The distress call came to me fourth-hand in the form of an email. The colleague of a colleague’s wife’s father wondered if I could help because the father was contemplating stopping the peritoneal dialysis his wife had been helping him do at home for the last several years.
what we could have done
The old woman died. I heard she slept more and more of the days away until one day she stopped talking and eating in the awake moments. Then her breathing slowed and her breaths shallowed until she stopped breathing altogether.
how it’s always been done
Some time ago, I wrote about how I, being no Denzel Washington groupie, am unaffected by my Denzel doppelgänger. I am, on the other hand, an Atul Gawande groupie and metaphorically wriggle out of my panties every time I read his work.
poetry?
Poetic, thought the primary care doc, when our patient’s mother was able to grant his birthday wish to see the ocean “one last time.” Samuel’s last several months had been confined to the hospital or a rehab center.