March 27, 2024

Episode 55: Demystifying Death with Hospice Nurse Julie & Katie Coleman

59 minutes

In this episode, we embark on a profound exploration of death with the help of two remarkable individuals. Katie Coleman bravely shares her experience as a survivor of Stage IV liver cancer, a path fraught with uncertainty and a lack of available information. Julie McFadden is a hospice nurse whose daily encounters with death provide unique insights. She educates online audiences about various topics surrounding death. Join us as we unpack the mystery surrounding death: the process, the taboos, doctor and patient relationships, and more.

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Key Highlights:

The transition from fear to acceptance of death involves acknowledging and expressing those fears and getting educated about the dying process.

End-of-life experiences can be peaceful and meaningful, providing comfort and solace to both patients and their loved ones.

Honest conversations about the dying process are crucial for patients and their families. The fear of death can skew decision making, particularly in the context of terminal illness, but having the full picture can help patients better understand all of their options.

About our guests:

Julie McFadden, BSN, RN, has been a nurse for 15 years. Julie is an experienced ICU, and now hospice/palliative nurse. Julie has been passionate about normalizing death through education to the masses using social media. She has been featured in Newsweek, USA today, The Atlantic, and several other articles worldwide. Her TikTok has 1.4M followers, and you can find her on all social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) at Hospice Nurse Julie. Julie’s new book is coming out in June: Nothing To Fear.

Katie Coleman is a patient advocate who was diagnosed with a rare stage IV kidney cancer in Dec 2020, at the age of 29. She has shared her diagnosis publicly on social media to spread awareness and to advocate for others with kidney cancer and rare diseases. Since being diagnosed, she has also founded a non-profit, started a podcast and is publishing an upcoming memoir, which you can preorder here. You can find her on social media here: TikTok, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter).

Key Moments:

At 09:34 “Not only am I now dealing with the crippling anxiety of death and dying, but now I'm also dealing with the crippling anxiety of letting people down by even saying and acknowledging those feelings…? But for me, it came from like, first I was terrified to look into anything. It just felt like I was doing something wrong by trying to investigate what it was like to die. But then once I got over that, where I personally found a lot of peace when I started hearing about near death experiences and end of life visions that Julie often talks about.”

At 22:02 “All I know is in watching people die a natural death, people need to know about this. People need to know about what it looks like and what happens to our bodies because it's not as scary as we think. And then when I think of my own mortality and I think about if I got diagnosed with something terminal tomorrow, I'm still human. I'm gonna have all the feelings, anger, sadness, scared. I'm still gonna be scared, but I also know that my body will take care of me.”

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard, or delay in obtaining, medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

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