Blogs

It happens a few times a month: I get a request for a meeting with a family struggling whether or not to provide a do not resuscitate (DNR) order for a frail and aged family member. Often the patient has dementia, and, therefore, the decision falls to the formal substitute decision maker (SDM), in keeping with the Health Care Consent Act in Ontario (and comparable legislation elsewhere).

Reunions are unusual and sometimes bizarre phenomena. It is curious that people seem to be drawn to meeting over periods of many years or even decades with people that they may or may not have been close to during some period of their formative years of education. Think about the likelihood that at a high school reunion, you might meet more than a few people of significance in your life or with whom you have even the remotest interest in knowing what they have done during the intervening years.

One always hopes that as medical practitioners, we will be able to focus our attention on the medical issues faced by seniors and help families cope with the fears, disappointments and tragedies that are faced by loved ones in the midst of what are often life-altering illnesses.

Physicians usually become adept at choosing medications for the complaints and illnesses that patients bring to their attention.

I was sitting in a coffee shop next to table with 5 older women. I could hear one of them say to the group, "I am cutting bacon out of my diet—but I do love it once in a while".