PLEASE take the time to let your family know your wishes with respect to whether you want medical resuscitation if you need it and generally what your wishes are around these matters.
We lost my wife's mother 4 years ago and it was very sudden and sad. However, she was gone in the blink of an eye with no pain and she had all of her ducks in a row with respect to her burial arrangements etc.
This is in contrast to her ex-husband (my father-in-law). He would never speak to us about these issues. Yes, I know/knew that he wants a modest burial and wants to be in a plot close to his father. With respect to end of life decisions though... Never would open up to that. Woke up Saturday to a message from a doctor in the hospital. Turns out he ended up in the hospital and did not even tell them what he really wanted and when things went south they used all of the tools at their disposal and now he is in a medically induced coma.
I worked in some hospitals about 15 years ago before I left that field and went into medical sales. I have never seen a loved one all hooked up, on a ventilator etc. Now we are being asked questions which we do not know the answers to. We came to a consensus today but what a heart wrenching thing to do. How to honour someone you love and try to do right by them when you are extrapolating whatever you can from various conversations you have had with them for over two decades.
As soon as you can go and hug your loved one(s) and have that conversation with them so that they know what you want and don't want. It is a ****** conversation but it sure might help one day.
Now we are in a holding position to see if he will get well enough to have a surgery which might fix things enough that he can come out of his coma. What do do though if he codes in the meantime? Wowsa...
We lost my wife's mother 4 years ago and it was very sudden and sad. However, she was gone in the blink of an eye with no pain and she had all of her ducks in a row with respect to her burial arrangements etc.
This is in contrast to her ex-husband (my father-in-law). He would never speak to us about these issues. Yes, I know/knew that he wants a modest burial and wants to be in a plot close to his father. With respect to end of life decisions though... Never would open up to that. Woke up Saturday to a message from a doctor in the hospital. Turns out he ended up in the hospital and did not even tell them what he really wanted and when things went south they used all of the tools at their disposal and now he is in a medically induced coma.
I worked in some hospitals about 15 years ago before I left that field and went into medical sales. I have never seen a loved one all hooked up, on a ventilator etc. Now we are being asked questions which we do not know the answers to. We came to a consensus today but what a heart wrenching thing to do. How to honour someone you love and try to do right by them when you are extrapolating whatever you can from various conversations you have had with them for over two decades.
As soon as you can go and hug your loved one(s) and have that conversation with them so that they know what you want and don't want. It is a ****** conversation but it sure might help one day.
Now we are in a holding position to see if he will get well enough to have a surgery which might fix things enough that he can come out of his coma. What do do though if he codes in the meantime? Wowsa...