End of life counseling

[Marcia]

If I want end of life counseling, I will consult spiritual implications with my pastor and medical implications/options with a doctor.

We are in a very pro-death culture here and there is a lot of pressure to "let people go" if they are old and sick, even if they can live longer. I saw this with both of my parents. In my father's case, a nurse came in the room and actually said, "If he were my father, I would just let him go." Yet the doctor has told us (thank heavens) that he thought we should continue treatment as my father still had strength in him to live awhile.

 

[OldRegular]

Some things are not the government's business.

End of Life Counseling is one of them.

This is a matter for the patient and his or her family to decide.

You are correct Hardsheller!

 

[OldRegular]

I have been battling inoperable lung cancer since May 2005 and have been on permanent disability since Oct 2008. Had stents in my upper veins in late 2008 because the cancer was shutting them down and have since grown a new tumor in the opposite lung. For all practical purposes I recieved my EOLC (love those acronyms) at M..D.Anderson in Feb 2009. I was given three options. Clinical trial, go back to my oncologist and resume whatever chemo he had planned, or go home and do nothing. That councel was given by the doctor, not by a government official with a financial interest in my giving up. I chose to forgo further treatments as none of them seemed to be giving any long term benefit, and opted for alternative therapies.

This personal decision was made based on quality of life vs. length of suffering. Have seen too many victims of modern oncology granted a short increase in length of life at the cost of major suffering. It was and is my decision to make. After deciding on no more treatment I was then confronted with a new tumor on my opposite lung and was told that without radiation the broncial passage to that lung would close off in a short time. I elected at that time to take radiation treatments which was administered in the month of July 2009. Yesterday I played 18 holes of golf with my little brother (though I did carry an oxygen bottle on the cart). I do not consider my quality of life to be any less than when I was in full health. I have no pain, and other than some physical limits am able to enjoy my life, my family, and my many blessing from God.

If the government wants to give me their version of End of Life Counceling, I will receive them with the same vigor and attitude I would show any Jehovah's Witness who showed up at my door on a Saturday morning at 7:30.

Each individual is different in how they will handle these real life situations. I am just grateful that to this point, the decision to accept or reject treatment has been mine and not some pencil pusher/number cruncher trying to figure out how to best serve the public interest.

Tom

To me this is a wonderful testimony of the limitless Grace of God!

 

[KenH]

Yes, there should be counseling but the government shouldn't be involved in it.

 

[Trotter]

Each family/person should be given the option for "end of life" counsel, but it should not be mandatory.

I just literally came down this path with my dad. We received said counsel four separate times on different occasions... but only the last time was because we asked for it. The other three consisted of a doctor or doctors trying to tell us what to do based on their interpretation of the data. All three of the first attempts were based on either the wrong data or the doctor(s) incomplete understanding of the data. the last time came from the doctor who knew the case and was open and caring.

Let's be honest here. Most "end of life" counsel consists of a doctor or doctors telling you and/or your family that you should opt to end the life of the person in question. Up until the point that my dad's body could not handle dialysis, there was hope in spite of everything else. Once dialysis was no longer an option my father's renal failure became the hammer that drove the nails of all his other problems into his coffin. It no longer mattered if they kept pumping him full of pressors or antibiotics as he began to drown from the accumulated fluid.

To have opted to end his life would have been the same as if I took a pistol into his hospital room and blew his brains out. God took that decision out of our hands and let my father pass peacefully out of this life and into His arms.

While I understand why "end of life" counsel is offered, I do not agree with the reasons behind most of it or the "reasons" many doctors give.

 

[HankD]

Also, I expect there are a number of people on this or any BB who do not want to consider their own mortality and any issues that might arise when they are terminally ill. I see that as a lack of faith in God.

When all else fails, blame the victim?

HankD

 

[Benjamin]

Yeah right, and next they will be making soylent green wafers...

 

[pinoybaptist]

I cannot honestly vote on this "poll", because there is no definition of "end of life counseling". As pointed out by several of my fellow BB members, such counseling can be had by anybody NOW.

True, and I agree somewhat with you and others who pointed this out.
Like you, I have a will that says if for any reason doctors should advise my family that my miserable life can be extended by attaching me to tubes and bombarding me with medication that my family has my expressed permission to say "no, no, no, let him go home with the Lord and there will be no liabilities by you or anybody else".

They'd be better off without bills from the hospital or anybody else other than my burial. Fact, my will also states that my coffin should be made of cheap pinewood or such like, or if my family is really in dire straits, wrap me in a blanket and drop me into that hole, the real me will long be with my Savior before then.

 

[just-want-peace]

True, and I agree somewhat with you and others who pointed this out.
Like you, I have a will that says if for any reason doctors should advise my family that my miserable life can be extended by attaching me to tubes and bombarding me with medication that my family has my expressed permission to say "no, no, no, let him go home with the Lord and there will be no liabilities by you or anybody else".

They'd be better off without bills from the hospital or anybody else other than my burial. Fact, my will also states that my coffin should be made of cheap pinewood or such like, or if my family is really in dire straits, wrap me in a blanket and drop me into that hole, the real me will long be with my Savior before then.

PB, I'm with you 100% on this! What happens to this old vehicle I'm travelling in right now is totally immaterial, cuz as you say:

--let him (me) go home with the Lord

I'm a firm believer that it's just as wrong to artificially sustain life physically, by all the medical apparatus that is capable of such, as it is to euthanize. This of course, when there is nothing there BUT physical life, and the withdrawal of said methods would result in death.

 

[Gina B]

My husband had some things to say about this that I thought were pretty profound...he brought up parts of the issue that I wouldn't have thought of at all. In fact, EOLC sounded like a decent idea until he explained it!
They didn't use it on CNN (or maybe they will, they've used my other ones on there) but here's a link to the I-report I did on this topic with him: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-325781