Sunday, April 16, 2006
Brain Damage, Dementia, Denial
Florida is loaded with people who are in the last part of their lives. A common joke, if you can call it that, when hearing a siren is, "There goes another condo up for sale." Even old folks are heard saying that. Gallows humor or whatever, it's just an admission that we live to die. And we're surrounded by people who are closer to death than they are to a future bright with promise.Cathy and I are relatively young, living among the older. That means we live in this partial denial that we don't have to think about our own impending check out time. I'm having every medical test I can get my still ample insurance to cover. I take excellent care of myself but nobody, we've learned, is exempt from unexplainable maladies. We recently had a discussion and an agreement. We need to rehearse a code phrase now before we reach an age where we might need a heavy dose of reality. Something that says, "You've totally lost it, you're not thinking clearly. You have to depend on me now to help you make sense." Cathy, having lost her Mom to Alzheimer's has said that she should prepare a bottle of lethal sedatives that are labeled in large print, "When you no longer remember what these are for, swallow the whole thing."
My close friend and lawyer, Ed Haas has sold us on having a Health Care Proxy, as opposed to a Living Will. It's more binding and can't be interfered with by "ethics committees" some hospitals employ.
So besides having several friends and neighbors battling life threatening disease and having just recently finished seeing the final season of Six Feet Under, as well as a French Canadian film about death called Barbarian Invasions, I coincidentally posted a snippet of my new song Please Let Me Go, last post.
I've had the best reaction to that and I thank those of you who remain enthusiastic fans. Trisha at Woodnotwood is posting this rough take in it's entirety today for her Music Monday post. You can go there to hear the whole thing if you have the bandwidth and the inclination. But I hope you'll at least visit Trisha's site. She's a beautiful writer and has linked to many other beautiful writers. One of these days, Trish and I will collaborate on a lyric. I hope you'll drop in and visit. Have a good week!
posted by Bud @ 11:21 PM
Comments:
I lost my Dad to Alzheimers last year. As his legal medical guardian, it was the most difficult thing to decide on his life support at the end. More people should indeed make those preparations before it's too late.
I hope my pc will play your song. I'd love to hear it!
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I hope my pc will play your song. I'd love to hear it!
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