How do we know when the end is near posted by jaded_heart @ 06:10 AM September 28, 2008

jaded_heart — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:10:37 -0000

Generally we know the end is near because of the general physical decline that leads to death. Often there is a period of hours, most often days, where people drift out of consciousness. Once the lungs begin to fill up they are usually gone in 48 hours or less. That's all a huge generalization and there certainly are exceptions of every description to that generalization. I personally have attended cases as a nurse where the physical decline was much less pronounced and the patient remained alert and more or less responsive until the hour of death, but that isn't typical. I've had a handful of alert patients over the years who have told me they were dying even when I couldn't find a measurable decline in their condition ... and then they've died rather suddenly ... leading me to think these were people who were very in tune with their own bodies. I now listen very carefully when a patient makes such an announcement, but those are extremely rare cases. Mostly people go out slowly over a period of time. My father became weaker and weaker over a period of several months (at the end of a six year illness) and was unresponsive for about eight days at the end. His lungs began to fill up about five or six days into it and he was gone in about 40 hours. Hospice provided a good supply of drugs in various forms and I'm satisfied that he was as comfortable as we know how to make somebody in that condition all the way up to the end.

How do we know when the end is near posted by LauraL @ 10:37 PM August 17, 2008

LauraL — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:37:10 -0000

Hi Rebecca,

I'm so sorry about your friend's loss, and what a great thing that you were able to say goodbye to her mom, too.

How do we know when the end is near posted by Rebecca @ 04:19 PM August 15, 2008

Rebecca — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:19:01 -0000

I had recently found out that a friend's mom was dying of brain cancer. I'm met her a few times and really enjoyed our visits.

The other day I just had to go see her. I just wanted to say goodbye. So I told my friend I'm coming over now. Her mom wasn't really responsive, it sounded like her lungs were full of liquid, but she didn't seem uncomfortable. I wondered how she could possible breath with all the competition. I said my goodbyes and wished her a good transition into God's hands and thanked her for bringing such a great daughter into the world.

My friend called the next morning to tell me her mom had passed away a couple hours after my visit. It was kind of a jolt but not entirely surprising.

So here’s my question. How do we know when the end is near? What are the signs? Some are physical, and some are something else.

Thinking about my mom, in retrospect there seemed to be this floating in and out of awarenss of this place, and an increasing peacefulness on some level.

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How do we know when the end is near posted by jaded_heart @ 06:10 AM September 28, 2008

How do we know when the end is near posted by LauraL @ 10:37 PM August 17, 2008

How do we know when the end is near posted by Rebecca @ 04:19 PM August 15, 2008