Thread Drift

[Wahine]

I may have linked to this before, but this article from the New Yorker gave me much food for thought when I read it.

Thank you for that link. It was hard for me to read having gone through end of life decisions with several family members. But it also made me feel really good that I never let people skirt around the reality. I was the only one that my father spoke to straight up about dying. It was because I didn't avoid the topic. I had a cousin whose children did not want me around because my realistic "views of her cancer were not helping" and yet it was me that my cousin most wanted to discuss things with. I hope that someday we can all face our mortality in a way that let's us choose how hard we want to fight.

ETA: I have a patient right now who seems to be stuck in the denial of death and is being swept up in the forces of intervention. That article makes me want to call her up and ask her what she really wants. What does she really see happening? I know her family won't do it. They are way to invested in the idea that accepting terminal illness is failure somehow.