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Day 16: On Death and Dying
Earlier this month, I went in for an outpatient procedure. As I was getting prepped for surgery, one of the nurses asked me if I had a living will or power of attorney. Do I need one?! was my panicked...
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On dying
Summer in full bloom in Ethiopia. Spoiler: This post won’t be about Ethiopia. These are certain thoughts that have been bouncing around in my mind for years, and it’s about time they were put on...
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Depressed About Scotland
Just start typing, Dude. You gotta do it. I didn’t realize until– wait, no, I think I was about to tell a lie. I can’t remember when I realized that I’d posted Saturday’s blog on Sunday morning but I...
View ArticlePermission to Live
In hospice care, it is understood that the patient is going to die. There is time to think, to recon
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What Would YOU Do With An Extra Second….Better Decide Soon, Its the Day of...
In medicine, I have learned that time is a precious commodity. Too often, when life slips away and patients and families wish they had just a little more time. For physicians, a little more time may...
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Dear Prudence: Help! I might be dying and I'm not sure I want to tell my...
Emily Yoffe, a.k.a Prudence, answers readers’ burning questions. Dear Prudence, A disease I’ve been dealing with for several years has taken a turn for the worse. I don’t have a terminal diagnosis yet,...
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Dear Tom, We'll call this past week The Week of Loss. Oh yeah, tomorrow is...
Not a fitting post for the Fourth of July but what the hey… I’m not feeling all that festive. Mr. Robin vanished. Oh, I know well enough what happened to him. The neighbor’s cat happened to him, that’s...
View ArticleGod's Fireworks
God has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Each year, Independence Day observances conjure up recurring memories which will always be...
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Understanding the Stages of Dying in Hospice Care
Saul Ebema, D.Min. In continuation to my article on “knowledge of death as a crisis in hospice care”, I will attempt to dive into what follows next after the knowledge or awareness of death....
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Crone Descants
naked time! https://maxadaland.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/naked-time.mp3 some nights then… the three year girl twins would freeze in place for countdown ten…nine…eight…. then…naked time! to rowdy...
View ArticleSaying Goodbye to Mom | Memories
Diane at our old house on the river, 1996 Regrets. This one grabbed my attention after I’d written m
View ArticleOne of the Reasons
Dear Bonnie, The lovely bears arrived the other day. Your work is so amazing, my daughter and I love
View ArticleCarol
Carol died yesterday. Although she bore the toll of battling four recurrences of breast cancer, and we knew this was in her future, no one believed it would happen so suddenly. We thought there would...
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The Bond of Bereaved Parents
When a parent loses a child, it seems like we are thrown into a dark abyss where we feel alone and desperate. It is only when we reach out to others who have experienced the greatest loss on earth,...
View ArticleLife
If I were to ask a group of people what the definition of life is, there would be a variety of answe
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Searching for My Grandfather in the Pages of His College Textbook
When my father’s father died a year ago, even though he was my first grandparent to pass, I wasn’t emotional. His was a slow slipping: first his professorial mind decayed, jumbling his memories and...
View ArticleVerse - Death Never Suits Us
Death comes in many shapes and sizes but never suits us though morticious cosmeticians paint the gray of mannequin faces to smile, and fold life-like hands on chests that do not breathe The body is to...
View ArticleVerse - He was not supposed to die!
“He was not supposed to die!” Said Faith and Joanie when Phil and Mac died unexpectedly While still vigorous and young. Our years are three score years and ten, and if by some reason they be fourscore...
View ArticleGenerous Gift to Educate Young Physicians - CPMC Resident Palliative Care...
“During training, doctors typically focus on curing illness,” says Dr. Ungerleider (Shoshana). “We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how best to care for patients who have end-stage chronic...
View ArticleIt's Okay to Cry
You have lost someone. There is an emptiness now where life once was. Your grief is heavy, your loss
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