's my time. I don't want to be kept alive by any machines or endure pain and suffering just to extend my life a little longer. I've enjoyed life and I'm fine with going whenever and however I do.

greenback44
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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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lukethedrifter wrote:Gawande is one of my heroes.
Yeah. His role in the Bezos-Buffett-Dimon health conglomerate could be more transformative than anything Washington DC is capable of doing.

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heyzeus
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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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Mary1966
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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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I have a Living Will that I have stored as a file on a thumb drive that I have in my purse, but I know I need to do better than that. My problem is I have no husband or children and my closest relatives are people who are older than me. At 53, I’m hoping that I won’t be dying anytime soon, but I really should put some thought into it while I am healthy.

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Re: Getting Ready to Die

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tlombard wrote: I am seriously considering just doing nothing if I were to be diagnosed with something where the prognosis was that I only had a couple of months to live without expensive and grueling treatment such as pancreatic cancer or something. .
Yeah, this is so damn tough. I like to think I'd just say goodbyes and wander off. I have heard that is what dogs do, but that is a BS notion-probably.

Hopefully experience something decent and new before I go, maybe with someone else along.

But I can recall times I've been sick, and just not having energy to do anything, not even convey my thoughts. And that was just normal sick, like the flu. In a lot of cases it would be too hard to go off on one last ,[whatever you enjoy before dying. Pain management will be needed hopefully without making one's thoughts go.

A semi practical desire for my Mom, wife, myself would be to stay at home, rather than a nursing home. I know some of the Nursing homes are ok, but that isn't where I'd care end up. My wife's grandpa was able to stay at home essentially until he died at 99 and 1 day. That is cool.

alzheimers is really tough, not sure if that book addresses it.

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lukethedrifter
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