Feb 18: P.S. to Feb 16 post

There is one thing that I distinctly remember saying in reaction to the diagnosis: "Well, at least now I won't live long enough to get the Alzheimer's everyone else in the family gets!" Seriously--lots of long lifers on both sides of the family who get some form of dementia. So not pretty.

That black sense of humor is something that anyone who worked with me as a paramedic is familiar with--and sometimes it really comes in handy. On a call for "respiratory distress" I arrived to find the patient dead as a doornail--no breathing for some time, so certainly no distress. My way of phrasing to the family? "Well, there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is he's not having any problems breathing...." (And, in my defense, I also emphasized how peaceful the death had been.)

I've been accused of being callous, irreverant or "terrible" in thinking of things this way, but hey, if it makes me or anyone else able to handle a tough situation better, then how can it be wrong? In some situations the 'silver lining' is buried pretty deep and you need to be somewhat creative. So be it.

Thanks for checking, Laurie