Too Much Compassion

Opioid deaths in hospitals...

Terminal illness can lead to a "bitter end." There is a reason for this. If deaths were always pleasant, we would WANT to keep coming back from bardo. That would eventually be an error. (I dropped to 173 pounds following cancer surgery)

My sister came over the Sierra Nevada Mountain range for a visit.

The Physician's prescription (in your chart) containing the words Do Not Resuscitate, No CPR, or No Code reflect the instructions in an ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE. (CALIFORNIA PROBATE CODE SECTION 4700-4701)

What would doctors do if THEY were terminally ill?

We turn to doctors to save our lives. But when it comes to the critical question of what to do when death is at hand, there seems to be a great gap between what we want doctors to do for us, and what doctors want done for themselves. Radiolab audio program. CPR outcomes are NOT like you see on TV! Only 3% make a complete recovery.

As someone who has gone to the ER in an ambulance due to breakthrough pain, I have some experience of having Belladonna and Opium shoved up my ass!

High-risk disease accounts for approximately 15% of prostate cancer (like mine), but current definitions include a group of patients with a range of prognoses. High-risk prostate cancers have the potential to progress to a lethal phenotype (can be fatal), in marked contrast to tumors suitable for active surveillance. The optimal management of the high-risk sub-group is evolving.

There is nothing WRONG with not knowing. Agnostics live with that kind of thing. Buddhists await answers in future generations. Es macht nichts!

Now, about palliative medications.

We treat our dogs better than we treat our people!

When our dogs are terminal and suffering, we "put them down."

Fat Buddha (Chinese) v. Thin Buddha (Taxila).

When our people are terminal and suffering, we prolong life (and end-of-life suffering). Only "God" knows when it's over.

In Buddhism, we neither "claim" nor "deny" a deity.

There is nothing WRONG with not knowing.

I have visited deaths door more than once or twice. It's nothing. Really. Nothing at all.

But, for the time being, I am back.

And it was the opium that got me through the pain and meditation that kept me here. (A "one week" supply of lasts more than 6 months... pain is very infrequent, but intense). It is Trump that keeps me LAUGHING. What a clown! (How much do we pay him for his Jester work?)

Above was in 2011 - 90% heart failure (aortic valve stenosis). Solution? Artificial valve (Hint: there are other choices - tissue engineering). Shiro is still with us - just 10 years older.