A little while ago I saw an Asian woman when I went to get my blood work done.
Her husband was battling liver cancer last year and we had talked about alternative remedies.
She asked me how I was and I said well, I am still alive. Then suddenly I wondered how her husband was.
After she put a warm pack on my veins – they have been uncooperative lately – she told me he had passed a few days after a difficult surgery, but before he passed he had her buy him food and then told her it was for her to eat. She said he looked at her and smiled and then closed his eyes.
She wasn’t happy with how the surgery went and it reminded me of the book I just read by Atul Gawande, Being Mortal –
The importance of having the difficult conversations and finding out not so much what the patient is willing to endure, but how they can be comfortable.
Sometimes this gives them extra time. I think that relaxing and surrendering to the illness and conserving the energy is sometimes more valuable to the healing process.
They say if you make one person smile then your life has purpose; I wanted to make people laugh. Is that like, double purpose?
Lol.
Speaking of double purpose.
(Image courtesy of: https://goo.gl/images/p9hvXT)