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Why Decide About Flexibility
Why Deciding About Flexibility Is Important
It is hard to predict everything that may happen in the future.
If you cannot make your own decisions, your medical decision maker may be asked by doctors to:
make decisions you have never talked about before
or, change your prior decisions because something else is better for you
What is flexibility for your medical decision maker?
Flexibility allows your decision maker to change your prior decisions if doctors think something else is better for you at that time.
See Why Deciding About Flexibility Is Important
Click the video to learn more. Your situation may be different.
Time: 0:52
Video Transcript
Helen: Before my husband’s Alzheimer’s and memory got really bad, he told me he never wanted to go to a nursing home. But then he had a terrible stroke. I couldn’t lift him out of bed or pick him up when he fell. We couldn’t afford to have someone help out in the home. It was very hard, but the doctors and I agreed that he would be safest in a nursing home. So, that’s what we did.
Before he died, I was able to visit him every day and I know he got much better care there. I think I made the right decision, but I just wish my husband and I had talked about whether it was OK for me to change some of his decisions and to do what I thought was best for him. Then the decision to send him to a nursing home wouldn’t have been so hard for me. I don’t think I'd feel so guilty.