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I’m a hospice nurse – here’s what it’s really like when you’re dying and why you shouldn’t be scared
THINKING about death can be frightening.
Many people have watched their loved ones slip away due to illness or injury, making it hard to think about your own demise.
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Now one hospice nurse has revealed what it's really like when you're dying and why you shouldn't be afraid.
Taking to TikTok nurse said she had witnessed 'thousands of deaths' and has pinpointed the main things she has learned.
She said the first thing people need to know, that when it comes to end of life care, people start to sleep way more than usual.
"Like 18 to 20 hours a day.
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"Almost everybody will start decreasing food and water, and by the actively dying phase, which is around a few hours to a few days, they wont be taking any food or water in.
"I'd say more than half start seeing dead relatives, dead loved ones, dead pets."
She added that this isn't scary to them and is actually comforting.
Nurse Julie said that around one third of patients will also experience the 'rally or the surge'.
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"This is where they get a surge of energy before they die.
"During the actively dying stage, patients will have changes in breathing, changes in skin colour and changes in temperature.
"They usually have their mouths open and their eyes open but not making eye contact," she added.
While most people will be scared of the end of life process, nurse Julie said that it's actually very natural and very peaceful.
She added that you might feel comfort after knowing these things, and said that the body is 'biologically programmed to die and to look after ourselves'.
In posted to TikTok, nurse Julie also said that she doesn't fear death any more.
This she said, is because she feels reassured that 'her version of god' or a higher power is helping her through life.
In previous videos the expert has commented on how it can be peaceful when people pass into death.
She said that when she journals, she sometimes hears herself back, with this higher power telling her there is 'nothing to fear'.
Nurse Julie said that she sometimes feels as though she goes to a place of 'expandedness'.
"I believe this is where we go when we die," she added.
Nurse Julie previously revealed how she helps guide her terminally ill patients during their final days.
She also said that another sign that your loved one is about to die, is the death stare.
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The term, which the expert coined herself, refers to when a "loved ones seemingly stares beyond you, or stares into the corner of the room or up to the ceiling,
"Sometimes they talk and say they see something but other times they will just stare," she explained.
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