This is the seventh in a series of eleven articles to educate  and prepare ahead of time for loved ones or self for the end of life - It is intended to bring awareness to the possible scenarios and encouragement to make plans ahead of time to avoid the stress and emotional discomfort and possible inability to make those better decisions - Comments are welcomed  and will be available for viewing upon approval

How To Die Like A Doctor Part 2  By Carolyn McClanahan
                          
In my last post, I discussed three phases for preparing to die like a doctor – pre-illness, illness, and “too late to do anything about the illness” phase.  I covered a little about the pre-illness preparation – feeling comfortable with the concept of death and ways to get experience with sickness and dying without going through the process yourself.  In this post, I cover another important pre-illness item – preparing your family for your death long before it is imminent.

There are two ways you need to prepare your family – financially and emotionally.  The financial one is easy – if you die, will your family be okay financially without you?  Hopefully you have enough savings to keep them intact, but most people in their younger years need some type of life insurance. 

Although I am a financial planner, my purpose in writing is not to explain the intricacies of how much or what type of life insurance you need – find a good financial planner to help you out with that one.
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This is the sixth in a series of eleven articles to educate  and prepare ahead of time for loved ones or self for the end of life - It is intended to bring awareness to the possible scenarios and encouragement to make plans ahead of time to avoid the stress and emotional discomfort and possible inability to make those better decisions - Comments are welcomed  and will be available for viewing upon approval

How To Die Like A Doctor By Carolyn McClanahan

With the interest lately in how doctors die, now is a great time to help you plan to die like a doctor.  In my last post, I discussed how doctors are great at completing their end of life planning, and they make certain the right people are in place to carry out their wishes.

They also tend to take charge of making certain their loved ones have the most pleasant end of life possible.

When doctors choose how to treat their terminal illness, they take prognosis into account.  If prognosis is not good, most opt for comfort care and conservative treatment.  Ideally, a death well prepared for is a more comfortable death, and this is what doctors choose.
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Why Doctors Die Differently     By KEN MURRAY

Careers in medicine have taught them the limits of treatment and the need to plan for the end

Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. It was diagnosed as pancreatic cancer by one of the best surgeons in the country, who had developed a procedure that could triple a patient's five-year-survival odds—from 5% to 15%—albeit with a poor quality of life.

What's unusual about doctors is not how much treatment they get compared with most Americans, but how little.

Charlie, 68 years old, was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with his family. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation or surgical treatment. Medicare didn't spend much on him.
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This is the fifth in a series  of eleven articles to educate  and prepare ahead of time for loved ones or self for the end of life - It is intended to bring awareness to the possible scenarios and encouragement to make plans ahead of time to avoid the stress and emotional discomfort and possible inability to make those better decisions - Comments are welcomed  and will be available for viewing upon approval

A better approach is to focus on the desired outcome.  If you are ill, what type of lifestyle is acceptable to you? Talking about “how we want to be” instead of “what we want to have happen” allows the family and health care providers to decide on the appropriate treatments.


Doctors Do Die Differently - How We Make Certain   By Carolyn McClanahan

  I explain why doctors choose to die a different death than non-medical people.  The next four articles are what to do so you can plan for a more peaceful end of life too.

Recently, there was a great post by Dr. Ken Murray titled, “Why Doctors Die Differently.” Dr. Murray eloquently discusses the decisions physicians make for themselves at the end of life, and our hesitation in bestowing “our views on the vulnerable.” He ends with a story of his non-physician cousin choosing the non-aggressive path after a cancer diagnosis, illustrating that more people can make this choice.
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This is the fourth in a series  of eleven articles to educate  and prepare ahead of time  for  loved  ones  or self for the end of life -

Right now in this wonderful  country each adult has the right to make their own decisions about their health care -  Even with that privilege decisions can be very difficult  to make when the time arises due to heightened emotions - This series is intended to help by bringing awareness  to possible  questions and  possible answers - It is only encouraged that you do decide what is best for you  and plan ahead -- Comments are welcomed and will be made available  for viewing  upon approval

Not Ready To Die? Who Should Pay?   By Carolyn McClanahan, Contributor

In financial planning, we first look at client goals and then review whether the client’s actions are congruent with those goals.  A step in the process is to break down spending – how much is going for needs, how much for wants, and how much is wasted.  We can then get a true picture of what changes need to be made.

The same goes for health care.  We are attempting changes from the top down.  Figure out the waste, the non-vital services, and the true needs of our health care system.  Another effective path is to make changes from the bottom up.  If we all do our part, incredible change can happen. The health care system in this country is everyone’s responsibility.
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Predicting What Happens to Your Aging Brain

Can older users be as sharp as younger ones?

As we get older, our brains' abilities change. Though scientists can predict many of these age-related trends, Lumosity scientists also wanted to know how practice and hard work could change individual performance despite predicted age generalizations.

The question: can an older person do as well as a younger one?

We examined game score data from 132,147 members of all ages who played four different Lumosity games. Dr. Kacey Ballard presented these findings at the 2012 Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference, and now we’d like to share what we learned about typical baseline ability and the amazing effects of regular training.
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This is the third in a series  of eleven articles to educate  and prepare ahead of time  for  loved  ones  or self for the end of life - This post is one of the most important in preparing so that during the transition time  one can be  on  autopilot to some degree  -- the mental  and  emotional  functioning is greatly challenged by a draining of  energy and focus --

Making decisions about finances -  pain management - or  comfort cannot be  made wisely  when in the midst of a critical physical and  emotional state - This post addresses getting panels in place  NOW  for the  ease of   carrying out wishes and  details at the appointed time --  Getting your own panel of family  and  caring  friends  to help during the tough  times  Comments  will be open and  available for viewing upon  approval


Why We Should Create Death Panels   By Carolyn McClanahan    12/14/2011

Healthcare is a complex system and change occurs from many angles.  The Affordable Care Act attempts to influence it from the top down.

As individuals, we have a lot of power to fix it from the bottom up.  It will take many people to institute positive change, and we will need to act like a flock of birds shifting direction in unison to have the most impact.  One change is for each of us to create our very own individual “Death Panels.”

My focus this week is end of life decision making.
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This is the second  post of eleven concerning a very sensitive but important topic - It is not meant to be a Debbie Downer - so please do not think of it that way - If you are genuinely not ready to embark on this preparedness journey that is surely your decision  and honored --

If  you are open  minded and ready to be more informed and aware of ways to make the transition for a loved one  easier then I encourage you to continue reading and maybe even copy these posts for future reference and sharing with family - friends  and  maybe small church groups -

Who knows this could be a small group project which could ease some of the  discomfort that some could feel due to their sensitivity  - Building anything is easier when you have the proper tools --  Comments will be open and available  for public viewing upon approval --

Are You Ready For The End Of Life?  By Carolyn McClanahan  12/12/2011

Let’s give health care reform a short rest.  I’ll talk about something more exciting that needs to have its simplicity restored – end of life.  This will lay the groundwork for future posts on how health care reform deals with this touchy subject.  For today, I want to set the tone for how we talk about death.
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This is the  first of eleven articles in  a series that  will  be featured in the next several days - The articles are written by a physician who is also a financial planner -  There will be useful information to help not only in the financial thinking and planning  process  but also in the mental and emotional aspects -

What  might be helpful to most on the financial  planning  perspective  would normally be posted on the regular blog page but because of the sensitive nature of the topic  it was felt that the  Wise Words Page would be more  appropriate  - Comments will be  open for these featured articles and  will be available for public viewing upon approval - It is hoped that you will be more knowledgeable  and  prepared with your wealth management / financial planning whether for yourself or loved  ones after  reading these articles  --

Do Conversations Around End Of Life Really Matter? 
By Carolyn McClanahan  Oct. 7 2012

The most heartbreaking topic I deal with both as a physician and financial planner is the end of life discussion.  End of life issues take a toll on patients and their family from all sides – physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial.  For something we know is a certain event, we truly bury our heads in the sand.
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The 3 Obstacles To Your Success That Aren't Obstacles At All

By Alexis Wolfer, founder/editor-in-chief, TheBeautyBean.com.

Whether you’re looking to start your own business, are a recent college grad looking to embark on a more traditional career path, or are un(der)-employed and looking for a fresh start, we all face the same obstacles.

Three of them, in fact — and they hold us back from finding the job of our dreams, embarking on the career that will finally fulfill us or working towards creating the startup we’ve always wished for.
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