Living Wills are important gifts to your loved ones and much more. They can help you avoid days to many weeks of unbearable end-of-life suffering, and months to several years of lingering in Advanced Dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease where--because you cannot talk or complain--your pain may be unrecognized and untreated.
Sorting My Way Cards is a new, easy and relatively fast way to create your own powerful Living Will. (Few, if any, other Living Wills consider Advanced Dementia.) You can consider each card/item, one-at-a-time. Each is described by an average of 23 plain words with almost no medical jargon or diagnoses. All items are illustrated to help understand their meaning. They cover the symptoms, losses of function, unwanted behaviors, and conflicts with lifelong values commonly experienced in Advanced Dementia and other terminal illnesses.
Most important: the cards give you a "way out." Called Natural Dying, the cards explain why this way can be comfortable--even peaceful—if you want a "timely" dying. By "timely" we mean neither prolonged nor premature. Selecting certain cards can help make sure your future decision-makers do not give up on you, before you would want.
You must make your end-of-life decisions while you are still "competent" for this task. "Capacity" can vanish suddenly from an automobile accident or stroke; or slowly, from dementia.
Your choices of cards can indicate when you want to refuse treatment that is too burdensome or cannot provide any overall benefit, as well as when you would want “total sedation” if that becomes the only way to provide you relief from unbearable pain and suffering.
After sorting/deciding, write your results on a "My Decisions Table" (available from the non-profit organization Caring Advocates). Send, email, fax, or upload your choices to www.Caring Advocates.org to receive your "Natural Dying--Living Will" (for which they charge a reasonable fee.)
While thinking about death and dying may not be pleasant, investing the effort now can give you peace of mind so you can go on to enjoy the rest of your life.
