Thread by @WesElyMD

1/🧵 You’re dying in a hospital bed, and we grant you “THREE WISHES.” What would they be?

My dying patient is stunningly beautiful INSIDE & out. I asked what 3 wishes she had?

This video of the Birthday 🎂 party we had for her son is her BONUS Wish!

Read on for her share ❤️

Her Wish #1: Pizza, large w extra cheese. It’s been 3 years since she tasted SALT.

(again, all pics shown w their perm)

2/ Wish #2:

Expanded FAMILY visitation, which mean she enjoyed the ‘Za with all her children!

She said, “Dr. Wes, Dr. Koenig & @mad_ruk this is Priceless to me 🎁.”

Families are not a luxury. They are integral to healing (& healing can occur w/out cure).

3/ Wish #3:

To stay in the hospital 3 extra days before she takes an ambulance home likely to die that day (once we remove some life support that is no longer offering any realistic hope for this illness).

Why the extra days?

She is shown here only a few months ago…

4/ She chose this 3rd wish so that she doesn’t die on her son’s birthday, preserving his birthday as a thing of #hope in his life rather than something shrouded in her death. In suffering, she continues to think of others first.

I learn from her…👇

https://twitter.com/weselymd/status/1475552286365700098

5/ Her son cried when she told us her 3rd wish, and we all spoke together about focusing on peace & love over these last days.

All of us wept.

Yet we all smiled as we joined hands.

6/ Smiles because we saw her radiance, which transcended anything I ever deserve to witness.
 
The beauty I see in my patients’ eyes keeps me coming back to the bedside…no matter the difficulty of their circumstances.

Such a privilege to enter into relationship.

7/ #Poem
 
Little soul,
the book of your hours
is closing
 
over its golds,
its reds, your gazing dog,
your rivers, ladders
rib cage.
 
A life
turns into its patterns and perfumes
then…
 
#JaneHirshfield

8/ Grant “3 Wishes” to your pts & loved ones. Read about this in #EveryDeepDrawnBreath👇
 
Dr. Deborah Cook started this: bit.ly/3Jlg0HN.
 
People don’t ask for Ferraris.

They ask for meaningful, small acts of kindness. You can deliver…
 
#PalliativeCare #Love

9/❤️🐝

BONUS WISH #4: on rounds this morning, our team asked her, “why don’t we help you throw a birthday party for your son tomorrow with a huge cake & everyone who wants to be here celebrating?”

And so it goes…

10/fin 🐝

According to recognized aerotechnical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of its shape & weight in relation to the total wing area. But the bumblebee doesn’t know this, so she goes ahead & flies anyway.

My patient flew anyway…and taught us to fly, too.

And yes I realize that some of these “all vaxxed” family members pulled their masks down for a moment. There are just times in medicine when togetherness with a dying person and the humanity of it all rise above in terms of importance…I don’t know how to explain…

And lastly - this patient is dying of heart and lung disease, not Covid. She is on medications that are keeping her alive but which do not offer her long-term cure and they will be stopped when she gets home with hospice as they are becoming increasingly futile. All #love.