Unit 7 Discussion– Defining Death & Dying April 20, 2022 The experiences that I have had with my grandmother passing away. My whole family and I watch my grandmother decline very fast. My sister and I were the ones who helped to take care of her and make her as comfortable as we could. She went from sitÝng in her chair and talking and laughing with us to the next week saying she was just giving up. She can't do it anymore. She wants to be with her son, mother, and father. For the next week, bound in the bed, we could only flip her side to side to clean her and change her. Followed by hospice coming in the week after. The second we heard that the doctor would start her on Morphine, we knew that we only had a few days left to spend with her. The phone calls went out to the family, and the next thing you know, we had the whole family at my mother's house. I will never forget that day I was working, and I had this feeling come over me. I had this feeling for a minute that something was not right, like I was confused or had lost something. Within seconds my phone rings, and I see the picture of my mother pop up. Before I even answered the phone, I started crying. I already knew she was gone. My whole life felt like it was over. I just lost my best friend, my Nana, who was just like a mother to me. I did not want to believe it; I did not want to lose her. My poor grandfather was so lost she was his world he did everything he could for her. I knew I had to be strong for my kids and my family specialty for my grandfather. I was their first granddaughter, and my grandfather would not lesson to anyone but me, so I had to pull myself together and tell myself don't be selfish. I knew she was in a better place now; she was not suffering anymore. She was not in pain, not struggling to breathe. She was free of suffering, and I had to tell my grandfather that repeatedly. The hardest part for me is I had to be so strong for my family that I have yet been able to grieve myself. I cry every day when I am alone. I fight back my tears when my youngest daughter has those moments when she suddenly starts to cry and says I miss Nana. My grandmother passed away on her 80th birthday in November of 2020, and a year later, in the middle of December 2021, I lost my 23-year-old cousin to COVID. That turned into him being put into an induced coma. He finial was getÝng better and was awake, still on the ventilator. We are now at four weeks in the hospital, and they decided to put a feeding tube in. Everything was going great. My aunt got a phone call, and the feeding tubes perforated his bowel, and it was not caught in time. My cousin is now in septic shock. The hospital has used every source they could to try and save him. It was time for my aunt and uncle to make the hardest discission no parents wanted to make. To take him off the ventilator, and within seconds he was gone. I could not even begin to imagine how they felt inside. Just writing this, I am filled with emotions and crying. Neath to say the last two years have not been the best for me, but I did make a promise to my grandmother, and that was to finish nursing school no matter what it takes. I intend to fulfill that promise and make her proud!