REFLECTIONS : Maintain the Old Car ?
by TERESITA BACANI-OROPILLA , MD
You would not guess it , but the almost 90-year-old lady who lived at the end of the hall of the assisted living facility would hie down to join breakfast on the first floor every morning . Smartly dressed , she and a widowed gentleman friend would go out for social lunches and errands to visit family and friends who , like them , were holding on to life .
Once a basketball player and coach , she still retained her stride and demeanor . She decided to once more attend the yearly family reunion at their beach resort with her children and grandchildren , despite her regular treatments for cancer . She reveled in the last family picture with her clan . Not long after , she joined the hereafter . on an aching back ? What if you can limp around with the aid of a rollator ? Would that do ?
A young medical student reviewing for her last test to become a resident physician has an old rickety car that still took her to school and back . Would it be a good option to have the air conditioning , which has gone caput , fixed ? Or endure the summer heat till her test is done ?
As with those almost ready to pass on to another threshold of life , critical decisions , both large and small , must always be made .
What to do ? And who decides ? Dr . Bacani-Oropilla is a retired pediatrician and psychiatrist .
Fortunately , many of us do have choices on the last days we spend our lives . Are further treatments , hospitalizations , revisiting of old and discovery of new illnesses , and follow up of the same warranted ? Is it worth the effort to make and wait for appointments in the near or far future to revisit the old heart murmur in your mid-90s ? Or recheck your endocrine status ? Or repeat all the tests
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