Tuesday, March 8, 2011

30 Days of Truth: Day 6

Day 6: Something you hope you never have to do.


Suffer or watch someone I love suffer unnecessarily. I saw both of my grandparents go through excruciating pain for nothing. My Pop due to cancer and my Nan at the fault of doctors/hospitals. Everyone has to die at some point; I understand that. Why do we make people suffer at the end? I worked at a vet for years and we looked down upon people who did not put their pets to sleep if they were suffering. How could someone possibly allow their animal to endure pain or suffering when they had the ability to do what's humane?


I don't understand how we can grant animals the ability to die with some dignity left but allow humans to waste away to nothing, only to be a shell of their former selves. I know my Nan didn't want to spend almost a year in the hospital hooked up to so many different machines just to keep her alive. I'm sure if she had the choice, she would have rather be able to control her own destiny and to decide when she had enough. 


I hope by the time I have to worry about this, I will have the choice.  





2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

You already have the choice. Living will -- no machines, no resuscitation, no special measures, etc. Just make sure it's already written out. Now is a good time, know what I mean?

Kate said...

Unfortunately my Pop had one of those but it didn't really help. He died at home with no extra help by machines. He only had a hospice nurse come out once a day but he still suffered in the end. It got so bad he told us he had enough and wanted to die.

But I guess it is a good time to start thinking about these things and planning. I never thought about getting one since I'm 25 but anything could happen no matter how old you are.