The Vermont Select Board Un-Candidate #4

Brattleboro 4/17/17
     After talking to some friends at McDonald's yesterday about my panic attacks in meetings, I learned that one person used to dig her nails into the palms of her hand so the pain would divert her from an attack. Another woman took Zoloft.
Accordingly, I called my doctor and talked to her aide about trying Xanax right before a meeting to see if it helped and also to see how it interacted with the anti-depressants, Paxil and Mirtazapine, that I already take. She will call me back.
     From there, I went to the River Garden which hosts a presentation every weekday at noon. You can bring food and eat, but nobody does, I hear. This is a great community service. The presentation was about your Advanced Directive, if you want to make one. The presenter was Suzanne Weinburg. She was a slim, attractive woman who kept her glasses on top of her head. She was very articulate, professional, yet warm.
     I wanted to learn what the Advanced Directive was about, and the problems with it. I learned that you might specify no heroics in your Advanced Directive (AD) but if you are unconscious or maybe even if you aren't, your AD may not be observed in some hospitals, and the doctors will do whatever they can to revive you. Also your AD doesn't apply with the EMTs in the ambulance: they will do whatever they can to revive you. Another important thing Suzanne brought out was to keep your AD agent up to date on what you want, rather don't want done on you. You don't want to be lying in bed during a medical emergency, not being able to say anything, but able to hear your agent tell the doctor not to do heroic measures, when you have decided you want to live at any cost but had forgotten to tell your agent about your change of mind. Get the  picture?
    This was an informal, friendly group in a beautiful, wide-open space with gracious people everywhere so even I felt no problems with panic.
peternickerson12@yahoo.com   352-359-0850  Philosophy Major, '68
If I can be of help, or you want to discuss something, please feel free to contact me. Those are two reasons I'm un-running.