Dear HY: I’m sorry about your mom getting to the point where she requires hospice care, but you are doing the right thing. To me, it's unconscionable that these people who are supposed to be supporting you are treating you in this manner. They may mean well, but they are misinformed at best. Read more →

Dear LW: I’m sorry to hear that your mom is going through this. You, too, have a lot to handle and I’m impressed with the way that you are handling a situation for which there are no absolute answers. Read more →

When trying to save a life has not worked and the person is not expected to live no matter how much misery they endure with treatments that are essentially meant to give them another week or month of life, it’s time for hospice care. Read more →

Whether or not November was chosen as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month because of the sad reminders of holiday deaths that Thanksgiving and Christmas bring around each year, I don’t know. But to me, the timing is perfect. Read more →

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Life-changing, yes! And perhaps a moment of divine intervention. An elderly man with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) was rushed to the cardiac cath lab after being diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction (MI). He was struggling to breathe, yet pleaded with me to not insert the breathing tube Read more →

For many, music from certain eras can bring back memories of better times. For others, music soothes anxiety or gets them pumped up for a workout. When it comes to people living with dementia, music can help in all of those ways, but it can also help cognition. Read more →

It’s true that I hate the thought of losing mom, but it’s unlike her to give up like this! tougher! What can I do to make her see that she needs to keep fighting? – BV Read more →

No one needs to die in pain. That is what the social worker told me as I signed the papers that would put my father on hospice care. That is the mantra of hospice, and it became my mantra as well. I had no choice but to believe it since my dad had suffered so much. Read more →

Now you are thrust into the valley of despair, an unknown yet fertile place of psychic deconstruction. It is here where your shadow lives, Read more →