recently a friend of mine who has ms had a cardiac arrest. Thankfully they managed to resusitate her. Iam not sure of all the details but a know it was due to ms. As a result she was in rehabilitation for several months.
I have had ms for several years & at present i am unable to work, drive or walk more than a few steps so still realise how lucky l am as I can still self care & do not need a carer. however I do not know what the future holds. After what happened to my friend I have recently been thinking about an advanced directive if that ever happened to me I would not want to be reliant on others.
I do not wish to appear morbid but was wondering if anybody had thought of this or had any information about how I would go about this. I spoke to my ms nurse & she told me I should ask my gp. I did this & she printed off some forms from nhs choices that I should read mentioned that I would need to get a solicitor & mentioned a price of £150 pounds.It all sounds very complicated & expensive, any advise would be appreciated, thank you
Hola I haven’t read the NHS website but as I understand it an advanced directive would be a list of instructions that if you were unable to make a decision with regard to your health then someone can do this by being nominated and named by you. The reason I would have thought that it is done with a solicitor is so it is a legal binding document and keeps YOUR best interests at heart. Also a copy would be easily accessible, not sure If you could do one witout it being witnessed etc by a solicitor I know we can write a will without it being with a solicitor. It wouldn’t give the nominated person access to make choices with regard to your finances I wouldn’t have thought. Similar to a living will or maybe when we decide if anything should happen to us we have decided to donate our organs. Maybe give a solicitor a ring and just pick their brains? You’ve certainly made me think, I have a will which gets changed more times than I have had hot dinners! Have you seen the recent thread re-assisted suicide? there were posts ref Living Wills on there too. Michelle x
I have one of those or a living will or DNR I suppose there all the same thing I hope never to use it but I just want peace of mind I’m pretty good with my MS now but if it ever progressed to the stage where things got that bad at least I wouldn’t be brought back for more suffering and it was my choice now I’m sound of mind and able to do something about it.
I remember my neuro saying that was a really brave thing to do the amount of times doctors are standing round a bedside knowing in there heart of hearts theres no hope or quailty of life if the person is kept alive or brought back there would only be suffering but the person isn’t able to speak for themselves and the family want them to do all they can to keep the person alive even if theres no hope and the persons like a vegetable.
As I said I hope never to get to that stage where it would have to be used but just knowing its there is one less thing I don’t have to think about.
Thank you for your advise,everybody. Mark you have mentioned exactly what I was thinking & that was the reason why I wanted to do an advanced directive, because noboby wih ms knows how their disease will progress & I would not want to be bought back if I had a cardiac arrest if I was in a vegative state & unable to speak for myself.Therefore whilst I am able to make my wishes clear I will do that.
My advice is see a solicitor asap. Yes, it’s a bit expensive but well worth the cost as it will give you total piece of mind.
I have a will, a living will and also a Lasting Power of Attorney on standy in case I should become unable to handle my finances.
The LPA is vital but I don’t think many people have heard much about it - I have heard cases of people that have become unable to handle their finance, property, etc, but because they haven’t got an LPA, their wife/husband has not been able to access their bank accounts, sell their house, etc, etc. The Court of Protection is brought in to act on behalf of the incapacitated person and it all gets very messy!
A solicitor can give you all the facts in 20 mins rather than fumbling around in the dark on Google!
I am in the process of setting up a LPA for my elderly father who lives with us, is 82 and is obviously (but not officially) in the early stages of dementia. It means that I can act on his behalf with regards to all his financial affairs etc if he becomes incapable of making decisions himself. I am also going to do a similar thing (sorry, not quite sure what it’s called, but the solicitor suggested it) with regards to his medical care, so I will have authority to make decisions regarding his personal/medical care if he can no longer make those decisions for himself.
Having read this and the other similar thread, I am definitely going to speak to the solicitor about something similar for myself, too. Although I’m not dx, but health is definitely deteriorating, so it would be peace of mind to know there was something in place so everyone knew my wishes.
Hello everyone i have just logged in again, after doing the original post on 29th june and would just like to say i have been doing some research & these further replies has made it clearer & helped me a lot.