Doctors' Secret for How to Die Right

[ColesCountyDem]

19. My father was a physician for 55 years, and he chose hospice and palliative care.

Dad was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of tonsilar carcinoma at 79. He knew all of the 'options' for treatment, and rejected all of them. The BEST option offered him a 20% chance of survival, post-diagnosis, and would mean surgery, loss of the ability to speak, a permanent feeding tube, prolonged chemotherapy, radiation and a great deal of pain.

He very clearly and concisely stated his reasons for opting for hospice and palliative care: He had already gotten his 'three score and ten', plus nearly a decade more. He had had a good life and a successful, satisfying career, a successful marriage of 58 years, children, grandchildren-- the whole 'nine yards', as he put it-- and would not be subjecting himself or US to the horrors of 'treatment' of what was, even with aggressive treatment, a terminal illness.

Dad wrapped up his affairs, sold his practice, traveled abroad with my Mom, including a six week-long Pacific cruise, visited his siblings and enjoyed 7 months of relatively good 'quality of life'. With the help of hospice, he remained at home, lucid and pain free until a few hours before he passed peacefully in his own bed, an unfinished book on his bedside table.

Dad died he way he had lived-- with 'class' and dignity!