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Handbook for Mortals: guidance for people facing serious
illness |
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When a close family member is diagnosed with a fatal
condition, a feeling of panic often takes over the situation, leading
to a certain degree of paralysis. After a time, loved ones start to
get help from various sources - some good, some bad. There's a huge
amount of information that can confidently be labeled "good". It's
contained in a book written by Joanne Lynn, MD, who is President of
Americans for Better Care of the Dying (ABCD) and Joan Harrold, MD,
Director and Vice-President of the Hospice at Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
These excerpts from the Handbook for Mortals cover many of the questions
people have about end of life care, such as how to come to terms with
serious illness, how to make important care decisions, how to talk
with physicians, when to let go of medical treatment, and coping with
events near death. |
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Handbook for Mortals : About The Book |
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Handbook for Mortals : Guidance For People Facing Serious
Illness
By Joanne Lynn, M.D. and Joan Harrold, M.D.
Foreword by Rosalynn Carter
Publication date: March, 1999
242 pp.
ISBN: 0195116623 (hardback)
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Synopsis |
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At last we have a comprehensive and authoritative guide
to end of life care, written for a general audience by a team of specialists
that includes some of the world's leading authorities in the field.
This readable and sensible book should be read by every family caring
for a loved one who is seriously ill, and by every medical professional
working in a palliative care setting.
Joanne Lynn, M.D. is President of Americans for Better Care of the
Dying. Joan Harrold, M.D., is the Vice President, Medical Director
of the Hospice of Lancaster County, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The development
team for the book included experts in many disciplines and used input
from focus groups to ensure that the content was relevant and complete.
There is an overall tone to the book which is encouraging without
denying the difficult realities of living with serious illness. The
authors understand that readers must be empowered to live life on
their own terms and find opportunities for growth even in the darkest
of situations. Early on the book tackles the question "How do
you handle the urgent need to find meaning for yourself in what is
soon to be a completed life?"
There's a wealth of sensible advice on how to make decisions about
care, where to find support and treatment resources, how to communicate
with physicians, how to get effective pain management, when to let
go of medical treatment, issues in hastening death, and a host of
other fundamental concerns. There's a discussion of the ethical issues
of assisted suicide that balances arguments from several sides of
the question. The book handles many specialized situations, with details
on several common disease processes and types of death. A solid resource
guide points readers to major sources of information for further study
and support.
The book achieves all of this without looking or reading like a textbook.
Sensitive photographs, poetry, and anecdotes appear on almost every
page, giving support and encouragement while conveying the reality
of the subject matter. The balance between content and presentation
is extremely well done, making the book accessible to a general audience
while still having enough detail to be of value to medical professionals.
Overall the book is a remarkable achievement and should hold a place
on the "short list" of books with universal application
in end of life care.
[Book review by Growth House, Inc., used with permission.]
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Table of Contents |
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Foreword by Rosalynn Carter.
1. Living With Serious Illness
2. Enduring And Changing
3. Finding Meaning
4. Helping Family Make Decisions And Give Care
5. Getting The Help You Need
6. Talking With Your Doctor
7. Controlling Pain
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- Types of pain
- Choosing the right pain medicine
- Different ways to take pain medicine
- Doses of pain medicine
- A few rules about pain medicine
- How often to take pain medicine
- Fear of addiction
- Side effects of pain medication
- More medications that relieve pain |
8. Managing Other Symptoms
9. Learning About Specific Illnesses
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- How long do I have?
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Lung disease: chronic emphysema and chronic bronchitis
- Kidney failure
- Liver failure
- HIV/AIDS
- Dementia
- Dying while very old |
10. Planning Ahead
11. Forgoing Medical Treatment
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- Thinking about the issues
- Stopping treatment
- Time-limited trials
- When food seems like love
- The benefits of dehydration at the end of life
- Tube feeding and the dementia patient
- Artificial feeding and the permanently unconscious patient
- Choosing to stop eating and drinking
- Decisions about ventilators
- Decisions about resuscitation
- The many meanings of "DNR"
- Other decisions to forgo treatment |
12. Hastening Death
13. Coping With Events Near Death
14. The Dying Of Children
15. Dying Suddenly
16. Enduring Loss
17. Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
Index
Americans for better Care of the Dying (ABCD)
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