Thought I’d change things up today. Showing Big G (more on his YT channel here), running in circles. I said I’d write more about medical issues in GoodNight. For those familiar with my sub, I write about my book GoodNight Mom and Dad. It’s a real account of how families take care of terminally ill parents. I have experience with my Mom and Dad. For more context, see earlier posts.
For now, I’ll get right into it. I’ve written about the medical challenges we faced but want to give some additional tips. Understanding WHAT medications do vs HOW the impact the timeline for treatment is important. Knowing what variable you are treating means everything. Are you managing comfort? If so, your questions should focus on side effect (diet, sleep, ability to communicate). If you are managing for time, your questions should focus on impact-does the medication accelerate other physical symptoms not currently in play?
These options can sometimes compete with each other. For example, one treatment for Mom was experimental at the time (gamma knife). It left a huge physical scar on the top of Mom’s head. This required her to wear a bandana to hide the scar from the surgery. It was such an obvious reminder to all of us of how devasting her cancer was. The result of the surgery was an immediate (although not lasting) improvement in her overall physical health. This enabled Mom to travel from Colorado to Washington DC and attend the graduation of my brother. You can read more about this trip in the book.
So I posted the video of Big G running around in circles because that’s what treating a terminal illness feels like. You try one option and sometimes you end up right where you started. The most significant change is more time has passed.
The one constant we all have is time. I’ll write more about managing it in future posts.
Blessings,
Thomas
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