Author Archives: Trish Rodriguez

The phone rang again almost a month to the day later. This call was from the administrator of Mom’s apartment building; a smug young guy with “I told you so” dripping from his voice. Mom had fallen again, in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing despite my admonitions that she not goContinue reading “The Phone Call”

It’s so cliche. No matter how up to date we are on the statistics of how our life might end, we never truly believe it will happen to us. About 36 million older adults fall each year—resulting in more than 32,000 deaths. Each year, about 3 million older adults are treated in emergency departments for a fall injury. One out of every fiveContinue reading “Chapter One”

P.O.L.S.T. Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment. Does any other profession love the acronym more than the medical profession? I think not. They have a batch of letters for just about any occasion. This particular batch is an important one if you are of a certain age or have a diagnosis that could mean somethingContinue reading “P.O.L.S.T.”

I’m guessing that you don’t have a death plan. Jeez, even saying ‘death plan’ is creepy and laced with undertones of self harm. But since the end of life is an inevitability, why the heck shouldn’t we have a plan for it? I mean I have a plan for retirement, a plan for the weekend,Continue reading “Having a Plan”

This morning my very dearest friend in the world called to tell me that her sister, Sue, had died. It was not a surprise; she was yet another victim of COVID-19. To date 120 million souls have died from this modern plague. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a killer to be sure but it is soContinue reading “An ending and a beginning”

I was finally scheduled to have carpel tunnel release surgery on March 19th, having endured literally years of numbness and pain. On March 15th, Governor Inslee shut the state down to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. CTR is considered elective surgery and all elective procedures were now on hold. Into lockdown we allContinue reading “Had a COVID-19 test today”

This is a guest post by Leslie Mahoney, RN My sister died from COVID-19 on June 21, 2020. I can accept my sister’s death. After all she was in her eighties and had plenty of physical ills any one of which was potentially fatal. But in the end she died of COVID-19 and what IContinue reading “Death in the time of COVID”