It has come to my attention, that often times, we worry that if we were to discuss a poor prognosis or terminal condition, we feel hesitant because we worry that by being upfront we are taking the patient’s hope away.

Is that a thing? If a patient wants to know the prognosis and you know the prognosis, do you think sharing that information would harm the patient?

Another way to think about it is that if that was you, would you want to know? If your doctor knew, even with some rough estimate and an accuracy that was around 4-6 months time frame, would you want to know?

Would you want to make plans to do one thing or another?

Would you get going on the bucket list items? Sooner rather than later. Maybe Machu Picchu won’t be in the plans if you will be too short of breath in the end. Shouldn’t you plan on going now rather than later?

I think what I am trying to get at is that I would want to know. If I knew I may have different plans for my months ahead. Maybe those plans would include chemo and radiation. Maybe not.

We can’t possibly assume to know what a patient wants without asking. We certainly cannot ask without giving realistic expectations. Not a hope. A hope that the cancer would be gone altogether.

While it is powerful to have hope. I’m here to tell you that it is as powerful to have plans so that you will have a nice soft landing at the end.