With advances in medical technology and treatments, there may be a lot of management options available. Whether any treatment is the right thing to do for the individual patient in front of you needs to be carefully considered. It may be easier to do something, rather than explaining why not doing something is the better option. It is best if a person can take part in the decision making but they don’t always have the opportunity as they may be too unwell.

He’d had many procedures and treatments over the past months. Some had been beneficial, others not so much, all of them painful. He was becoming better at saying, “No.” If it would improve his quality of life he might consider it, but if not he couldn’t see the point. He was already in a lot of pain. He couldn’t keep down his food let alone any medications. They didn’t work anyway. Maybe he had been too subtle with the doctors. They all seemed willing to help and had consulted other colleagues in the hospital to access further investigations. He wasn’t sure if he wanted them. There had been so many this year, and each of the results had indicated that everything was getting worse. He didn’t need it to be confirmed in a written report, he felt it in his bones, the deep fatigue that gnawed at him. Reducing him more each day.

Maybe tomorrow he would tell them how he truly felt. If he could get a word in…