Title: Serious Thoughts
Category: healthy
Blog Entry: Hi!..... I'm a registered nurse in real life......and I work usually in intensive care, or emergency units, so I see the drama of life and death situations far more often than most people. Even so, it still astonds me even after all my years in the medical field, that so few people give thought to the totally absolute thought, that, they are not going to leave this world alive, and it could happen suddenly with no warning. It was once again brought to my attention recently, with a woman in her late 60's, who as a diabetic, had let her foot get darker and darker before she actually went to a physician to check on it. Now, I realize that people have a mental block many times about going in to see their doctor, even with obvious symptoms and problems with their health. However, it's a real fact, that if you ignore something serious....its most likely going to become worse, not better , on its own. While this woman created a situation by letting things fester to the point that she is now, not only likely to lose her foot to amputation, but may also lose her life, to gangrene, which is a systemic poisoning of her blood and tissue.....but, in addition, she had no pre-problem instructions as to what her wishes were if she was not able to voice them on her own..... Please make a trip to get your wishes onto a legal document stating what you would like to have done for you.....and more importantly...NOT done for you, should you not be able to state anything about your wishes if you should wind up in an accident or in a health situation requiring heroic efforts on the part of a medical staff. In all states, the medical staff who have to be present if you are brought into their ER are required to do a "CODE" which consists of jumping onto your chest, pumping frantically, to keep blood circulating thru your body, while trying to find an IV access to pump needed drugs into your system...if we are able to find one, providing they are not totally collapsed. A legal document can keep this from occurring if you do not wish for it to happen. Sometimes, we can "bring people back"....but, while on TV, people look like nothing happened immediately after their rescue occurs...this is NOT the case generally with real-deal folks .... they may suffer varying degrees of brain damage, which is also not due to the staff's efforts, but to the subsequent loss of oygen to the brain while the patient was "found down". This is not a TV show, people....its real life... So, please decide ahead of time if you want "everything done", or if you have a chronic, life threatening disease process already... decide if you really want this to happen ..or do you just want to exit this life in the timing and with the dignity that God has chosen for you . A legal document not only saves your family grief in having to decide to pull the plug should you not respond well to treatment, but, if you wish to be a donor of organs, you can arrange ahead of time to leave a legacy of life to someone else. Think about it...... Appyspotz
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