Thursday, April 22, 2010

Thursday Thoughts-Do You Know Their Wishes?


Warning- thought provoking and semi-heavy blog today. Just sayin'. . .

Here at The Caregiver Organizer, I'm working on the skeleton of our next book in the series, "Caring For My Aging Parent." I've come to the emergency section. This is the one section that I'm not a fan of writing, but know that it is absolutely necessary. You see, it's the section that includes all of the things we never want to deal with, hope to never have to think about, yet should be prepared for because, unfortunately, the odds are not always in our favor.

The piece I'm putting into place right now is the DNR- Do Not Resuscitate Form. Even typing it out leaves me with a heavy sigh. And it got me to thinking, I know a lot about my parents, but I really don't know their wishes. Wouldn't I rather have this conversation with them now while they are coherent and well within their ability to articulate their wishes? Feels like some heavy conversation coming into my future.

What about you? Do you know and understand what your parents' wishes are? Might not hurt to make the time to begin the conversation.

I'll keep you updated on how mine goes.

Yours, wondering how the heck I'm going to approach this,

Melissa

1 comment:

  1. I have worked with the elderly since college, for a while as a social worker. One of the most important things a child (or a spouse) can do is establish these wishes BEFORE a health crisis occurs. You would not believe the problems that can arise when a person has not made their wishes clear and then family members disagree on what action should be taken. I encourage you to thoroughly research this issue and make it evident in the book how important such discussions are!!

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