December 1st, 2010 
judowolf
While I was working for hospice, I visited a new patient and her husband; they were intelligent, the wife was bed bound, and alert.
We introduced ourselves, and began to have the typical first hospice visit conversation, which was a question and answer session. At first, the questions were routine but when we got into the medication portion, they became more pinpoint.
The wife’s diagnosis entered into the conversation followed by the hospice protocol at time of death. I hesitated for a moment when the wife asked what happen to the medication after death.
It dawned on me; the conversation was on two levels – the top level was routine questions, while the second level was leaning toward euthanasia.
When, I changed my replies, they realized I understood what they were talking about and remained on the second level. The conversation placed me in a bad spot, as I was obligated to report any patient contemplating suicide or euthanasia. Even though I never implied this, they picked up on my subtleness and never used those words.
They had been planning this act together for some time, both agreed, and their children knew. The plan involved medication and that explained the questions regarding medications and hospice death protocol.
The conversation turned back to the first level when they received the information they needed and I felt it was not necessary to report them, as subtle conversation are secondary to the main conversation.
Many people miss reading between the lines, which is more important than the words. I was fortunate that day as we were quickly on the same page and protected each other at the same time.
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This is one awesome article.Really thank you! Keep writing.