The Aged P

Post #400,924 by rcareaga 4/15/15 6:29:37 PM 4/15/15 9:06:37 PM Reply	The Aged P Goes down and down. There's nothing identifiably wrong with him: he's just wearing out. He could expire tonight, or a month from now, or six months hence. Nothing is certain except for the health care industry's determination to extract his entire life savings (and matched public subsidies) before he's permitted to do the Nunc Dimittis bit. He could go in a week; he could linger for half a year. In his place, at his level of confusion and discomfort, I hope that thirty years from now it will be permitted for some merciful relative to smother me with a pillow. wearily, Edit: fixed, with thanks to A_S. Edited by rcareaga April 15, 2015, 09:06:37 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #400,926 by Another Scott 4/15/15 8:24:43 PM Reply	:-( There's not much I can say except I'm sorry. Your link goes to an interesting place, but was it intentional? ;-) Nunc Dimittis is an interesting link. Hang in there. Cheers, Scott.
Post #400,932 by rcareaga 4/15/15 11:32:34 PM Reply	Fixed Thanks. Linky should now go to intended tune.
Post #400,934 by Another Scott 4/16/15 12:29:00 AM Reply	:-) Thanks.
Post #400,928 by a6l6e6x 4/15/15 9:06:07 PM Reply	Hang in there friend, it will pass. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #400,933 by rcareaga 4/15/15 11:34:57 PM Reply	To be sure. It will pass. The grief will be dealt with when the occasion summons it forth. I'm not disposed to front-load anguish. cordially,
Post #400,939 by rcareaga 4/16/15 2:43:22 PM Reply	the nursing home He can't stay where he is. He can't go back to where he was. He needs more round-the-clock care than any of his children are remotely capable of providing. There are some primo (as these things go) convalescent homes in the region. They all have waiting lists. Der Alte will be on the wrong side of the lawn long before his number is called. We are accordingly reduced to choosing among the second- and third-tier. One has been found with a vacant bed. The online reviews stop short of calling it a hellhole, but the level of care appears to hover around "mediocre" (keeping in mind that the reviewers are anguished children of the senescent). On the plus side, it's about a twenty-minute drive from my home. The wife's experience five years ago with her own father's (mercifully briefer) decline suggests that squeaky wheels get much more grease in these establishments, provided that the squeaks are emitted from an upright position rather than from a bed. The starship Gerentoprise will now explore strange new worlds where so many men and women have gone before. cordially, PS: He recently amended the relevant medical POA form to indicate that he doesn't want a feeding tube. He always had this incredibly bold signature for as long as I can remember: even two years ago it looked the way it did in 1962. As of two days ago, it's a palsied scrawl, shaky and barely legible. God, I want to die of something—anything but this extended crucifixion of everything simply wearing out in parallel.
Post #400,942 by rcareaga 4/16/15 3:10:44 PM Reply	He now wants hospice care Reboot. cordially,
Post #400,962 by mmoffitt 4/17/15 8:51:36 AM Reply	You have my empathy. I had to place my mother in a hospice facility last week. Last night I received the news that she had passed away. I knew it was imminent, but it was difficult nonetheless. I take some comfort in knowing that for the first time in her life she was made as comfortable as possible.
Post #400,966 by malraux 4/17/15 10:01:39 AM Reply	Sorry to hear that Mike. I have not yet had to go through that and I'm not looking forward to it. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #400,967 by Another Scott 4/17/15 11:24:36 AM Reply	Condolences to you and yours. :-(
Post #400,969 by mmoffitt 4/17/15 1:25:45 PM Reply	Thanks all.
Post #400,970 by pwhysall 4/17/15 1:38:26 PM Reply	{manhugs}
Post #400,976 by mvitale 4/17/15 2:23:40 PM Reply	Ugh. :( So sorry to hear. -Mike @MikeVitale42 "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
Post #400,986 by rcareaga 4/17/15 5:41:40 PM Reply	sorry, mmoffitt Our parents are such...forces of nature as we grow up. I'm not sure that they're ever quite human to us, in the way that people we encounter in the course of our post-childhood lives are. And it's selfishly sobering when they no longer stand protectively between us and the trench. cordially,
Post #401,004 by a6l6e6x 4/18/15 2:13:59 PM Reply	Condolences! Late, but that's what happens when I get out of loop visiting my brother. Those hospice services are amazing. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #400,944 by Ashton 4/16/15 3:55:35 PM Reply	Re: the nursing home Seconding that last: Ecstasy was a mental-State quite before Die Stadt decreed that You Can't Go There (or if you repeatedly try to erase-Self: we'll escalate the punishments) ... unto granting your wish: Our way, with Red-State random potions. We can't spend too much on frills. Wish I had uncovered some arabesque around the world's most cynical warehousing-franchise (I expect to have to employ my own pharm-chem, with back-up to augment any mechanical difficulties (as seem the way* of Cosmic humor, don't they?) Trouble Is: people of my (and even your) age-group never ever faced-in-advance all those unanswerable questions as were always elided in our earliest inculcations. Only the outliers did; you'd think that those born in late-50s, sentient during '60s? have realized all along, here in the dis-US: The fucking embedded-Puritanism will fight any choices whatsoever. Messy/noisy extra-vulgar Make-dos are the Murican Way. All the more Reason to disobey.. * There exist now several classes of such, pretty well vetted against any surprise side-effects; unknown how much /kg-body-wt. is sufficient for a splendid departure, accompanied by one's own fav tunes (or not.)
Post #400,946 by boxley 4/16/15 4:42:59 PM Reply	speedballs and smoking opium kills the pain and wears you out fast Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep

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