Posted on 09/11/2025 3:43:14 PM PDT by Leaning Right
Steve Buscemi is known best for his acting, but before he was on the big screen he played a real life role as a hero as a New York Firefighter. The drive to save lives remained in his blood as “The Big Lebowski” actor quietly returned to the FDNY after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Steve Buscemi is a great actor, but the role he played after 9/11 is the one we should remember and celebrate most.
(Excerpt) Read more at themix.net ...
LOL!!At my age, I'd rather snuggle with a pet than a human.
Got so wrapped up in the puppies, that I forgot to comment on your Mom’s hospice care treatment. You mentioned they gave her morphine when she had no apparent pain. It reminded me of the death of King George V of Britain who died in 1936. It was discovered in 1986, that his doctor, Lord Dawson who died in 1945, likely hastened his death by injecting a ‘mixture of morphine and cocaine to the monarch who was on his deathbed.
Rack time at my place includes 3 pups (Rat Terrier, Dachshund, Jack Russell Terrier) finding a spot to settle. The pups migrate between me, my wife and just an open spot on the bed. They are good citizens when it is time to sleep. Once the sun is up, they wait for evidence of "stirring". Once that occurs, the Dachshund is resting her muzzle on my face. The Jack Russell is giving my ear a good wash and the Rat Terrier is sitting up to demand a belly rub. The Chihuahua sleeps under the bed. The Border Collie picks different places to "guard the cave".
Regarding hospice, I've detected an attitude from some of them that they are doing the customer a service to drive them to the cemetery faster with morphine whether they need it or not. It is a disturbing sense of self-righteousness. I hope to never be in their "care". The abdominal aortic aneurysm tends to be a very quick event when it blows. My hope is that I'm not operating a motor vehicle that puts anyone else in harm's way.
She had a UTI which they couldn't treat because she was in hospice care. The nurse administrator wanted to put a catheter in her so she wouldn't keep wetting the bed, and have to be moved around constantly to change the bed, and her nightgown. My sister was still a bit conscious, and fought them whenever they tried to put one in. That procedure is much easier if the person is relaxed. The Administrator asked me what I thought they should do. I told them to knock her out, which meant giving her slightly more of the Lorazepam to put her asleep. They did that, and easily put the catheter in. It was in until she passed. They never gave her any other medication but the Lorazepam when it was needed. The last week of her life, she wasn't awake or moving around, took no fluids, and had already stopped eating anything at least the week before. Her illness was the first and only time I've dealt with hospice care. All my other family members passed in hospitals.
There is definitely a place for palliative meds in the hospice phase. Many people are definitely in pain. That is a justifiable use of morphine.
I agree. I met my closest friend back in the mid 70's while I was still married. We moved into the bottom flat of a house right next door to them. When I met her, she was pregnant with her third child. She'd been a smoker her whole life, and was diagnosed with COPD about 10 years ago. It gradually got worse. Her husband had contracted a rare case of cancer of the larynx and pharynx about 8 years ago. He went through lengthy radiation and chemo treatments. She had to feed him through a feeding port, which literally saved his life. He lost weight, but not as much if she hadn't been so strict about feeding him as often as she could. He is a cancer survivor.
When Covid showed up, because of his compromised immune system, he insisted they get the Covid shots. He also kept just about everyone away from the house during the lockdown, even limiting visits from their own kids. I got a call from her daughter the first week of June that her mother was in the hospital, that she'd contracted Covid, been bad for three weeks. It damaged her lungs even more, and there was nothing more they could do for her. I saw her in the hospital before they moved her to hospice. At the same time, my youngest son was in the hospital with his a-fib and heart shock, so I didn't get to see her again before she passed. At the hospital, they were giving her breathing treatments, and regularly giving her morphine to help her breathing. It definitely calmed her down and kept the coughing at bay.
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