"A reassuring and thoroughly researched guide to enjoying a high quality of life--from resilient old age to the first inklings of serious illness to the final breath. ... Packed with extraordinarily helpful insights and inspiring true stories, [this book] illustrates how to thrive in later life (even if coping with a chronic medical condition), how to get the best from our health care system, and how to make your own 'good death' more likely. This handbook of step-by-step preparations--practical, communal, physical, and sometimes spiritual--will help you make the most of your remaining time, be it decades, years, or months. Award-winning science journalist Katy Butler, an authority on end-of-life issues, explains how to successfully age in place, how to pick and have honest conversations with a younger doctor, when not to call 911, and how to make your death a sacred rite of passage rather than a medical event. A down-to-earth manual for living, aging, and dying with meaning and even joy, [this book] is based on Butler's own experience caring for aging parents, as well as hundreds of conversations with people who have successfully navigated a fragmented health system and helped their loved ones achieve good deaths. It also draws on interviews with nationally recognized experts in family medicine, palliative care, geriatrics, oncology, hospice, and other medical specialties. Inspired by the medieval death manual Ars Moriendi, or the 'Art of Dying,' [this book] is the definitive update for our modern age and illuminates the path to a better end of life."--Dust jacket.
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