by admin | May 27, 2015 | Bereavement, Caregiving, End-of-life care, Hospice, Uncategorized, Veterans, Volunteering
It may surprise many people to learn that 25 percent of those who die every year in the U.S. are veterans. The nation is seeing many of the veterans who served in World War II and Korea pass away, and the number of deaths of Vietnam veterans is beginning to rise. To...
by admin | Apr 21, 2015 | Being Present, Uncategorized
The previous three weeks had been hard ones. We’d gone too many miles on not enough gallons and even little comforts had been few and far between. A year-and-a-half into our travels, we were quite used to basic accommodations: small beds, lumpy mattresses, sheets...
by admin | Apr 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
Madison Irby knows all too well about loss. Her father died in a car accident when she was six years old. Her mother remembers those first terrible years — the grief, the isolation, the hiding in the house on father’s day. When Madison was 12, her mother...
by admin | Mar 12, 2015 | Fundraising, Hospice, Uncategorized
It was a nail-biting finish. Amplify Austin’s goal this year for its 24-hour online giving festival was to raise $7 million for over 500 nonprofits. Hospice Austin set the lofty goal of raising $250,000 in online donations. That goal was so lofty, in fact, that we...
by admin | Feb 26, 2015 | Hospice, Volunteering
Hi friends, the countdown to Amplify Austin is on and we need more secret agents to join our elite mission! For a fun Hospice Austin video we put together for Amplify Austin, the city-wide online giving festival on March 5-6, please click here. Our theme for this...
by admin | Feb 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
Twenty-nine-year-old Brittany Maynard ended her life on November 1, 2014 with a lethal dosage of prescribed drugs. Her incurable illness was a tragedy. Her candor and willingness to share her final days with the public were acts of courage which illustrate the need to...
by admin | Nov 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
Jason Michael Bryant hates cancer. Doesn’t matter which kind, he hates them all. Unfortunately, he’s something of an expert – both his mother and stepfather died of the disease within six months of each other. Now, Jason is on a mission to inspire others. The...
by admin | Aug 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
By Johnson Wu, DO Austin Family Medicine Resident A recent CBC News story showcased a research study conducted by Harvard Medical School and Cornell Medical College that examined what happens to patients who received palliative chemotherapy. Palliative chemotherapy is...
by admin | May 23, 2014 | Uncategorized
The whole point of having the bicycles was to bike Belize. And the whole point of biking Belize was to get an up-close look at that beautiful country. So in early November (1989) we stored as much gear as possible at our hotel in Merida, Mexico; loaded ourselves and...
by admin | Apr 29, 2014 | Being Present, Caregiving, Hospice, Volunteering
As soon as I saw the expression on the faces of the staff at Doug’s House, I knew something was wrong. Our patient, Mr. Smith,* they told me, was not feeling well and would be going to the hospital. He would have to miss the concert that had been arranged especially...
