The theoretical and the now.

My wife and I agreed early on in our journey with Lucas and his disease to forgo any extreme measures to extend his life.  But I wonder if those decisions will all come upon us so gradually as to never seem extreme at the moment. Doctors seem to always advocate the next procedure that will "help".

So far he can not urinate, so we catheterize him.  He can not swallow, so he has a mic-key button in his stomach and we hook him up to a machine for each meal of liquid protein formula.

Neither of those seemed very extreme then or now.  But do only distant possibilities seem extreme?  As we approach them do they all seem necessary, reasonable, responsible, required?
If it becomes time for a machine to help him breathe will we remember we once considered that too extreme?

And you can bet it will be sneakier than that.  At first we'll need a machine just PRN, as needed, to get through a tough cold. And that will be reasonable. But days turn to weeks and does a moment come where you never decided to have a machine do all his breathing but he now seems dependent on it?

All these thoughts are too much like predicting the future and I should know better. But there is also preparing for the future.