Hospice & Palliative Medicine

sorrow shared is sorrow made bearable …

… Ian Marcus Corbin discusses Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs … “ … Górecki offers graceful, meandering exploration that, if one is patient, offers the humbler salve of continuity. This sort of grief, Mr. Górecki seems to sense, must be lived through, not rushed past. What consolation does come comes by way of passing time, […]

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pain mgmt intro …

Pain is what the patient says it is … but not all pain is mu-opioid responsive … Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual assume most acute pain is predominantly “bio” assume most chronic pain has elements of “psycho-social-spiritual” + neuropathy   pain mgmt case #1 78 female severe lower extremity ulcerations – circumferential on right diabetes, morbid obesity, s/p multiple

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safety in hospice …

… Casarett and colleagues’ article cautioning against misapplying routine safety measures in the hospice setting. Fundamental differences include goals of care (comfort not cure), longevity (days to months not years) and primary caregivers (family and friends not trained health care personnel). A follow-up article would address safety measures that are appropriate and specific for hospice

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methought I saw my late espoused Saint …

Sonnet 23 … John Milton Methought I saw my late espoused saint        Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave,        Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave,        Rescu’d from death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom wash’d from spot of child-bed taint        Purification in the old

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british columbia effectively legalizes assisted suicide …

The Supreme Court of British Columbia recently declared unconstitutional criminal code provisions prohibiting assisting in a suicide … effectively legalizing assisted suicide. The National Post story, BioEdge comments, from Margaret Somerville’s analysis … “People who support legalizing assisted suicide/euthanasia simply assume that individual autonomy is the value that takes priority. But research shows that the

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