Dear Dr. Gott: I read your column religiously and enjoy it very much. I was especially fascinated by the series on end-of-life issues. At 80 years of age, I am not afraid of death, but I am petrified at the possibility of terminal suffering and wish that more doctors were interested in comfort and dignity for their terminal patients. I just hope and pray that, at the end, I’ll have a caring a compassionate physician.

My husband died at home three years ago of advanced melanoma. He had surgery and chemotherapy and was alert and pain-free at the end. He simply looked up at me one day (while I was holding his hand) and stopped breathing.

Dear Reader: Amen to what you wrote.

As one of my cancer patients put it: “I don’t mind the dying, Doc; it’s the getting there that’s rough.”

I have never forgotten that comment, which I heard the first year I was in practice almost 40 years ago, and it has helped me enormously in developing an attitude of caring about patients’ quality of death, as well as their quality of life.

Doctors don’t have to engage in assisted suicide to accomplish this goal. But they do have to commit themselves to making terminal patients as comfortable and pain-free as possible.

Because you are interested in this topic, I am sending you a copy of my brand-new book, “Live Longer, Live Better,” which addresses end-of-life issues as well as an extensive collection of diseases that can affect us in the “over 50” set. Other readers who would like to purchase copies can order them through Quill Driver Books ( www.quilldriverbooks.com); (800) 605-7176; 1831 Industrial Way, Suite 101, Sanger, CA 93657.

Dear Dr. Gott: I am a 64-year-old male with a heart-strain because of emphysema. Along with several other medications, I take Coumadin to prevent a stroke.

Next year, I will go on Medicare and will no longer have private insurance to cover the cost of prescriptions. This will be a real financial burden, so I need to cut back. For instance, could I take Coumadin every other day and alternate with aspirin?

Dear Reader: Warfarin (generic Coumadin) is quite inexpensive, so I suggest that you check with your doctor about modifying your other meds, which are more expensive. Cutting your dosage of Coumadin will probably severely hamper its effectiveness, with or without aspirin. So, from a health standpoint, you will do better by focusing on your other drugs. Raise this issue with your physician and follow his advice.