Book Club book "Being Mortal"

I participated in reading "Being Mortal" by Dr. Atul Gawande a few months ago, never anticipating it's potential real application this soon.

My mother (88 yrs young) has been hospitalized for about 18 days. It started with a partial bowel blockage, caused by an adhesion from a previous surgery. That was surgically repaired on May 4. She has been in Critical Care since. Since, there was a few days with a feeding tube while her gut started to move again after surgery, then a few days on a respirator due to lung congestion (the word pneumonia was never used), then signs of progress. Now, she's back on the feeding tube. She hasn't spoken for several days, making us wonder if she had a stroke somewhere along the way (cat scan tomorrow).

This certainly feels like the gradual progression of interventions that Gawande talks about. I'm in the position of being 400 miles away, and separate from the decisions at some level. My brother is "on the ground" there, and is dealing with the day-to-days. After tomorrow's cat scan, we'll know a solid prognosis--I hope.

So...it applies....not exactly in PCa world for me, but it does.

It's difficult to watch a parent go through this.

The decisions are never easy.

Andrew