Wednesday 09/10/2025
First thing, met with Joanne and we drove to the Baylands and had a very pleasant walk, just the two of us. Tomorrow a friend, Jane, flies in to join her and Saturday they two will fly off for a week in Port Townsend.
Then I spent several hours taking care of the various changes to the Broadway video needed from the rehearsal issues. Then I dropped in on Pam in the nursing center, and found she is on the final slope. Her friends Judy and Florence were with her and told me she hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, and although more or less conscious, she isn’t responding or talking.
Then I worked on the video from the book talk last Monday. And completely forgot there was a 6th floor, floor meeting today. And once again nobody bothered to come down to my room and say “yo, bro, meeting time.” I feel like an idiot for zoning out like that, but I also feel rather hurt.
Ordered dinner for takeout and it wasn’t edible — just a lousy piece of meat. What a waste. I’m going to write a complaint email next.
Then I did remember there was a talk at 7:30, this time by a guy representing the Final Exit Network, a volunteer organization that provides guidance to people wanting to end their lives. California, along with 11 other states, allows Medical Assistance in Dying. This is a multi-step process, requiring two MDs to state that you have a terminal illness that will kill you in 6 months of less, a very specific prognosis that doctors are often unwilling to sign. Plus other paperwork and delay. That can be a high bar.
However, our speaker said, suicide is not illegal, although assisting a suicide can be. The F.E.N. councils people on ending their lives other ways. The simplest way, if you decide it’s time, is to stop eating and drinking. That has its own acronym, VSED, voluntary stoppage of eating and drinking. It’s a common exit route, especially for people in hospice, who can get morphine for any discomfort. A little more elaborate, but much quicker, is to inhale nitrogen. Fun fact: people used to end their lives inhaling helium, easily available for filling party balloons. No more; for several years it has been common for helium containers to have oxygen mixed in exactly to avoid suffocation, accidental or purposeful. But canisters of nitrogen are also readily available–sometimes used to fill auto tires, or for welding, etc.
I don’t feel any desire to end my life but it was kind of morbidly interesting.
Codgerville 