Being Mortal

I want to encourage you to pick up a copy and read this book: “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande

This book is important to those of us getting older—every one of us that means and also to us as we watch our parents and loved ones age. Dr. Gawande compels us to look at the process of aging and how we tend to people as they deal with chronic health problems that continue to worsen.

In reality we are living longer than previous generations and the concept of aging is a new phenomenon in medical history itself. And, we want to live longer or have our loved ones to live longer too often at any expense without consideration of the consequences of what that really means.

Our current medical trends have been to do everything and then some to treat conditions regardless of the impact on the quality of life for the individual enduring procedure after procedure. Sometimes those extraordinary procedures actually extend life very little and create much trauma in the process for all involved. I’ve often thought that we treat our pets with more respect than we do people when they linger and suffer with conditions in our do-all-that-you-can-to-save-her/him thinking.

After reading this book I found myself even more grateful for my mom’s courageous decision to let my dad go after his massive stroke. She asked the ER doctor what he would do if my dad was a family member of his and he told her he wouldn’t do a surgery that was under consideration. That doctor helped my mom do the right thing. My dad would not have recovered a life worth living and being a vegetable was not something he wanted for himself or his family to endure.

In reality we are all going to die. How we live until that moment is important at every age to consider.

When facing the inevitability of death, Dr. Gawande encourages us to examine what our understanding of our condition is and the potential outcomes, what our fears and hopes are, what trade-offs we are willing to make and not make, and what course of action best serves this understanding.

He encourages the medical community to have this conversation with patients. It is not the kind of conversation that many in the medical community know how to have.

If you’re like me once you read this book you will want to be certain that all your health care providers have read a copy of this book too!

What would it look like for you to live a good life right up to the very end?