Dying Well |  | Author: Ira Byock
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $6.37
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New (26) Used (37) Collectible (4) from $6.37
Seller: lighthouse_media
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 5,153
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 1573226572
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.88
EAN: 9781573226578
ASIN: 1573226572
Publication Date: March 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
On his deathbed, faced with creditors and unpaid bills, Oscar Wilde said despairingly, "I am dying beyond my means!" If only the poor, beleaguered genius had read this book! None of us gets out of here alive, but reading this book will lessen your fear of the ultimate end and give you some guidance about enjoying your life to the fullest right up until your final moment. Do people really enjoy life in the face of death? People do. The stories of individuals in Dr. Byock's book will move and inspire you to change your feelings about the end of your life, and also your feelings about your life in the present.
Product Description
Nobody should have to die in pain. Nobody should have to die alone. This is Ira Byock's dream, and he is dedicating his life to making it come true. "Dying Well" brings readers to the homes and bedsides of families with whom Dr. Byock has worked, telling stories of love and reconciliation in the face of tragedy, pain, and conflict National media publicity. Author lecture tour. Online promo .
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
Helped me when I needed it February 17, 2000
J. Dietsch
72 out of 72 found this review helpful
I'm the kind of person whose eyes start to glaze over if I try to absorb more than a few pages of social science/self help type writing. I was steered to this book when I was helping my mother as she died. I had so little experience with death that I worried about doing the wrong thing. As I read the stories I was drawn in, absorbing each small "message" with each story. One, about a man whose final gift to his family was to allow them to help him as he died, touched me so deeply I read it to my mother in her last days. I wish I'd read this book earlier but I don't think it could ever be too late.
Dignity and Care December 7, 2005
Kirie Pedersen (Brinnon, WA United States)
50 out of 50 found this review helpful
When I was quite young, with a pre-teen stepdaughter, my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was ill for the duration of my stepdaughter's adolescence. I sought vainly for guidance about caring for a loved one whose life is ebbing slowly away. Nobody ever told me a dying person might be angry or might lash out at those with whom he was most close. Now that I've read Dr. Ira Byock's "Dying Well," I understand. According to Dr. Byock, founding member of one of the most extensive hospice and palliative care groups in the United States, those with serious illnesses may lash out from pain, or from a sense that they have lost their dignity, the ability to *do.* Men and women who have devoted their healthy lives to caring more about others than about themselves feel equally angry and often humiliated. Caregivers and patients alike lack vocabulary for the entirely new language--verbal and non-verbal--of dying. Indeed, it may be a language we don't want to learn any more than the seriously ill person wants to face the unknown ahead. From his decades of hospice and palliative care, Ira Byock selects specific family groups to illuminate responses to illness, pain, and death. He details the attitudes, behaviors, and methods to preserve dignity through accurate assessment of discomfort and pain. He shows us how to listen. "Dying well" provides a narrative and vocabulary to ease our linguistic and emotional awkwardness. Byock's book belongs in every medical and home health care facility, counseling office, and home library.
Powerfully honest & deeply human view of death & hospice November 3, 1999
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
As I was struggling through the final months of my mother's life, I stumbled across this inspired book. At some points it was so brutally honest and raw in its assessment of death and hospice issues that I could barely read on, but I felt compelled to. Byock has a rare and valid perspective that deserves discussion--preferably before you are faced with the imminent death of a loved one.
Sensitive presentation June 28, 2000
Patricia Lavins
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Anyone who is or could be a caregiver or patient needs to read this book. A good death is indeed an achievable goal but it is one that requires the active assistance of patient and family if it is to be achieved in this day and age. The medical community does not take the time to present the required information that people need to make informed decisions. This book does the job for them.
The Question & Answer section at the end is worth the price of the book January 23, 2007
Judy K. Underwood (Fort Collins, CO USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
I was overwhelmed with the task of helping my dear friend in the last 11 months of her life. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer and asked me for help to die "a good death." I had no experience in end-of-life issues but wanted to help her in any way I could. I was frequently overwhelmed by it all. Most of the books I found on the topic were too long or too difficult to read during this emotional time. When I found Dr. Ira Byock's book, Dying Well, I finally felt like I had a friend to support me. Each of his stories helped me in a different way. Having this book in my library has served as a valuable resource many times. If you're not up to reading the whole thing, the Question and Answer Section at the end is worth the price of the book.
Judy K. Underwood, Ph.D., Author, Dying: Finding Comfort and Guidance in a Story of a Peaceful Passing, [...]
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
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