tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post110930329498180020..comments2023-06-26T06:26:01.964-04:00Comments on Nurse Ratchett's Alter Ego: Tumor BoardJodiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073613592950338092noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post-1109448167138773752005-02-26T15:02:00.000-05:002005-02-26T15:02:00.000-05:00Ned, your mom sounds like a wonderful lady.
One ...Ned, your mom sounds like a wonderful lady. <br /><br />One of the studies that I worked on in the past was a palliative care study for women with terminal ovarian cancer. I called them several times a month to ask them the same 25 questions about pain, depression, anxiety, etc.<br /><br />I don't know if the doc in charge of the study learned anything, but I learned much about grace, and acceptance, and courage.Jodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10073613592950338092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post-1109443731925987382005-02-26T13:48:00.000-05:002005-02-26T13:48:00.000-05:00I salute the courage of your mother, Ned. She dem...I salute the courage of your mother, Ned. She demonstrated to all of us that there is a choice in these matters. Do we go along with the world's view, that this life is all we have and therefore we must take every avenue of preserving it, regardless of how miserable such an extended life may be? Or do we have the courage of our convictions, that this is merely the beginning and that far better awaits us on the other side? In these decisions are our true beliefs reflected.Wyrfuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01108378377720475315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post-1109429281098818662005-02-26T09:48:00.000-05:002005-02-26T09:48:00.000-05:00A very important point.
My mother made her decisi...A very important point.<br /><br />My mother made her decision years before she developed cancer. When the tumor was discovered, she amended it slightly to allow for one surgery to remove the basketball-sized growth from her abdomen. She refused to go back, the task of getting her to allow just the one ultrasound done following the surgery was herculean.<br /><br />But one was all they needed. There was the suspicious growth near the kidneys, the signs of other growths nearby. Histio-sarcoma was the pathologist's declaration. It didn't matter though, she didn't research, she didn't know that radiation was not effective, she would never have gone for it anyway.<br /><br />Yet she lived with hope. She lived past the doctors' predictions, she lived without the severe pain we were warned of. The hospice nurses were amazed at her peace, amazed that she was not in pain, amazed that she was still able to eat, long after the size of the tumor had reduced the space for internal organs to a tiny slot. The night before she died, at home, in her own room but by this time in a hospital bed for comfort, she sat up on the side of her bed (the sheer weight and size of her torso making this task seem impossible, yet she did it) and ate a small supper at her side table. <br /><br />I wonder if the choices we would have made for her would have been different. I wonder if we would have chosen to fight, even knowing we would lose. All we could do was honor her choices and in the end, they were the right ones. To accept and make peace with our destiny. I don't know if I could do it, certainly I could not do it with the grace and strength she exhibited.Nedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00302999279520104450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post-1109336798011343102005-02-25T08:06:00.000-05:002005-02-25T08:06:00.000-05:00Luckily I don't have to make the choice. :)
A fri...Luckily I don't have to make the choice. :)<br /><br />A friend of mine, who worked with me when I did psychiatric research with the mentally ill, had a son who died of a brain tumor. Over the course of year, he steadily failed and then died. She said, "After seeing some of our patients, really Lenny's death was kind in comparison to the living hell some of them face every day."<br /><br />Of course, not ALL or even MOST psychiatric illnesses are that bad.Jodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10073613592950338092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6992134.post-1109307570413652402005-02-24T23:59:00.000-05:002005-02-24T23:59:00.000-05:00Interesting thoughts, Jodie. It must be an agoniz...Interesting thoughts, Jodie. It must be an agonizing decision to have to make at times, what course of action to take. I wouldn't be in your shoes for anything.Wyrfuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01108378377720475315noreply@blogger.com