Posted on 02/25/2010 6:18:39 AM PST by blueyon
Why is that mindboggling? I’m surprised it wasn’t more; the man is a complete and total narcissist.
I watched shep and I thought he was a step away from OLBY. He seems very unhinged in all interviews.
~LOL~
Yes, but this was very, very bad and totally unprofessional for the type of program his is supposed to be — which is straight news.... and I agree with the Olby comparison.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759930/posts
This thread has surpassed one of the classics, in terms of volume.
“I think it’s easier when your loved one passes in the hosptal.”
And here in lies one of the great problems in medical costs. Very large amounts of the medical costs occur in the last 6 months of life. My mother and late husband both insisted that they did not want to die in a hospital, so I cared for them in their final months/years. In both cases there was medical supervision in that doctors agreed that nothing could be done to reverse the dying process, it could only be drawn out by tube and intravenous feeding and the like. They set me up with home nurse visits in the last weeks.
My husband was Scots/American and VERY thrifty. He did not want money he had worked for all his life to go to some hospital/doctor. He wanted it to be preserved for his children/grandchildren. For the last 3 years of his Alzheimers he was totally dependent on me as he could not go out and find his way home. We had checked on an Alzheimers nursing facility in 2001. They wanted $57,000 a year as long as he was ambulatory, and a lot more if he became bedridden. In all, our decision probably saved the family over $200,000, a fair bit of which would have been paid by health insurance.
People need to learn how to accept death and care for the ones they love. It is too easy to palm this off on an impersonal institution and let someone else pay for it.
I thought the same thing. I have not seen Shep for a long time ( usually working ) so I was taken by his attitude. Very confrontational
I AGREE
How is McCain going to make it nightmarishly hard (go buy supplemnts and vitamins, I presume you mean)?
I am a healthy active 71 now. I started using them when I was in my early 30s. Then Congress decided they wanted to classify them as “over the counter drugs”. I was one of a number of people who testified against the Hosmer Bill. There had been a huge outpouring of people throughout the country protesting this, both Dems and Pubs. It went away. So I really want to know. I might want to testify again and show them how well it has worked all these years. Have needed almost no medical care except childbirth.
Here is one thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2459585/posts
Do a title search on McCain...sort by most recent and you’ll see a bunch.
I’m really ticked over this, I hope JD beats him up over this.. we need to make certain JD is aware McCain is doing this, a LOT of people in Arizona take vitamins our town of 50,000 has four health food stores and they are busy all the time.
Hey Dolly! You just gettin’ here, too? LOL — like you said - just a FEW posts to catch up on! :)
I’ve seen that film before! Double-Feature McCain - Republican before election, Dem in-between!
Look, you have my personal opinion based on experience.
My Dad lasted six days after surgery at Johns Hopkins. It was hard. I knew his surgery (to remove his throat from cancer) was hard...but we didn’t expect the disaster that happened. However, it was....well.....it happened...he’d coded several times because he finally went for good....
...I’m saying that was (personally) easier...
Than getting the call from my grandmother....(I had missed a couple calls still sleeping)...and then it occurred to me...I was getting THREE CALLS...wake up! And my grandmother said...”Your mom is dead. You need to go to ...(the name of the assisted living she was at)..” And I called them and said it was me and the said , “You need to come down here”.....and I said, “Is she gone?”
They said yes. They didn’t want to tell me, but I made them.
So I went down...and the nurses there were great at holding on to me as I went in her room...I told them I’d worked in the ER and I was ready...
....but....you know, when your mom is on the floor soiled and inelegant....with a purple face....it’s NOT something that you are easily going to put out of your mind......
I wish, that she had died in a hospital bed.
I wish I didn’t have to think that (the phone was on the floor) oh...did she try to call me? What was she thinking?
There’s more to the story....but at least...when my brother dumped her here peniless ten years after my dad died.....
I have her wedding ring. He called me and said he wants it.....he got EVERYTHING else.....
I spent my limited money on Mom...he spend Mom’s money on him....
....it’s hard. but still...
I WISH she had died in a hospital....because I have nightmares about how I last saw her.
Now...I know...she walked into God’s arms quickly and painlessly....but
it’s hard.
Oh, I have actually been writing her life story.
I have other lives online in different places.
I post these here, but I don’t think Free Republic likes that kind of thing.
Any time he opens an orifice, he always drops a load, if I may say so.
It was a little different for me. My mother was 88 and the pig valve she had been given 10 years earlier was failing. The surgery, neck to belly, ribs spread apart, was too severe for them to do it again. She begged me not to let her die in a hospital. I took her home and cared for her for 4 months. Then something must have given way because her pulse went up to 120 and stayed there. The visiting nurse said she could die that day or in three weeks. After the second week she slipped into a light coma, and two days later died quietly in bed.
With my husband near the end he was having trouble swallowing. I could no longer give his his vitamins and supplements, which I think had kept him mobile and active until just the last few months. One morning he was fuzzy and not interested in eating. He had wilted onto the floor three days before and we had put him back to bed. I called his out of state son to come asap. He arrived 2 days later. When my husband was not interested in food or very alert, we spoke with the doctors who had seen him 3 months earlier and had examined his advanced directives. They said feed him if he wants, don’t if he doesn’t, etc. He slipped into a coma and passed peacefully a few days later. Every situation is different, but more people could care for loved ones in the end if they had some help in knowing how to do it, and how to deal with their own feelings.
I agree, the denture story will be classic, and in that vein, this showed up in my mailbox last week:
The old man placed an order for one hamburger, French fries and a drink..
He unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half, placing one half in front of his wife.
He then carefully counted out the French fries, dividing them into two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife.
He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them . As he began to eat his few bites of hamburger, the people around them were looking over and whispering.
Obviously they were thinking, ‘That poor old couple - all they can afford is one meal for the two of them.
As the man began to eat his fries a young man came to the table and politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple. The old man said, they were just fine - they were used to sharing everything.
People closer to the table noticed the little old lady hadn’t eaten a bite. She sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink.
Again, the young man came over and begged them to let him buy another meal for them. This time the old woman said ‘No, thank you, we are used to sharing everything.’
Finally, as the old man finished and was wiping his face neatly with the napkin, the young man again came over to the little old lady who had yet to eat a single bite of food and asked ‘What is it you are waiting for?’
She answered:
(Wait for it.)
‘THE TEETH.’
You have alot of determination and strength.
I am the youngest of four and the only girl. I wasn’t ready for what I was dealt...but as you know...we have no choice.
My father died at 62 and my mom at 72. I am 39.
My grandma (with whom I am close and I’m often with her)...my Dad’s mom...she’s 102 and she’s the matriarch of an entire community here.
She’s lost 7 of her siblings (she was the oldest) and has one sister remaining...She lost the two youngest of her sons.
She had three sons.
But still, you can have gone through what you’ve gone through.....and yet.
I value life. I wouldn’t be good with just pulling the plug...
It will ALWAYS be a decision between family and doctor...and even family overruling doctor in some cases.
I know, at 39...soon to be 40....that life REALLY has been too rough so far and will get harder.
I pray for the strength to deal with it.
It’s not as cut and dried as just letting them go.
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