I wasn't going to go there ... BUT

Okay, it's me ... how can I not harp in on the whole feeding tube no feeding tube hoopla? Of course I'm doing it after it's all died down ... but still.

You're probably wondering why the heck I'm bringing it up now instead of while it was all over the news, etc ... so let me tell you. (See, I'm nice)

As you know; or maybe you don't, I work in a hospital. I see people on ventilators everytime I work. I've been to chronic facilities and have seen the chronic vent patients ... not a great thing to experience. Anyway ... for the past few weeks we've had a guy in the hospital that's not vent dependent, but is trached, from a nursing home. Young twenties guy, paraplegic, partially brain dead .... doesn't respond, etc. (Car accident) VERY sad ... depressing to go into his room to give treatments and suction ... breaks my heart. Why is he in the hospital ... his feeding tube came out in the nursing home, and they brought him to the ER because they couldn't get it back in. Personally ... I think they should have just left it out and let the poor guy go.

I think people that aren't around these types of situations and see how these people "live" don't realize what it's all about. Yes there are many situations where you can need the extra support of a ventilator for short term, and come off and lead a "normal" (I put normal in quotes because of the whole is there a such thing as a NORMAL life?) life. Then there's situations where you're vent dependent ... you will NEVER come off this machine because you need it to breathe for you. Is that living? Your family visits and gets to talk to you ... see you ... they don't have to deal with the whole aspect of your death, because you're still there. But when a person is brain dead, on a vent, I'm sorry, but they're dead. They aren't living any kind of life ... would you want to live your last days,months, years in a bed with bed sores with a machine breathing for you, a tube in you so you can have nourishment, IV's for fluids, etc ..... is that what YOU would want? Is that how you want your family to see you? You're dead, not clinically ... but you're dead.

I don't know ... I think most of the ventilation thing for a lot of people is just lack of knowledge. If I weren't in the medical field, would I feel so strongly about this? Probably not ... but I am ... and everyone knows that IF God forbid I'm ever in the situation where I need to be intubated and it is a long term, chronic condition .... yank that tube and turn the vent off and let me die. Don't let me lay there and suffer ... don't let my family come in and see me like that and have them remember me that way! I don't have DNR/DNI papers now because I just don't want to do that at my age ... but when I get older, you better believe I'll have those drawn up and copies of it everywhere so there's no doubt of my wishes! Let me die in dignity.