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Living, in Limbo

hintjens.com

41–50 of 75 posts

Re: Living, in Limbo

#41

Surprisingly strong opinions on world politics, without much evidence. I have the utmost sympathy for the plight of the chronically ill, but to decree a referendum result as "madness" is slightly egotistical. Perhaps those who are outraged by world events merely don't see the full picture? Perhaps their protective shells work too well, and they are insulated from the reality with which the masses must contend? Worth…

A substantial proportion of people living in the UK also see it as madness, so I don't know why you think it is a "surprisingly strong opinion". It seems like a pretty average opinion from here.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#42
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish you strength and courage. Spend time with your mom and tell her how much you love her, every chance you get. My own cancer is of the bile duct, spread to my lungs after five years' silence. I've accepted as fact that it's terminal, there is only "when", no "if". And even "when" is out of my hands, it's down to unreadable factors in my DNA and environment.

I wish you strength and courage too. My wife was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor (had no idea until I woke up to her having a seizure in bed next to me) and my previous world, all our plans, have shattered. The horrible thing about brain cancer is that radiation degrades you mentally very quickly. So we are thinking of opting for chemo only for now. Hoping that the quality vs quantity of life trade-off is worth…

There's a world outside the bay area, even in technology, and it's a lot less expensive.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#43
I remember the shortness of breath during my chemo. It wasn't lung cancer so it might be linked to the effects of the chemicals you get every other week.

The red blood cells being wiped over and over when the Chemo destroys everything probably leads to a worse oxygenation.

Wish you a good holiday, enjoy some good wine over there while you're at it!

Re: Living, in Limbo

#44
post #36
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regrets on deathbeds are kind of a myth. Most people did actually make the conscious choices throughout their lives not to do the things they regret when things are over. So i would not give it too much credence unless their life is cut very short when they barely had a chance to do anything.

I honestly don't see what you mean by myth. A choice being conscious doesn't mean it was optimal.

You are exactly who you wanted to be. But sometimes that is not who you want to be. Or worse, who you hoped to be.

Hindsight, thou art a heartless bitch.

;)

Re: Living, in Limbo

#45
I can only hope to face death like you are doing, without the drama, being realistic but not losing hope, being pragmatic and having the courage to keep enjoing life with your family.

Thank you.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#46
post #3

The proximity of death turns many people philosophical. I like reading what people think when looking at life from that perspective. I also enjoyed reading an article which was posted in HN some years ago, about the more common regrets of people on their deathbeds: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-fiv...

"The proximity of death turns many people philosophical."

If philosophical means questioning things, yes. It also hints at being in the moment. Too often life is seen from auto-pilot. Death, being near it, seeing it, makes this change obvious. We'll all experience death in our on way. @PieterH does us all a favour here writing about this. Take a moment to reflect about this post and what it means to you. Thx @PieterH.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#47
post #3

The proximity of death turns many people philosophical. I like reading what people think when looking at life from that perspective. I also enjoyed reading an article which was posted in HN some years ago, about the more common regrets of people on their deathbeds: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-fiv...

Personally, that behaviour strikes me most. Why, only on the edge of dying, people suddenly becomes "philosophical" and aware of their life and surroundings? Yet, it's obvious for all of us, that everyone now living will be dead after several decades. And no one seems to be really caring. For whatever reason people express strong grief about dead or soon-to-be-dead in the manner, that they by themselves will never ev…

"Why, only on the edge of dying, people suddenly becomes "philosophical" and aware of their life and surroundings?"

In death, clarity comes from limited options.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#48

> Lesson is: take your medicine. It may hurt, yet the alternative will hurt more. There is something I've recently realized. Hospitals are optimized to receive patients, control the situation, prevent pain & death, and then hope for the best. In other words, traditional medicine doesn't actually heal you . It only controls the situation, and trusts that your body will heal itself. This was a strange realization to ma…

This issue is, from what I've gathered, fairly recent, and amounts to what some would call a crisis in psychiatry; there's a strong incentive for drug makers to prefer a repeating, temporary solution over a permanent one. Even if a permanent drug was researched, tested, and approved, it would be hard to come by because it would basically be a net loss for the company. However, it remains to be seen how viable "actual…

Patents last 20 years.

If any company, today, cured major depression with a drug, it would be making essentially monopoly profits for at least five, while analogs were found, at at most until 2036.

I come from a cognitive/social psychology background; it is mostly social psychology that has a replication crisis. Double-blind drug trials, even with psychiatric drugs, are usually fairly well done. (That doesn't mean the theory behind these drugs is necessarily sound, and in fact we're learning that a large class of drugs, SSRIs, may only provide a primary effect along a previously though auxiliary axis).

It seems hard to argue that any alternative medicine field is as productive or as effective, empirically speaking, as the drug companies. They have huge incentive to win big and they go for it all the time. In the US they can sway things a little with ads, but only after they get past our admittedly corrupt regulatory gatekeepers, and only in that market. A cure for major depression alone would be 7-20 years of guaranteed monopoly profits. There is not a drug company in the world that would keep pressing SSRIs if that sort of treatment was available. The brand loyalty alone would be well worth it.

This isn't to argue against anything, really, except that psychiatric drug manufacturers have incentive not to produce cures. They assuredly do.

Re: Living, in Limbo

#50

> Lesson is: take your medicine. It may hurt, yet the alternative will hurt more. There is something I've recently realized. Hospitals are optimized to receive patients, control the situation, prevent pain & death, and then hope for the best. In other words, traditional medicine doesn't actually heal you . It only controls the situation, and trusts that your body will heal itself. This was a strange realization to ma…

> But now I see that, although very useful, medicine only serves as a band-aid.

Well if only! Much of modern medicine unfortunately are "symptom-suppressors" (pain-killers, antihistamines, fever prevention, blood-pressure/blood-sugar 'regulators', cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-fungals etc) of deeper underlying health issues --- true "band-aid" medicine is/would be a step forward if you think about it: if we get wounded or break a bone, real band-aids don't "heal" but assist and speed the body's built-in healing capabilities. And as the alternative folks say, nothing can heal any ailment but the body itself: the "best"/most proven medicine does seem to "merely" improve the milieu/environment in which the body attempts to self-heal: that's true for antibiotics (kill off most of the bad guys so ideally the good guys are now in better balance to "self-heal": finish off the rest), vaccines (prime the immune system for "self-healing": fighting off a future infection), antiseptics etc. --- many of which were 'evolved' from traditional (herbal etc) treatments/insights over centuries isolated into "works for most with the least side-effects" pharmaceuticals.

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