Your Life's Choice

Taking charge of your exit plan

Planning for the Great Transition

Speaking of Physician Interrupted! More on the writing hiatus a little later. But the great news is that it’s not because I’m dead or dying or had some tragic injury. (Banged up from the whistleblower ordeal and dealing with the thugs in the MRTRC… well, yeah! 15 years of surreal ordeal tends to suck the kilowatts out of you at a rate faster than you can generate ‘em. But more because I just had too many things on my plate.)

But right now, I just had to let you know about a book that I think you’ll find invaluable.

My colleague Luis Pagan-Carlo MD, a cardiologist, who just recently stepped away from the craziness of corporate medicine, has written an exceedingly practical book on planning your exit … no, not from practice, from LIFE!

Now, I know at first glance that sounds like it could be about suicide. But … it’s not! Anything but!

April 10^th, Your Life’s Choice

on sale for your Kindle on Amazon for $1

In fact, if you don’t get a hold of this book and get your act together and systematically plan – that’s right, PLAN – for your ‘passing’ (amazing how we use these comforting euphemisms isn’t it?) the way YOU want to go out, a crowd of other people, some in white coats, some not, are going to decide for you. And the decisions THEY make may not be what you had in mind for the end of your days. Not … at … all.

The docs and nurses amongst my readers know this all too well. So do the med students who’ve been on clinical rotations.

Years and years of conversations with patients facing their mortality with diminished heart function or some other illness that sadly offers no further treatment, Luis has had to have that difficult conversation with them. He compassionately tells them that they do have two critically important choices: one is the choice of what quality of life they want, and the other is what interventions they will and won’t allow as the body and mind sputter toward the finish line.

Finally, here’s a practical book written for the layman! No confusing medical mumbo-jumbo; no fancy-schmancy legalese that puts your eyelids at half-mast. Luis walks you through the whole process of making your wishes known SYSTEMATICALLY. Step-by-step. (“Yo, my man, get your hands off those high-voltage paddles!”)

How many times have you known or seen someone who’s essentially already died but who’s being kept alive by tubes and wires, not because there’s really a chance of a viable recovery with a good quality of life. No, it’s because that person didn’t spell out what interventions they would allow and which they specifically did not want.

And the way our healthcare system is set up, the default that’s built into the system (for good reason, too!) is to keep the patient alive, at all costs. And I mean at all costs.

This is a book – a readable and practical WORKBOOK! (with some humor too) – that guides you through the entire planning process, the reasoning behind each part, and an almost fill-in-the-blank section after each short chapter where you can draft out everything that’s going to go onto those forms. Scribble, scribble, ponder a bit, perhaps a revised scribble, and … DONE!

Now, maybe you’ve done yours – your living will, your medical power of attorney, your DNR! (But who would’ve known that a DNR (“do not resuscitate”) is not an all-or-nothing thing?)

Think of all those who haven’t done theirs, and don’t even know where to start! And keep putting it off because, well, we just don’t want to go there. Your significant other, your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles…. I’d bet even those who’ve already done their planning will discover a vital thing or two, and go back in and update their exit visas.

Why am I promo’ing this now?

One, because it’s so, so needed. In the medical community! In docs’ offices. In clinics. In training programs. In med schools. By all of our patients.

Two, because as an enthusiastic colleague, I’ve been so excited to see Luis take hold of this unique opportunity to share his knowledge and passion about this long-overlooked challenge. (Yeah, most of us are in denial.)

And Three. April 10^th, the Kindle version’s on sale on Amazon for just $1 – one buck.

Now, poor planner that I am, I’m almost too late in getting this blurb out.

I’d recommend you jump on this bargain now. Since it’s a brand new rollout, on April 10th, it’s like 85% off. At a buck a copy, buy gift certificates for your family and friends. Get the word out. People need to be doing this planning!

And the more people who get hold of this book, I guarantee, the more there’s going to be a need for training ALL healthcare providers on how to talk with their patients about the importance of getting this done, and getting their well-thought-out pass-the-baton plan in place!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming …. More coming up on the evolving picture in the beaten-down, burnt-out, morale-depleted world of healthcare and the devious tricksters in the MR TRC universe.