Healthcare Power of Attorney

“Healthcare Power of Attorney”

It sounds so proper and impersonal.

It’s not.

It’s the most personal job you might ever have.

It’s soul-wrenching,
Soul-lacerating.

You stand there with a person’s life —
With a person’s number of days —
In your hands.

If you are honored with the position,
Take it with the “grave”ity it deserves.

Listen to the doctors and nurses,
But don’t trust them fully.
Run to go get a second and third opinion.
Don’t stop until you do.

Listen to all the family around you,
The ones that love the person just as much as you do.

But realize this:

In the end, it’s your decision.

And your conscience is the one that you will have to live with,
Daily…
Hourly…

Not theirs.

Don’t let them push you.

Listen to many.
Learn from all.

Then just as your loved one trusted you,
Trust the depths of your soul:

Go with your gut and your gut alone.

Because no one else will be there to clean up the vomit
That spews out
In the middle of the night
If you go against it.