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Doctoring Health Care Reform Hospice/Palliative Care

Let’s stop being ashamed of (discussing) death

I recently wrote a post about what happens when the elderly get sick. It was meant to accelerate the conversation about how modern medicine can’t make us immortal. I meant to say that doctors need to learn to be less ashamed of death. And that patients should at least hear about the risks of life-prolonging […]

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Athletic heart Healthy Living Hospice/Palliative Care

Could the Dalai Lama be a heart doctor?

I follow a lot of intriguing people on Twitter. Each of them sends me noogets (a favorite slang word of mine) of information that either inspires, uplifts, informs or even amuses me. But there’s one twitter-er that stands out. He really helps me–along with 2.6 million others. The Dalai Lama tweets most mornings about the […]

Categories
Doctoring Health Care Reform Hospice/Palliative Care

When will Palliative Care and Hospice discussions be considered normal?

The patient greeted me with a smile that belied his horrible luck. He was my age, but looked far older. It was a slowly progressive neurological disorder that left his mind intact while his body stopped working. He was now imprisoned in a bed. Various family members fed him, changed his diaper, and freshened the […]