Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

Terry Schiavo was in the news when I had my first major surgery. One
of the options available if you don't have a spouse you can rely on
(or even if you do) is to assign someone the medical power of
attorney. It's better than a living will in that the person has
freedom to act.

I gave this power to my sister who is a nurse and of like mind with me
on end-of-life issues. In the meantime, it also allows her to call the
hospital, should I end up there without her knowing otherwise, and
find out what's going on. Oh, and she can pick up prescriptions for me
if I'm not able to. The new medical privacy act may or may not protect
your privacy, but it sure makes it hard to have friends or family run
errands that involve medical information if you're not able to.

Marie