Ah well, folks I was asked by email if all was well, because I’d been so quiet lately….and this was my response to the friends concerns for my health……As of yesterday morning although I am developing osteoporosis slowly it is not the immediate cause of my discomfort. That remains a mystery! I am sharing my most intimate medical details here but I have to go on record as saying that I would have to think three times before I put myself into the position of taking further antibiotics for any reason. The aftermath, like chemotherapy as a cure, is replacing one set of problems with another!!
Yes I am ….been having lots of tests for osteoporosis but the cause of severe pain and disability remains a mystery.I had diagnosed myself with bone cancer as one does in these circumstances.But I want to ignore that implication for a week or two and just manage my other problems which are much more immediate…..I have a bad fugal and dermatitis infection as well which translates into passing urine like knives etc….not nice to talk about but my bum is red raw and it has been going on now for the month and my skin can’t heal because I keep urinating making the area warm and moist…very painful….two problems that will not go away…you probably know how incapacitated this makes one feel…I developed that infection as a result of the two intensive antibiotics session I took for the massive tooth infection and melanoma.
Are you sorry you asked darlin’?
Cheers.
Mary
Ps I’ll look at the other blog next week, when I have the local elections out of the way….
THE Greens have introduced legislation to the South Australian
Parliament to allow voluntary euthanasia.
Greens Upper House MP Mark Parnell said his Bill would stretch
existing laws on medical treatment rather than create new,
stand-alone, regulations.
“I have watched closely previous debates in South Australia and
interstate and have attempted to allay the concerns of opponents,” Mr
Parnell said.
“I am introducing a fresh approach to balance the need for protection
for the vulnerable with the right to die with dignity.”
The Greens Bill adds voluntary euthanasia provisions to the existing
Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act.
It will also provide safeguards, including the introduction of a
five-person board, involving medical and palliative care experts,
which would need to give final approval before a physician could act.
The board would have the power to investigate, seek further
psychiatric or other medical testing and hear from concerned family
members.
“It’s well and truly time for a fresh debate in SA,” Mr Parnell said.
“Worldwide, there is increasing support for similar laws.”
Mr Parnell said South Australia was once a trailblazer on social
reform and it now had a great chance to again take a lead.
“Overwhelmingly the SA community wants the law to change,” he said.
“It’s time for the SA Parliament to once again have this debate.”
Previous attempts to introduce voluntary euthanasia laws in SA by the
Australian Democrats and by independent MP Bob Such faltered, despite
the issue being subject to a conscience vote.
A woman convicted of the manslaughter of her partner, an Alzheimer’s sufferer, after helping him take a lethal dose of a drug has been sentenced to 22 months in weekend detention.
Justins, 60, was last month found guilty in the Supreme Court of the manslaughter of Graeme Wylie, 75.
Mr Wylie, her partner of 18 years, was killed with a lethal dose of the veterinary drug Nembutal at his Cammeray home in Sydney in March 2006.
Justins will be released on parole in September 2010.
Her friend, Caren Jenning, a euthanasia advocate, was convicted of being an accessory before the fact of manslaughter.
Jenning, 75, who had terminal breast cancer, killed herself using the same drug in September.
The two women said they were helping Mr Wylie fulfil his wish to die.
In October, Justice Roderick Howie said he was affected by the statements of Mr Wylie’s daughters, who had cried in court when they described how their father’s sudden death deprived them of a chance to say goodbye.
While the Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, said the prosecution did not push for Justins to serve a full-time prison term, Justice Howie said he was certain he would impose some punishment, possibly prison, when he sentenced her.
Justins did not show any emotion when the sentence was handed down, and did not say anything as she left the court.
In his sentencing today, Justice Howie said Jenning was the dominant of the two women. She drove the option of obtaining the Nembutal in Mexico, where it is legal.
Jenning also wanted to get the drug for herself and, the jury found, knew that Mr Wylie could no longer decide for himself that he wanted to die, Justice Howie said.
Justins, however, was motivated by the belief her partner of 17 years wanted to die and she did not realise the extent to which he lacked mental capacity, he said.
But he said a message had to be sent to the community that this was a crime and not a conviction to be worn as a badge of honour.
Justins had to be sentenced to time in prison to send this message, he said.
But because of her prior good character and because she was unlikely to offend again, weekend detention was an adequate punishment.
Mr Wylie’s daughter Tania Shakespeare said today that she was pleased with the sentence and said Justins had deceived her father and the entire family.
“I didn’t have an opportunity to say goodbye,” she said.
“He didn’t have a dignified death.”
Outside the court, Exit International founder Philip Nitschke applauded the “lenient sentence”.
The message for people who might want to kill themselves was to plan ahead and not involve loved ones who stood to pay the price, he said.
Jenning’s daughter, Kate Jennings , said her mother spent her entire life helping others and would have accepted being portrayed as the mastermind of Mr Wylie’s death if it helped Justins get a lighter sentence.
Footnote: I feel so sad to learn that because the law refuses to accommodate the needs of those who wish to die earlier rather than later, good people are sentenced as if they’ve committed the crime. The crime is that society allows one aspect of peoples right to choice to dominate over another. The law should make provision for those of us who don’t want to suffer either physically or mentally. We will continue to commit suicide with or without the sanction of the Court. If we are smart enough to have survived a life time of decision making surely to goodness, we are capable of our own end of life decisions!!!
“Respecting Patient Choices” has been introduced in one of Glen Eira’s aged care facility at Warrawee .
It is a document that states what the patient wants for themselves should they lapse into a coma and be unable to speak for themselves when health issues become life threatening.
The Glen Eira News November copy of the Council’s own paper provides layman’s coverage on the subject. It is a softly softly approach to impending death. People are invariably afraid to bring death into conversation. Some want to cling regardless of the long term prognosis as illness and time take its toll, while others yearn for the relief from pain and suffering.
While mostly the chronically and terminally ill, sick frail elderly consider these matters, RPC is also a document for mainstream Victorians.
Had Maria Korp, the lady of the boot for four days in an attempted murder, (Alfred Hospital) completed a similar form, she would not have been kept on life support for six months, until the Victorian Advocate made the decision for her. The Right to Life lobby groups had a field day until even the Catholic Church had to admit, her life no longer and never would be, the same again. Her brain was dead.
The document takes individuals through a series of processes where should a health emergence occur, a pre existing condition worsens, eg heart attack, stroke, cancer what type of treatment would you choose for yourself?. Aggressive treatment in an attempt to stall the inevitable or palliative care, which frankly means, letting nature takes it course while being palliated and kept pain free as much as is humanly possible.
Five years ago at least RPC was introduced into the Box Hill Hospital, but when I attempted to see if it was available at Monash Hospital it had not (at that stage). I understand it is now commonly known around medical fields.
Respecting Patient Choices is a similar documentation of a person’s individual preference for how they want to be treated near death, to that of the older style forms that were known as Advance Directives and Living Wills. Not all near death experiences will include a Do Not Resuscitate requirement.
A funny scenario happened many years ago when contacting one local Upper House politician, when I asked him about his attitude to Advance Directives, he thought it may have been a procedure within the Australia Labor Party’s Annual Conference!!! So we can still smile even when discussing such serious topics…..
The one most vital piece of information the article refrained from sharing is that the document has no legal status in law.
The attending doctor may over ride the wishes of the patient, if in their opinion they see the medical implications as treatable. This is particular of concern when a person is being treated by a doctor who believes in life at any price. (Suffering can be seen as beneficial in ticking up points in this life in expectation of a better life in the next). A Right to Life doctor believes that absolutely everything that could be done should be done to conserve life. Their religious beliefs can make this their crusade.
These past 8 years I have worked hard lobbying politicians to legislate to enable Living Wills, Advance Directives and Respecting Patient Choices to be a legally binding document on the care givers. I want the patient’s wishes to be the sole deciding factor when dealing with chronically and terminally ill people.
I believe the phrase “terminally ill” applies to when a person is expected to die with 6 months.
Just yesterday I was talking to someone whose father was “expected to live” six months but stayed breathing for a further eight years during which time, he had a further five strokes, could not feed, wash, talk, walk, read, fluid on the brain – and remained a “vegetable” unable to recognise family or time…. A Seriously stressful time, for both the father, and the family. The on again, off again, nature of a protracted dying process is extremely health challenging. The $2000 dollars per month it costs the family to maintain his care was an additional burden, never complained about, but obviously a financial drain on families with young children. Most importantly the man had no quality of life whatsoever, but had refrained from making his final rational thoughts public through a Living Will, RPC or Advance Directive.
Health Legislation is a State issue and just recently the Physician Assisted Dying Bill was defeated by the Labor Party. Introduced by the Green’s Colleen Hartland, unsuccessfully, after 34 years of lobbying by Dying with Dignity Victoria. The vote would normally have been a conscience one, but the powerful lobby of the Right to Life prevailed. We older folk look to the young for change! Religion and State should be kept separated for the wellbeing of Australians and ultimately it is about choice for the individual!
Ms Ann Barker, Member for Oakleigh, Mr Rob Hudson, Member for Bentleigh and Ms Helen Shardey, Caulfield, will all have some recollection of being approached perhaps 20 times in an attempt to have Living Wills/Advance Directives and Respecting Patient Choices legalized, not merely treated as an indication of your wishes, which may be overridden by distraught relatives or a medical professional that does not share your views on a managing your impending death. Not their death! But yours!
The only document relating to health issues for the individual, that is legally binding, is that which is known as a Medical Enduring Power of Attorney. The fundamental difference between this and the previously addressed documentation is that the Medical Enduring Power of Attorney requires another person to be making decisions on your behalf.