Excellent articles - thank you for posting them. I've added them to my info files for acupuncture and Taiji. It's always good to see such modalities acknowledged as being useful.
It's funny that you've posted this right now, because my student's younger (46) sister has just been diagnosed with cancer - probably colon. They said that if she goes for treatment she might live a year; if she doesn't go for the treatments she'll have a few months at most.
What opened my eyes in this event was how she reacted to the news - she went through denial, then fear, then bargaining - in fact, all of the classic responses to impending death. Now she doesn't want any more tests, she just wants out of the hospital.
But that's where all the ruckus started ... she's a former addict who until recently was on morphine, so right off the bat many of the doctors wanted nothing to do with her. My student is struggling to secure funding for either a nursing home or hospice, but the Feds and the State keep tossing her back and forth. He's currently trying to get SS Disability, which according to him would be the best of the bunch, but it seems to be like pulling teeth. The hospital wants her out of there ASAP, she thinks she can just go home (but there's no one to take care of her unless he can arrange visiting hospice), her records seem to have mysteriously disappeared, you can't get in direct touch with any doctor because of the platoon of "screeners" they employ ...
Basically it all comes down to money, which is really a shame, but once again confirms my long-held viewpoint. Of course my student is going through all sorts of anguish, as is the boyfriend of the sister, mis-communications are numerous, hurt feelings, people being shut-out (she told the hospital staff not to let her brother's calls through) ... it's such a mess, at a time when everything really should be made as smooth as possible.
