I was asked to visit Roger. He was in the hospital, again, and this time there was clear evidence that the colon cancer that had been resected the year before…
Read More
I am extremely grateful that I chose to do the Hospice/Palliative Care rotation. Throughout this month, I have learned much more than I anticipated, and it definitely wasn’t all about…
I remember the young woman, Ella, getting ready to graduate from High School, but now lying in a hospital bed. Her Dad was with her, but no Mom? I don’t…
Jessica Zitter has gotten to be one of my favorite end-of-life writers. Watch her great video called “Extreme Measures”! She also writes some New York Times essays that I use…
Dax Cowart died last month at the age of 71. Wow. This is the end of a life that has challenged so many of us in bioethics. His legacy is…
This is the final part in a 5 part series “I am a palliative care social worker….” I am a palliative care social worker who believes intrinsically that there are…
This is part 3 in the series “I am a palliative care social worker….” After we opted against surgery, they very reasonably moved mom from the ICU to receive “comfort…
This is part 2 in the series “I am a palliative care social worker….” While taking input from specialists in this frantic time prior to making the final decision to…
My mom had a catastrophic stroke in December of 2017 – almost five years to the day after a more mild one – that ended her life at the age…
What would you do with an 89-year-old woman who walks with a walker, and you find in “a fib” two years after her last ECG? I might not thin her blood. And just a…