Microsoft Word Elisabeth Kubler-Ross On Death And Dying doc

 
DOCTOR: You sounded like this friend was a relatively new friend. Did you just move into this 
duplex or did she just move in? 
 
PATIENT: I've known her for about, oh, maybe a year and a half. 
 
DOCTOR: Is that all? Isn't that wonderful. How did you click in such a short time? 
 
PATIENT: Well, I don't know. It's really rather hard to explain. I 
 
(P168) 
 
mean she said all her life she always wanted a sister and in talking I said why I always wanted a 
sister too. I said there were just the two of us, my brother and I, and she said, well, I think we've 
found each other and I think you have a a sister now and so do I. just to have her walk in the room, 
she makes you feel, oh, you just feel good like it's home. 
 
DOCTOR: Did you ever have a sister? 
 
PATIENT: No. just my brother and I. 
 
DOCTOR: You had just one brother. What kind of parents did you have? 
 
PATIENT: Well, my father and mother were divorced when we were very small. 
 
DOCTOR: How small? 
 
PATIENT: I was two and a half and my brother was about three and a half. And we were raised by 
an aunt and uncle. 
 
DOCTOR: How were they? 
 
PATIENT: They were very wonderful to us. 
 
DOCTOR: Who are your real parents? 
 
PATIENT: My mother is still living. She lives here and my father passed away not too long after he 
had been sick and been in the sanitorium. 
 
DOCTOR: Your father died of his tuberculosis? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. 
 
DOCTOR: I see. Whom did you feel closer to? 
 
PATIENT: Well, I mean, like my aunt and uncle, they were really' 
 

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my father and mother. I mean, we were with them from the time we were little. And, I mean, they 
never, they told us they 
 
were an aunt and uncle, but I mean they were like parents to us. 
 
DOCTOR: There's nothing phoney about it. They were honest about it. 
 
PATIENT: Yes, yes. 
 
CHAPLAIN: Are they living? 
 
PATIENT: No. My uncle has been dead for several years. My aunt is still living. She is eighty-five 
years old. 
 
CHAPLAIN: Does she know about your illness? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. 
CHAPLAIN: Do you have much contact with her? `t 
 
PATIENT: Well, yes I do. I mean she doesn't get out too much, she's not too well. Last year she 
had arthritis of the spine and she was in the hospital for quite some time. I didn't know whether she 
would be able to live through that illness or not. She did, and she is doing quite well now. She has 
her own little place, she lives by herself, takes care of herself which I think is wonderful. 
 
DOCTOR: Eighty-four? 
 
PATIENT: Eighty-five. 
 
DOCTOR: How do you make your living? Were you working? 
 
PATIENT: I worked part-time up until the time I came in here. 
 
DOCTOR: In April? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. But my husband gives us so much a week support. 
 
DOCTOR: I see. So you are not dependent on working? 
 
PATIENT: No. 
 
DOCTOR: Your husband has still some contact with you? 
 
PATIENT: Well, he, he sees the boys whenever he wants to and that's always- I always felt 
whenever he wanted to see them that it was up to him. He lives in the same town as I do. 
 
DOCTOR: Um hm. Is he married again? 
 

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PATIENT: Yes, he's married. He was remarried, oh, perhaps a year or so after he left. 
 
DOCTOR: Does he know about your illness? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. 
 
DOCTOR: How much does he know? 
 
PATIENT: Ab, I don't know really, I mean, nothing but perhaps what the boys have told him. 
 
DOCTOR: You don't verbally communicate with him. 
 
PATIENT: No. 
 
DOCTOR: I see. You haven't seen him then personally? 
 
PATIENT: Not to talk to him. I don't-no. 
 
DOCTOR: What kind of parts of your body are involved now with this malignancy? 
 
PATIENT: Well, it's this tumor here and this spot on the liver. And then I had this large tumor on 
my leg that had eaten most of the bone away and so they inserted that pin in my leg. 
 
DOCTOR: That was in the spring or summer? 
 
(P170) 
 
PATIENT: In July. And then I also have that tumor on my ovary which is questionable-though you 
see they have as yet to find out where it started. 
 
DOCTOR: Yes. They know it's in different places now but they don't know where the original 
came from. Yes. What's the worse part about having such a malignancy for you? How much does it 
interfere with your normal life and activities? You can't walk, for example, can you? 
 
PATIENT: No. Only with crutches. 
 
DOCTOR: You can walk around in the house with crutches? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. But as far as doing, say your cooking and your housework, you are very limited. 
 
DOCTOR: What else does it do to you? 
 
PATIENT: Well, I really don't know. 
 
DOCTOR: I thought you said upstairs that you had lots of pain. 
 
PATIENT: I do. 

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DOCTOR: Yes. Do you still have that? 
 
PATIENT: Um hm. I think after so many months you rather learn to live with it, I mean, when it 
gets so bad you can't stand it and you ask for something. But I never was one that cared to take any 
medicine. 
 
DOCTOR: Mrs. S. impresses me as one who will take a lot of pain, until she says something. Like 
she waits a long time and sees the tumor grow before she sees the doctor. 
 
PATIENT: That's always been my biggest trouble. 
 
DOCTOR: Are you difficult for the nurses? Do you tell them when you need something? What 
kind of a patient are you, do you know? 
 
PATIENT: I think you had better ask the nurses that. (Jokingly) 
 
CHAPLAIN: Oh, that's easy, but we are interested in how you feel. 
 
PATIENT: Oh, I don't know. I, I think I can get along with anyone. 
 
DOCTOR: Ab ha. I think so. But maybe you don't ask enough. 
 
PATIENT: I don't ask any more than I have to. 
 
DOCTOR: How come? 
 
PATIENT: I really don't know. I mean, different people are different You see, I always was happy 
when I could take care of myself, do my own housework, and do things for the boys. That is what 
bothers me the most. That I feel that someone else has to take care of me now. That is very hard for 
me to accept. 
 
DOCTOR: Is getting more sick the worst part of it? Would be not being able to give to others? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. 
 
DOCTOR: How else could you give to others without being physically active? 
 
PATIENT: Well, you can remember them in your prayers. 
 
DOCTOR: Or what you are doing here right now? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. 
 
DOCTOR: Do you think that's going to help some other patient? 
 
PATIENT: Yes. I think it does. I hope it does. 

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