Speaker – Terminal Illness | Death | Dying Process

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”

Isaac Asimov

Sally Deane Norton is a compelling speaker in the Florida area who hopes to help people with Transitional Navigation: the term she prefers to use when talking about navigating everything that comes with terminal illness, death, and the dying process. Sally uses humor, sincerity, and insight to bring light to an often dark and heavy topic.

There is so much that people often don’t know how to handle or take care of when it comes to Transitional Navigation: the term Sally prefers to use when talking about navigating everything that comes with terminal illness, death, and the dying process. Sally has a lifetime of experiences and knowledge that she hopes to share with those who need it in order to live a full life even with a chronic illness.

Sally’s guidance focuses on helping people to work through the difficult processes and decisions right away in order to get back to more important things like living a happy life and spending time with those you care about. After the transitioning of some of her own loved ones, Sally learned a number of valuable lessons including the importance of grief counseling, organizing important details, and enjoying every moment of your remaining time together.

Sally hopes to share these lessons and her personal experience by speaking for nursing homes, any veteran’s groups or VAs, independent or dependent living communities, and support groups for terminal illnesses. Combining all she’s learned from personal experiences and her time as a nurse in long-term care facilities, Sally can cover a wide range of topics depending on the needs of the audience.

Sally Can Share Her Knowledge on the Following Topics and More:

• The day you find out you have a chronic or terminal illness
• Giving control of the illness to your higher power or god: Seek a minister and other religious figures for answers to spiritual questions
• Preparing for the worst, expecting the best: Get legal, medical, and funerary documents ready in a folder then put it away and enjoy life
• Developing relationships with those you’ll be interacting with often: Know your insurance coverage. Know your pharmacy.
• It’s not always about money: Options are on the table. Stay informed.
• How to talk to your doctor: Keep asking questions, especially regarding your treatment plan
• Asking for help from your spouse, children, family, and friends
• Educating yourself about the latest and greatest treatments: Consider options whether they are local or not
• Getting a mental health counselor to help work through your feelings
• Keeping friends and family up to date on progress
• Treatments and their side effects: You don’t have to be superhuman! Be realistic about your ability to work and handle activities of daily life
• Options for short term/long term disability: Utilizing SSDI or Veterans Administration disability if you’re qualified (Can these help with lifelong treatments or perhaps a cure?)
• Dealing with an anxiety towards getting medical scans
• How to celebrate life events in big ways
• Continuing to live life and enjoy it despite illness
• Palliative care: Medical care for people with serious illnesses intended to improve quality of life for both patient and family
• Failed treatments: What to do when nothing more can be medically done to cure or stop progression of your illness
• Reviewing your last wishes: Taking out your folder of last wishes to discuss them and follow up so that all legal issues are taken care of for the family
• Dealing with anticipatory grief: Helping each other with overwhelming sadness & enjoying the time you have together
• Talking about dying: How to have conversations about dying with your doctor, spouse, children, grandchildren, family members or friends
• Hospice decisions: When is it time to go on hospice care and how to make the right decision
• The process of dying: Both physical and spiritual stages
• Death itself: You are not alone; Taking one last breath; The moment of transitioning
• Grief: Living with the numerous emotions from the loss of a loved one
• Moving on