In article , Al A. says...

You are right, Jim, neither option is very palatable. That must have
been tough on your mom. I guess that if you keep you mind but your
body fails, it is agony for you. If your mind fails and your body
holds up, it is agony for those around you. At this point, my mother
is healthy and blissfully unaware of her condition. The blessing in it
all is that she smiles and laughs, though none of us know about what!
She is not one of those poor folks who lays about the place crying
that they want to go home or whatever.

That was really sobering. There was one lady who did that *every*
night. Each night it was a different catch phrase but it happened
over and over again. The staff had immense patience.

That is the one single thing that impressed me the most about the
summer's experience, no matter how bad things got, no matter
what was coming uncorked, I never did meet any heath care professional
who was not well-intentioned and doing their level headed best
to do a good job at whatever they were responsible for. There were
no malevolent forces, only differing degrees of competence.

The name of the game was to maximize the competence factor apparently.

The healthcare system in the US is a pretty complex device, in more
than one way.

Jim


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