Finish Strong - 2nd Edition by Barbara Coombs Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

"...Finish Strong is for those of us who want an end-of-life experience to match the life we've enjoyed. We know we should prepare, but are unsure how to think and talk about it, how to live true to our values and priorities, and how to make our wishes stick. The usual advice about advance directives and conversations is important but woefully inadequate. This book describes concrete action in the here and now to help live our best lives to the end. Finish strong will guide you through: Finding a partner-doctor to honor your values and beliefs with humanity, deference and candor; Identifying what matters most as vigor wanes and stating your priorities; Having meaningful conversations with doctors and family about expectations and wishes; Staying off the "overtreatment conveyor belt"; Knowing when "slow medicine" is the best option to maintain quality of life; Navigating home hospice, the ultimate healing experience. Written with candor and clarity by a nurse, physician assistant and attorney who became a leading advocate for end-of-life options, this book can help you Finish Strong." -- back cover.

Book Synopsis

The guide to achieving the positive end-of-life experience you want and deserve, this second edition of Finish Strong by Barbara Coombs Lee, the President Emerita/Senior Adviser of Compassion & Choices, features valuable new material, including a brand new chapter called "Race and Culture Matter;" an Afterword by Kim Callinan, the President/CEO of Compassion & Choices; and a detailed index for the book.

It's hard to talk about death in America. But even though the topic has been taboo, life's end is an eventual reality.

So why not shape it to our values? Finish Strong is for those of us who want an end-of-life experience to match the life we've enjoyed. We know we should prepare, but are unsure how to think and talk about it, how to live true to our values and priorities, and how to make our wishes stick.

The usual advice about advance directives and conversations is important but woefully inadequate. This book describes concrete action in the here and now to help live our best lives to the end.

Finish Strong will guide you through:

- Finding a partner-doctor to honor your values and beliefs with humanity, deference and candor.

- Identifying what matters most as vigor wanes and stating your priorities.

- Having meaningful conversations with doctors and family about expectations and wishes.

- Staying off the "overtreatment conveyor belt."

- Knowing when "slow medicine" is the best option to maintain quality of life.


- Navigating hospice, the ultimate healing experience.

Written with candor and clarity by a nurse, physician assistant and attorney who became a leading advocate for end-of-life options, this book can help you Finish Strong.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Haider Warraich, M.D.

Preface by Barbara Coombs Lee

A Note About the Second Edition

1. An Invitation

2. Talking About Death Won't Kill You (But It Could Improve Your Life)

3. Overtreatment and Diminishing Returns

4. Let Me Die Like a Doctor

5. Hope & Heroism

6. Hospice: The Healing Option

7. The Secret of Slow Medicine

8. Escaping Dementia

9. Inside a Growing Advocacy

10. Race and Culture Matter

11. People Taking Control

12. Space for the Sacred

13. It's Harder Than You Think (But You Can Do It)

Afterword by Kim Callinan, president and chief executive officer, Compassion & Choices

Appendix: Tools to Take Charge

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About Compassion & Choices

Notes on Sources

Index

Review Quotes

"Barbara Coombs Lee covers all the issues we must address. Read Finish Strong and use it as a guide to consider your own final decisions." -Diane Rehm, executive producer of The Diane Rehm Show, and author of On My Own

"Finish Strong will help people who want to pass the gift of life back into the hands of their God thankfully and with dignity. It is a blessing." -Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

"Finish Strong is the kind of book that comes along once in a generation, and Barbara Coombs Lee is nothing short of a historic figure. This book is a game-changing, paradigm-shifting work that defines an inflection point in the way our country thinks about and cares for people who are dying."

-David Muller, M.D., Dean for Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York

"Finish Strong is the clarion call for the end-of-life choice movement just as Our Bodies, Ourselves was for the women's movement. Barbara Coombs Lee's book is an important book, full of candid, helpful advice for people navigating the final stage of their lives." -Jeanne Phillips, "Dear Abby" advice columnist

"Adults have the right to decide their own course of treatment at the end of life. Barbara Coombs Lee's wise and compassionate book shows how best to do that."

-Betty Rollin, author of Last Wish and First, You Cry

"Finish Strong includes beautiful and powerful stories of people facing the end of life in so many different but strong ways."

-Reverend Alexa Fraser, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sterling, Virginia