Becoming a full time 24/7 caregiver for someone with any chronic illness, including advanced prostate cancer is overwhelming. Most caregivers find that they stop their own personal activities, including those that give them personal pleasure. Caregiving means subverting personal needs in favor of the needs of the patient. This situation often leads to the [...]
Someone on the advanced prostate cancer online support group ask about what are the criteria to go into hospice care. One individual replied that you would need to be within 6 months of your potential death. Another person replied from their individual experience. They said, “Hospice in CT doesn’t have a life expectancy strictly attached [...]
It is unfortunate, but some of us will approach a time when we know that the advanced prostate cancer we have been battling has gotten the better of us and will end our life in the near future. If we are admitted into the hospital we will be asked to sign a lot of papers [...]
My personal belief is what does it matter since all of our goals really should be finding ways to live our lives to the fullest, gain all possible life extensions while also maintaining a decent quality of life. There are things that are just out of our personal control, those we just need to accept. [...]
An AP medical writer, Mike Stobb, wrote an interesting and unusual article about a survey that was conducted asking if people would be willing to spend everything they have on aggressive treatments that might prolong their life. The survey concluded that blacks and other minorities with cancer are more likely than whites to say they [...]
It is true; life does come to an end. Dying and of course birth are the commonality we all will experience. Since we have already been born and since you are reading this you have not yet died. Therefore, it is in all of our best interests to find a way to insure that all [...]
Men with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (mHRPC) who become docetaxel-refractory (no longer responsive to docetaxel therapy have no approved second line chemotherapy available. One could say that they have reached the proverbial brick wall. Where to go and what to do is not at all clear. Most of us do not want to just roll [...]
Wesley Smith who is a lawyer, associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute has published an article in the Telegraph of the experience of Oregon and its "assisted suicide" law. "Imagine that you have lung (or prostate cancer, I know it is rare, [...]
Today’s New York Times had an article written by Jane Brody that discusses the painful issues surrounding the decision to stop treatment, and its negative side effects, and let a cancer survivor live their last weeks in relative peace. This is always a difficult decision as many of us wish to hold on to life, [...]
