Medical Superhighway
Advanced Care planning documents often only come into play at the very last minute in the “disease treatment model” that is our healthcare system. Our medical superhighway is vast, complex, and moves very quickly. When you have a chronic condition/serious illness and you’re on the super-fast highway, it can be very hard to figure out how or if you can get off. The system’s focus is on stopping you from dying no matter what. What if you no longer want that to be the focus? It can seem like the exit ramp only exists at the very end, but, really, there are multiple decision points and possible off-ramps.
It can be complicated to die in modern America. How do you want to spend the last weeks, months, years of your life? What is it that really matters to you? What’s your belief about quality and quantity of life? What are the benefits and the burdens of ongoing treatment?
For some, staying on the superhighway for as long as possible absolutely represents their values and beliefs. This isn’t meant to suggest that you hurry up and get off the highway as quickly as you can. Instead, the suggestion is that you think through ahead of time what it is you want. So that when the time comes, you and anyone who needs to make decisions for you will be very clear.
This thinking and planning can’t happen at the last minute. Preferably, these would be well thought out beliefs and decisions made well ahead of time and over time. What is the north star you want to use to navigate these complex systems and decisions?