Would you want to know?

Imagine yourself at the Doctor.
Imagine you have been experiencing spells of weakness. You have always had a tendency towards lethargy so you perhaps are not as alarmed as some may find themselves.
Imagine your blood counts are uncommonly low in certain areas and for a decade or so you have been given transfusions. You do not get them all that regularly, but they have been increasing in frequency. You look in the mirror and you see a change.

Now think of the worst thing a Doctor could tell you.
Is it cancer? A.I.D.S.? Brain tumour?
Would you want to know how long you had?
Would you want to know what to expect?

Most palliative clients are aware of their impending demise whether they are specifically told a timeframe or not. Most of the time, their Physician will give them a little speech along the lines of: " You can expect a natural process where the systems of the body will gently shut down"

Now: imagine that you steel yourself up for this visit. You know you do not have many years left. You hope you have a few. You sit down and your Doctor says to you:

"I am afraid your situation is very grave. You have less than 4 weeks to live."

Can you wrap your head around that one?
Then to emphasize this point your Doctor writes out a prescription for some pills you need once per day. The prescription he writes is for 25 pills.

To my mind I think it would be kinder in such a case to say to the client:
"I am afraid the situation is not what we hoped. Your cancer is terminal and I am sorry but it is a question of months, not weeks."
Sounds a little less brutal than "less than 4 weeks."

Today my client looked at me and said: "I have 21 days left."

Would you want to know?
I think a little stretch in the cruel truths of life is kinder.

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There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.
Suyin Han