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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Finish Strong is so very important!
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
As Stevie Nicks so aptly reminds us in Landslide... "But time makes you bolder. Even children get older. And I'm getting older too." I am getting older. And my Mom is 82. We have had many conversation about death. And we agree that we aren't afraid of death. We are afraid of suffering. I witnessed a very good death close up. I was honored to be at my fathers' bedside as he slipped away peacefully. What it took for me and the rest of my family to ensure him a peaceful death was extraordinary. It was a battle and he had an advanced directive! We fought off feeding tubes and resuscitation by medical professionals who didn't consider my Dad's suffering or have his best interests at heart. I learned that I don't want my kids to have to battle the medical community to ensure me a peaceful death. But I didn't know how to actually ensure that.. legally, how to communicate it, to whom and how to help everyone understand my wishes. Until I read Finish Strong!

Finish Strong is a guide to help the reader understand the options available for end-of-life care and to really assess their values. The next steps are crucial... how to make the plan legal, known and hopefully respected by everyone involved in their care. I had no idea how many options are out there.

Hospice was such a blessing for my Dad! And when the time came, they respected his wish to pass peacefully. I want everyone to have their wishes respected and with Finish Strong, I believe they are learning how.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Finish Strong is so very important!
By Kindle Customer on January 7, 2019
As Stevie Nicks so aptly reminds us in Landslide... "But time makes you bolder. Even children get older. And I'm getting older too." I am getting older. And my Mom is 82. We have had many conversation about death. And we agree that we aren't afraid of death. We are afraid of suffering. I witnessed a very good death close up. I was honored to be at my fathers' bedside as he slipped away peacefully. What it took for me and the rest of my family to ensure him a peaceful death was extraordinary. It was a battle and he had an advanced directive! We fought off feeding tubes and resuscitation by medical professionals who didn't consider my Dad's suffering or have his best interests at heart. I learned that I don't want my kids to have to battle the medical community to ensure me a peaceful death. But I didn't know how to actually ensure that.. legally, how to communicate it, to whom and how to help everyone understand my wishes. Until I read Finish Strong!

Finish Strong is a guide to help the reader understand the options available for end-of-life care and to really assess their values. The next steps are crucial... how to make the plan legal, known and hopefully respected by everyone involved in their care. I had no idea how many options are out there.

Hospice was such a blessing for my Dad! And when the time came, they respected his wish to pass peacefully. I want everyone to have their wishes respected and with Finish Strong, I believe they are learning how.
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Kimberly Callinan Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for you and anybody you love!
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is a must read, especially for anybody 50+ or somebody who is caring for a loved one. While many people have written about end of life care, this book is unique in several ways: 1) it is written with the consumer’s priorities and goals front and center; 2) the book is rich with personal stories and anecdotes that make it interesting, provocative and relatable. 3) it includes very helpful tools that allow you to translate the theoretical into practice; 4) the author is a beautiful writer, who brings decades of experience on this topic first as a medical professional and then as a consumer advocate. As the book makes clear, it takes the participation of loved ones to be able to finish strong. Given this, I have also purchased a copy of this book for my parents, and I will use the book as a jumping off point for a conversation about their end of life care preferences.
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Ready4Retirement
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read on end of life planning.
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
In my field, medical oncology, one engages with patients and families facing a cancer diagnosis on a weekly or daily basis. How much of that time to spend talking about genomics and the incredible advances being made versus the likelihood that he/she/they should also begin planning for a noble and satisfying end to life is a challenge. This book, written by an outstanding author, is a gift to all of us. Drawing on personal and many very recent stories, ranging from Dr. Paul Kalanithi's incredible book, "When Breath Becomes Air", to John McCain's and Barbara Bush's end of life choices, Barbara Coombs Lee provides readers with the insights, and importantly, practical tools and tips for facing life's final challenges, and doing it in a way that respects a life well lived. This is a book every family should read and discuss, before any illnesses or dementia enter the picture at all. I plan to share it with all of my patients and colleagues.
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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read on end of life planning.
By Ready4Retirement on January 21, 2019
In my field, medical oncology, one engages with patients and families facing a cancer diagnosis on a weekly or daily basis. How much of that time to spend talking about genomics and the incredible advances being made versus the likelihood that he/she/they should also begin planning for a noble and satisfying end to life is a challenge. This book, written by an outstanding author, is a gift to all of us. Drawing on personal and many very recent stories, ranging from Dr. Paul Kalanithi's incredible book, "When Breath Becomes Air", to John McCain's and Barbara Bush's end of life choices, Barbara Coombs Lee provides readers with the insights, and importantly, practical tools and tips for facing life's final challenges, and doing it in a way that respects a life well lived. This is a book every family should read and discuss, before any illnesses or dementia enter the picture at all. I plan to share it with all of my patients and colleagues.
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Brooke
5.0 out of 5 stars Frosting on the end-of-life planning cake
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
I have learned so much from Gawande's "Being Mortal", Zitter's "Extreme Measures", and Warraich's "Modern Death". Now Lee's "Finish Strong" has given me more important new insights, especially the "Escaping Dementia" chapter, which hadn't been explained to me before. I immediately ordered two more copies to be sent to my state Senator and state Representative, and wrote to them begging for assistance with getting Medical Aid In Dying in Texas.
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H. Gilbert
5.0 out of 5 stars Important and helpful
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book is important for everyone who is dying, i.e. all of us because we are all headed there. It makes clear that in order to have a say in how our life ends, we need to pay attention ahead of time and develop our values, develop relationships with our family and our doctors that will support those values, and learn how to communicate clearly and insist on our priorities. Ms. Lee shows why this is difficult to do in the current medical climate, but how it can be done with grace and determination. Her case histories are interesting and enlightening, both those that have good endings and those that don't. There's inspiration and practical help in the book, and a new approach to opening up our cultural way of dying. I'm buying copies and giving them to my friends and family to start the conversation.
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Susan B. Barry
5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable guide; practical, inspiring and about time!
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2019
Verified Purchase
It's about time someone-- with the credentials of Barbara Coombs Lee-- put in rightful place where the focus on dying should have been all along; on achieving a peaceful, gentle death with the goal of quality of life to the end, tailored to the individual's situation and values.
Priceless tips--for example, regarding the "runaway train" of aggressive procedures today; one among the many specific questions Lee suggests to ask your doctor is what your statistical chances are of surviving with a feeding tube. She helps you in assessing what quality of life means to you personally. Even a chapter, "Escaping Dementia." This positive book is a reality-based, fluid read. And a clarion call to the medical community and all of us.
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Robert Hoyt
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for people of ALL ages
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
We just had a multi-generational discussion group around Finish Strong. Every person, including two in healthcare left with the feeling of having been gifted poignant portraits of good and bad deaths coupled with very clear guidance on how to "finish strong." Barbara Coombs Lee is the perfect narrator: she was at the bedside of many for years before being called to policy and compelled to advocacy. She's got the multidimensional viewpoint I certainly want in my ear as I continue my plan to" finish strong." It's first on my gift list this year!
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