Arrrgh!!!

Agreed girl! Makes me want to spit, I get so mad at them!

I totally agree, Joe! This is such an important subject that we even talked about it at the dinner table with my 10 and 15 year old nephews present. They were surprisingly knowledgeable about what was going on, and had opinions. I told them all....Do NOT maintain my body with machines!

We discussed this issue in our long-term care volunteer ombudsman class, yesterday. No one in the class wanted to be maintained by a machine; but, no two people had the same definition of what a machine was. Moral: Be sure that in your directives, you are very specific about the circumstances under which you want to be revived or not and the level of care that you consider acceptable. A surprising number of our students didn't consider being fed/hydrated by tube to be maintenance by machine. Also, it is highly, highly recommended that only ONE person be designated as your health care guardian (by durable power of attorney or whatever document). Too often, if multiples are specified, they WILL fight among themselves. It is OK to specify a secondary (and tertiary) person if the primary person is unable or unwilling to act as your health care guardian when you become incapacitated. Obviously, this is not legal advice, but just pointers from our class.

Cop Car, you have some very good pointers. Buffy, it is so very important to make your wishes known. I was talking to another nurse early this morning about this and she was adament too that she'd want no heroics. And... as myself, she did not yet get a personal directive written up.

Wowwwwww, Cop Car. I can see that I need to talk with my-sister-the-nurse to make sure I cover all the bases. Thanks for the heads up on needing to be specific about what is acceptable.

Des, let's make a note to check on June 1st to see how everyone is coming with their forms. I find I do well when I think I'll be ribbed for not having finished a job. Maybe it will work for others, and if not, the reminder might get them going. You know what they say...."The life you save may be your own."

Buffy, good idea. June it is. (I'm making note of it on my electronic task list).

Hunky Husband and I did our paperwork at about the time he retired (when I was coping with Mom); but, it wouldn't hurt for me to re-do mine to incorporate what I've learned in class.

Great, Des! That way at least ONE of us will remember....

Cop Car....now that you have all the additional info, maybe HH needs to up date his as well.

Getting HH to do that is unlikely. I've been trying to get him to update his will and he won't do that. The will (which he says an attorney has told him is still valid, but which I very much doubt) is a joint will for the two of us and it was made when the kids were young teenagers and HH and I were still on our first marriage. Our granddaughter is as old, now, as the kids were to be when they gained personal control over the "fortune" that we would have left them.