I think we can all agree that NOBODY likes to talk about dying. Yet, at some point in everyone's life, it happens! (Really if you think about it, everyone who is alive in the process of dying since it will eventually happen to everyone.) I know that when unpleasant things loom on the horizon most of us tend to use the avoid or deny tactic of handling it. We think if we don't talk about what's coming, we can put it off. I have noticed in my own life that the times I have done just that, I inevitably made things harder on myself and those around me. How much better it would have been if I had just faced the facts and then armed myself with all the resources needed to navigate the enivitable in the best way possible! Defiuitely the best time to have all the facts was BEFORE I NEEDED THEM! If I had a dime for each time I had said to myself, "Why did I wait so long...", I would be a very, very rich girl today!
So, since nobody likes to talk about dying, I guess that's what makes people hesitant to talk about hospice. It's a case of guilt by association. But unfortunately, because most people don't want to talk about it (doctors included), the majority of people with a hospice appropriate diagnosis miss out on having the best possible quality of life for themselves and their loved ones. And I think we can all agree that while nobody wants to talk about dying, EVERYONE wants their final days, months, and even years to be the best quality possible. And that's what hospice care is all about.
In the next few posts, I am going to bust some of the biggest hospice myths out there so hopefully, somebody out there surfing around on that big ol' wave we call the World Wide Web will have the facts BEFORE they need them! I wonder what most of you think about hospice right now? Use the comment section to let me know what you know so I can see who's got a myth that needs busting!
