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Advance Healthcare Directive add Supplemental Letter
Draft a Letter to Your Loved Ones - to be opened when you can't make your own decisions or speak for yourselfExample of a letter:
If you have opened this letter, it means that I am unable to join with you in making decisions about my health and care. This letter is to ensure as much as possible that my wishes will be honored as it pertains to my long-term healthcare.
I know I have told you many times about my personal choices. My AHD should state it all.
I do not want to receive treatment for any terminal health issue, whether physical or cognitive, that could unnaturally prolong my life. Comfort care only. No hospitals. No resuscitation. Nothing medically that could prolong my life.
Please begin palliative care at the earliest time. If I can stay at home, great! If not please try to find a facility where I can be outdoors to feel and see the sun at times. Please don't force me to eat - no feeding tubes or caregiver trying to cajole me into taking small bites.
Keeping me from pain with medication is fine - even opiates - but no other meds that could prolong my....
The above is meant to be illustrative and help you start your own final letter. I will share my letter in the future. There is no right or wrong - this is about personal choice.
also
We have countless jokes online and in person about nonstop phone calls at all hours begging you to extend your car warranty - even when you don't own a car! But we don't talk about death. AND we all have death in common!
Upon death, even if your legal paperwork is completed will there be problems? Tell others about your wishes. Make changes as often as you want but be sure your loved ones know. Problems arise when loved ones disagree. Money can do that to wills.
You don't have to discuss death daily. Yet you need to face that we all will die. Give yourself a rest sometimes but remember that each day is precious.