What Should Happen At The End Of Your Road?
“Letting Go”, not onlya very strong story but a story in which it motivated me to become a better writer. I just want to harp on the opening paragraph, this blew my mind, the way it was constructed and placed out had me attached immediately. I as a young man who thinks writing is his strong suit, was highly motivated and was instantaneously attached to everything this writer had to say. I wouldn’t say that there was a friction between me and what the author had to say, there was friction between myself and myself. One reason is, I think that writing and speaking is something I am good at, but when I read this first paragraph I was swept off my feet and showed that I have a lot of work left to do in becoming the writer I want to be. This friction was not a bad friction, this friction ignited a spark of motivation, curiosity and interest that will further motivate me into becoming the writer I want to be.
In recent conversation of what a doctorshould do if the medicinedoes not work anymore and there is nothing else that is possible to be done for a patient. Or should doctorsbe trying to care for a patient’squality of life rather than the quantity of how long he or she lives. Some believe that a patientshould be able to make every decision for themselves closer to the end of their road, and some believe that a doctor should keep trying to keep a patientalive and extend their time on earth. My own view is that a patient should have the right to make every decision they want to when their time is running out. Whetherit is stopping painful procedure because the pain is unbearable or just be placed in their own home, so they could go peacefully in their own home. That is my view and I’m sure others will think differently. There is a handful of questions that arise when this is the topic at hand and some of those questions are explored in the rest of this essay.
Me personally am not a stranger to cancer and terminal illness whatsoever, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a good 5 years ago, and it was a very life shifting moment of my life. The switch from being an everyday pre-teen kid that played outside until the street lights came on and eating junk food and playing video games all night. Then immediately having to be put into the shoes of having to become the man of the house when my mom had to stop playing the dad roll and having to minimize her mom roll as well. One thing I find astonishing and highly disrespectful, is the mind-blowing amount of money that has to be spent not only by the patientwith these diseases but along with the family members who get pulled into it as well. If these doctors and nurses are trying to save a patient’s life or prolong their time on this earth, why put them in debt enough to cause enough stress to damage their life even more than it has already been damaged by an uncontrollable force. Maybe just maybe, there can be a solution to this mainstream problem, and if there is it needs to be put into play as soon as possible. Imagine if you were on your deathbed knowing you are going to die in the coming weeks and you get a check that will be left with your family that not even half of it can be covered by them. Yes, I find this as a very big topic and a very big issue, now that has started a friction between me and whoever writes these checks.
One of the most powerful and baffling subjects that was brought to my attention was the fact that these doctors were basically messing with Sara’s life towards the end of her road. At the point where these doctors develop the balls to tell a patient that he or she is going to die, from that point forward every decision about what the next step is in prolonging their life, should be placed in the patient’s hands. Sara’s situation was she wanted to die peacefully inside her home surrounded by all of her memories, good or bad. Surrounded by all of the people who helped her along the way during her war against the army cancer. Which is something I one hundred percent agree with and I would respect if I was the doctor in this situation. These doctors poked her 1,000 times with needles on every part of her body possible, shoved tubes in her throat, gave her medicine with side effects that a person who isn’t going through cancer wouldn’t be able to bear, and they still can’t respect the women’s decision on how she wants to leave this earth. I feel like this situation is a perfect example on how important it is to place a person’s life into their own hands. If the cancer is not going to allow a person to live, then why try and force something on that patient?This is a question that I feel like everyone should consider and try to make common sense of it because there is nothing you can do at that point but respect what the patient says. If I am going to die over something that I can’t control, or the doctors I am paying my life savings to try and help get rid of the illness or cancer that is attacking me, I would at least like to be comfortable in the place I die and around the people who love me.
This brings in one of many questions, why should doctors try and serve a patient’s quality of life rather than the quantity of their life? Meaning these doctors should try and make the patient’s life more comfortable even though we all know they are not comfortable. Also, meaning that if a patient wants to live the rest of their life care free and not hooked up to machines, not getting poked fifty times a day by needles, and not eating hospital food. Let them.
I personally believe that a human being should at least have a certain amount of control in their fate and the way they want to go out. Whether, they want to die peacefully in their own house or they want to live the rest of their life free, it should be their decision and be in their own hands. The longer your life is preserved with cancer or any type of terminal illness just means more suffering physically, mentally and emotionally for the patient and the patients loved ones. This question also brings in a conspiracy, are these doctors trying to preserve a patient’s life, so their pay check is bigger?
If someone dies in a hospital that simply means more procedures, tests and analytical findings. Which means, could’ve you have guessed? a nice big check at the end of a hard-fought life that is stuck with the family. Which I find disrespectful to its fullest extent, there is no reason what so ever these doctors should be trying procedure after procedure to prolong a patient’s life and have them die in the hospital. I don’t think it is the doctor’s faults personally, I feel as if there is something way bigger than just the doctors and nurses controlling these actions. Take that thought into your own head and try and figure out who is in charge of these ridiculous checks that are being left with the families of the deceased patients.
Even though the pain that these people who suffer from these terminal illnesses is hard to even imagine, try and put yourself in the shoes of a person who is suffering from an illness of these sorts. Now imagine, already going through a couple surgeries and being told that you wouldn’t survive multiple times by multiple different doctors. You then personally decide between conversations with your family and looking into yourself that you would like to be placed into your home, so you could die in peace and around the things you love and have cherished your whole life. Then, after you make your appeal these doctors try their best to convince you to stay and begin to try one more treatment that they think will be the ice breaker into prolonging your life in a more comfortable way, this tactic is tried. It fails but over the time you spent in the hospital again, these doctors are being paid a lot more than what they would have been originally getting paid if they were to let you go that day and go into your own house.
I feel as if I have a simple solution to all of these sequential issues and problems that occur in today’s society. Everything we know is a business, no matter how long or how short the period of time you stay in the hospital, the doctors and nurses can still go home with a full wallet and a nice house. These professions are taught to keep their emotions out of the work place along with prison officers, cops, and FBI agents. All taught to keep their emotions out of the job because all that will do is get them into trouble, because the second you get emotionally attached to a patient in the doctor’s scenario or an inmate in the prison officer scenario, you will begin to do things you wouldn’t have if you weren’t attached to these people. Remember it is a business, everything is a business.
Writing a paper does not just mean letting your fingers go and your mind wonder, especially about a topic like this. Over the course of not only this paper but my whole college experience so far, my thinking has evolved majorly. Especially the fact that I was forced when I walked into Dr. Drown’s English class to forget almost everything that I learned in high school and develop a new way of thinking and new ways of trying to construct my writing. I feel as if all kinds of people can relate to what I wrote, but I think all people should use this writing as an example of the common problems and ridiculous problems that go on in today’s society. Everyone is going to be related to someone who gets sick or have a close family friend that suffers from a terminal illness and that is just what happens in life. But this article can show and give examples of what goes on in hospital rooms and the things that happen surrounding them.
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