Sure it’s great to ease suffering of some sort be it to dampen down someone’s pain, or to improve their nausea, or to help them with their breathlessness. Taking away a negative feeling is a good thing to do. Making a bad situation less bad is a worthy thing to do.

What if you can make someone’s situation better, even momentarily? That’s what I enjoy doing the most, having a laugh with my patients. Sure they may be critically unwell and may only have days left to live but they are still human beings and still want to be treated like a person. Finding something that can make them smile or make them laugh may just let them escape for a few seconds. A short moment of enjoyment is something worthy of pursuit.

My patient was dying of recurrent aspiration pneumonia. His swallowing had been compromised for weeks. Food and drink would be aspirated into his lungs, causing life-threatening infections. Even when he didn’t eat he would choke and aspirate on his own saliva. He was constantly breathless as his illness had stopped his breathing muscles from working. This situation could not go on. The nurses asked what we should do if was to aspirate further. I said, “We’ll keep him comfortable.”

I asked him if he felt like eating or drinking anything, and encouraged him to do so. It would not make things any worse, but might give him a small amount of simple pleasure. I suggested he could have anything that he wanted to drink, including alcoholic beverages. As I was working I couldn’t join him but said that he could have one for me. Through his non-invasive positive airways pressure ventilation mask he chuckled and his whole chest shook.

He wanted to drink Coca Cola, and to eat ice-cream. I told him to go for it, hey why not make it into an ice-cream soda? It wasn’t going to hurt him, and if he enjoyed it even better.

I’d be keen to know what was the best thing you did today?