End of Life Issues

Back in the early 90s my wife had a similar discussion. Neither of us wanted prolonged "extraordinary" measures, tubes and wires, prolonging our lives in some sort of vegetative state. We had living wills / advanced directives written out. Copies of those are in the hands of our medical providers, local hospitals, family members. There are also copies in each of our vehicles. My wife even made an audio tape to support the written docs.

Even with all that there is a possibility that the "health" providers will balk at the end, but we've done what we could.

In addition to my wife I had a personal conversation w/ my son about how to know when I "want to go." A few simple puzzles to present to me as a "test" to see if my mind was working. If I didn't answer correctly it meant either I was not mentally aware enough that I wanted to stick around OR I was aware and my failure to answer was an intentional signal "goodbye."