Tupeak Hope

Time is a finite thing when it comes to our lives regardless of whether we are healthy or ill. None of us know how long we will have on this planet before our time is up. This is a fact. Also a fact is that while many of us do not wish to talk about it we really need to be having the difficult discussions with our family about what we )and they) may desire should either become unable to make or communicate decisions regarding their medical care on their own.

On November 19, 2016 I shared an article on the importance of preventing, recognizing, and appropriately treating the effects of ICU delirium in patients. The article I will reference now pertains to delirium, but not in the typical sense. It addresses the same topic of delirium, but in a different light. In this article the author, who is also a physician, discusses in-depth the potential for delirium in an inpatient setting, which he himself experienced.

Most of us go about our daily lives oblivious to the dangers lurking all around us during nearly every second of our seemingly routine and maybe even mundane existence. While some of you may well find this post to be morbid and unnecessary. I assure you from personal experience on multiple levels, many of them personal and very close to home, this is a topic that must be addressed.

This is a very difficult, yet sobering and absolutely necessary topic. The hard truth of life, is that we are all dying a little bit every day. From the time we are born, we are in effect, also on the path to our inevitable death. Sure, we don’t have an expiration date stamped on the bottom of our feet, nor should we live life in fear of what could happen to us, or how and when we will die. However, we certainly must be aware that horrible things happen to good people each and every day. While we must not allow ourselves to live in fear of these life changing events, we also cannot afford to bury our head in the sand and pretend that they simply do not exist, or that they only happen to other people, not to us.

The following is a re-post to a friends’ blog, where she addresses a very real issue for ICU patients, that has been overlooked for way too long. This is a must-read article for anyone who ever has or knows someone who has had to spend time in an ICU regardless of whether the cause was medical or surgical.

The fact is, like many things in medicine, it is time to re-evaluate and update how the sickest patients are cared for to prevent long-term ramifications of that care. While most patients are simply happy to get out of the ICU, it is imperative to recognize that the ICU itself can cause trauma which must be addressed!