Sunday, January 3, 2016

January 7, 2016 Take-Home Messages



1.  The KOHD blog is a resource on all things covered this month… and more.

2.  First person narratives of dying are rare.  When you find them, read them and engage with them.  See: New Year Letter from a Dying Friend.

3.  Katy Butler has made huge contributions to our understanding about being a caregiver for elderly people, especially one’s relatives. Her book, Knocking on Heavens Door is a manual in narrative form. Her occasional essays on the subject are keepers.

By Katy Butler December 9, 2015 New York Times

5. Our fee-for-service fragmented medical system is a bad fit for the frail elderly (and many others as well).

6.  Medicare shapes the way we die by funneling us toward a high-tech hospital death.

7.  We should focus on the Niagara Falls Trajectory: “to feel as well as possible for as long as possible, until one quickly goes over the precipice. Quality of life is more important to most of than quantity of days, if they are miserable days.”

8.  Tattooed on my heart:  The practice of medicine is an art not a trade: a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with powders and potions.  William Osler

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