Creative Interventions in Spiritual Care

Creative Interventions in Spiritual Care, by Marti Hand of Marithand.com Blog, March 20, 2009

grief-200An article in USA Today (March 18, 2009) references a study in the March 17, 2009 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) on the choices terminally ill patients make during their last few weeks of life. The study showed patients who rely heavily on their religious faith were 3 times more likely to want intensive, invasive medical procedures like cpr when their hearts stop or being connected to a ventilator (breathing machine). They also made fewer preparations for death, such as living wills, giving someone power of attorney, or filling out a “do not resuscitate” forms.

The lead author, Dr. Holly Prigerson of Harvard Medical School, theorizes that patients with strong religious faith may be ”waiting for a miracle…” and are “more likely to think that life is sacred and that their job is to prove their faith to God by staying alive as long as possible, so miracles can be performed.” Keep reading »

Planning for Death When You’re Healthy

Planning for Death When You’re Healthy, Tara Parker-Pope on Health, New York Times Well Blog, March 20, 2009

brody_190-1Death might seem like a surprising topic for a writer whose career has focused on healthy living. But New York Times health columnist Jane Brody is urging people to plan for terminal illness when they are at the peak of health.

Recently I spoke with Ms. Brody about her latest book, “Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life” (Random House, 2009).

Q: All of your earlier books have focused on staying well and nutrition. Why did you write a book about dying?

I’m known for my work on healthy living. It occurred to me that all life eventually comes to an end no matter how healthfully you live. There is no cure for mortality. The better and the further in advance you plan for that end, the less traumatic it’s likely to be, not just for you but for those you leave behind. Keep reading »

Should she date a terminally ill man?

Steve and Mia: Should she date terminally ill man?, By Steve and Mia, Daily News Advice Columnists, Philadelphia Daily News, March 20, 2009

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Q: I am 20 years old, and I have been talking to a guy for a few months. We became great friends, and he has recently told me that he has strong feelings for me.

I am very attracted to him, but I have found out that he is terminally ill. He told me that he has an illness that will only allow him to live for a couple of more years.

As much as I want to be there for him, I am not sure if I am willing to put myself through this. I get sad when I think about it, because if he wasn’t sick, I really believe that I would be with him. I have mixed emotions about the whole situation, and I am not sure what to do. He keeps pushing me to make a decision. Keep reading »

Death leaves online lives in limbo

Death leaves online lives in limbo, by Peter Svensson, AP, March 15, 2009

Death OnlineNew York (AP) — When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father’s gaming friends know that he hadn’t just decided to desert them.

It wasn’t easy, because she didn’t have her father’s “World of Warcraft” password and the game’s publisher couldn’t help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father’s friends by asking around online for the “guild” he belonged to.

One of them, Chuck Pagoria in Morgantown, Ky., heard about Spangenberg’s death three weeks later. Pagoria had put his absence down to an argument among the gamers that night.

“I figured he probably just needed some time to cool off,” Pagoria said. “I was kind of extremely shocked and blown away when I heard the reason that he hadn’t been back. Nobody had any way of finding this out.” Keep reading »

Time Is a Trickster When Cancer Runs the Clock

Time Is a Trickster When Cancer Runs the Clock, by Dana Jennings, The New York Times, March 9, 2009

10case-200Cancer insists on its own time. If you try to defy it, it can break you, physically and spiritually.

It doesn’t know from deadlines and BlackBerries, from Twittering and overnight delivery. Cancer is analog in a digital world. If you have a Type A personality, you will need to adjust to Type C — for cancer. Each phase of the disease — diagnosis, surgery, radiation and other treatment — carries its own distinct sense of stepping outside traditional time, its own bitter flavor of dislocation.

I went on Cancer Standard Time last April 7, the moment I learned, at age 50, that I had prostate cancer. I’d had a biopsy three days before, and I thought I fully understood that the odds were 50-50. Yet, I realize now, I secretly believed that I couldn’t possibly have cancer. That only happened to other people. Keep reading »

Many Terminally Ill Patients Feel Abandoned By Their Doctors

Many Terminally Ill Patients Feel Abandoned By Their Doctors, Science Daily, March 11, 2009

Terminally ill patients and their family caregivers often feel abandoned by their doctors and feel a sense of “unfinished business” with them, according to a new study by an oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

The study results identified two themes: before death, abandonment worries related to loss of continuity of communication between patient and physician; and at the time death or after, the patient’s family’s feelings of abandonment from a lack of closure with the physician.

“Doctors often don’t realize how important this issue is for patients and their families,” said lead author Anthony Back, M.D., an expert on patient/physician communication. “Something as simple as a phone call can go a long way toward allaying abandonment concerns,” he said. Keep reading »

In Fleeting Health, Moments to Savor

CASES: In Fleeting Health, Moments to Savor, by Loren Berlin, The New York Times, March 2, 2009

03case-200It was 13 months before I heard those three beautiful words “You’re in remission.” When I did, I was sitting in my gastroenterologist’s office, watching him review my chart, beaming like a school kid bringing home a report card full of A’s. He looked up, smiled and added, “Hopefully, you’ll stay there,” then returned to his thick file on my rowdy large intestine.

Hopefully? That’s the best he could say? Why wasn’t he tossing my chart in the air with glee? At the very least, why couldn’t he share my enthusiasm?

Because he’d seen my type before — the ulcerative colitis patient. He had witnessed hundreds of us drag ourselves into his office, dehydrated, bleeding internally and unable to eat, sometimes in need of hospitalization. He had prescribed to us pills and transfusions, saline solutions and steroids, and patiently restored our health, only to see us fall sick again a month, a year, a decade later. Keep reading »

9 Year Old Cancer Victim Has The Wedding Of A Lifetime

From CNN:

Four in US charged with assisted suicide

Four in US charged with assisted suicide, Google News, February 26, 2009

mapnorthcarolinaRALEIGH, North Carolina (AFP) — Authorities in Georgia and Maryland have arrested four people after a sting operation targeting a group which offers assistance to people who want to commit suicide.

The arrests were made after agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation set up a sting operation Wednesday at a home in Dawson County, north of Atlanta, where an undercover agent posed as a member of the Final Exit Network suffering from pancreatic cancer who wanted to commit suicide.

The investigation revealed that members could receive the group’s active assistance in committing suicide by helium inhalation, the GBI said.

After paying a 50-dollar membership fee, members wishing to commit suicide are told to purchase two helium tanks and a hood known as an “exit bag,” the Georgia bureau said.

On the day of the suicide, the member is visited by two assigned “exit guides” who instruct the member through the process.

The GBI alleges the member’s hands are restrained in case he changes his mind. After the member succumbs, the guides remove all evidence from the scene, authorities said. Keep reading »

Steeling their courage

Steeling their courage, by Michael Levenson, Boston Globe, February 21, 2009

Ironworkers at Dana-Farber resume a beloved ritual, providing moments of joy for young cancer patients

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… It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber: Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.

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Read the whole article here.

photos by David L. Ryan, Globe Staff

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