At the moment my thinking is that I'd like to die in a hospice or in a community hospital. I want to spend as little time in the Tower Block at Gloucester Royal Hospital as possible, and I am going to create an advance directive to give that some legal power. It's important that you understand that I wish this, even if it hastens my death. I find being in the Tower Block, especially wards 5a and 5b, to be really very challenging and distressing.
If I am in the tower block it is important that I have an eye mask, and that I have my phone and charger and cable, and that I have my Kindle Fire and cable, and that I have my three MP3 playing devices - my Astell & Kern, my Samsung mini phone, and my Sansa device and the SD cards that go with it. I will need my blue sony headphones!!
If I'm in the tower block I need you to tell them that for breakfast I want two slices of white toast with one pat of butter and either one tub of marmalade or one tub of marmite. This is because the food for the rest of the day is pig disgusting slop and is mostly inedible, so I end up living on orange juice and yoghurt and sandwiches. If you buy food: please listen to what I'm asking for, especially around quantity. It's pointless buying more food than I ask for - there's nowhere to store it, it goes off, I don't eat it, it gets thrown away, and it causes me stress. Please do not buy more than I ask for. Storage space in hospital is VERY LIMITED.
When I'm in hospital it's useful if someone can take my clothing for washing and drying. It really boosts my mood if I have clean fresh t-shirts and pants and socks and pyjamas.
I am in the process of getting my will written.
I don't care what happens to my body when I die. I'll be speaking to Albie to find out what he thinks.
It is very very important to me that Albie has some say over how my funeral / wake / etc is run. It may be that we need two wakes - a quiet celebration that Albs can take part in and a wilder one in the evening for raucous people. I personally do not have a preference for what type of funeral you have. I don't have much preference for what happens to any remains. I will be speaking to Albs about this over the next couple of months and I'll let you know.
I would like it if people that I work with could be told about my death, and maybe invited to some kind of celebration, although this will be very difficult to do, because the NHS is on its knees and no-one will have availability. You may need to do it via MS Teams which is ... something. But some kind of "We liked working with Dan, he kept us on our toes" keepsake book might help Albs see that I did useful stuff that helped keep vulnerable patients safe, even though I didn't talk about it much.
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