When Brittany Maynard told the world last month that she was going to end her own life on November 1, she didn't expect the overwhelming outpour of reactions, both good and bad. She also didn't expect to change her mind.
The 29-year-old suffers from terminal brain cancer and was given six months to live back in April. Her initial concern was that she didn't want to suffer at the end of her life through debilitating seizures and the pain that comes with slowly dying from cancer. Her plan was to end it at a designated time, so everyone can remember her while she's still active and feeling good.
"I still feel good enough and I still have enough joy and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn't seem like the right time right now," she said. "But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker. It's happening each week."
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Earlier this year, Maynard and her husband decided to move from California to Oregon to take advantage of that state's Death With Dignity Act. The 1997 bill allows terminally ill patients to voluntarily end their own lives through the self-administration of lethal medications under supervision of a physician.
But Brittany's change of heart comes at a time when she's still enjoying her life. In fact, she still holds out hope that she may make it through the stage IV glioblastoma multiform cancer. "If all my dreams came true, I would somehow survive this."
In a video released Wednesday, Maynard said that she hasn't made a final decision yet, but wants to prepare her family and friends either way.
"It sounds so cliche, we take things one day at a time, but that's the only way to get through this," Brittany's husband, Dan, comments in the video.
Maynard completed the last item on her bucket list last week: a trip to the Grand Canyon. She says she enjoys taking walks with her husband and her dogs to help giver her "the greatest feelings of health" she has these days.
Since Maynard first announced her plans to end her life, her story has gone viral and she has worked with several life-rights groups, including Compassion & Choices and her own Brittany Maynard Fund.
Maynard still worries that her condition may progress too quickly and she won't be able to plan a peaceful end again, especially after a string of seizures just last week brought her to the hospital and caused her to forget her husband's name momentarily.
Brittany plans her death to happen in her bedroom, surrounded by her husband, mother, step-father, and best friend, but a date has not been set.
