When I was quite young, with a pre-teen stepdaughter, my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was ill for the duration of my stepdaughter's adolescence. I sought vainly for guidance about caring for a loved one whose life is ebbing slowly away. Nobody ever told me a dying person might be angry or might lash out at those with whom he was most close. Now that I've read Dr. Ira Byock's "Dying Well," I understand. According...
1Report
I'm the kind of person whose eyes start to glaze over if I try to absorb more than a few pages of social science/self help type writing. I was steered to this book when I was helping my mother as she died. I had so little experience with death that I worried about doing the wrong thing. As I read the stories I was drawn in, absorbing each small "message" with each story. One, about a man whose final gift to his family...
0Report
As I was struggling through the final months of my mother's life, I stumbled across this inspired book. At some points it was so brutally honest and raw in its assessment of death and hospice issues that I could barely read on, but I felt compelled to. Byock has a rare and valid perspective that deserves discussion--preferably before you are faced with the imminent death of a loved one.
0Report
I first heard Dr. Byock interviewed on the Diane Ream(?sp) show on NPR when his book was just out. I knew I had to read it for myself and I was not disappointed. The way the information about how things can be handled in a supportive respectful way for all of those involved at the end of life is the best written guide for many of the difficult situations out in the real world that I have found. If we would take advantage...
0Report
This wonderful book approaches the process of dying using individual case vignets which illustrate the essence of the book: no one need die in pain. Dr. Byock outlines care available to terminal patients, both through hospice and palliative medical options. He addresses the subject with regard to both dying persons and those who love and care for them. One purpose of Dr. Byock's book is stated to be to be an effort...
0Report