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Leukemia Has Won

alex.blog

101–110 of 196 posts

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#101
post #18

Jeeeesus. I'm incapable of understanding the mindset the man is in - total awareness of impending death. It must take tremendous courage - I think I would have been reduced to a quaking pile of jelly faced with the fact of mortality. What a person, what a reality.

I mean, your death is impending too.

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#103
post #18

Jeeeesus. I'm incapable of understanding the mindset the man is in - total awareness of impending death. It must take tremendous courage - I think I would have been reduced to a quaking pile of jelly faced with the fact of mortality. What a person, what a reality.

> I'm incapable of understanding the mindset the man is in - total awareness of impending death.

Seriously? Every human being on Earth over a toddler's age is totally aware of impending death. To date nobody has ever lived forever. The only question, for every human being, cancer or no, is how many years you get before you eventually die.

Modern man just makes my head shake in disbelief sometimes...

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#104
post #59

From someone who's been dealing with cancer for the last 6 years, I hate when people compare it to a fight/war/battle with winners and losers. What exactly am I fighting? My cells? How exactly am I going to war? by sitting in a chair eating a sandwich while getting a chemo infusion? In my mind, this was always just a disease to manage. Being diagnosed at 33 with no family history or no genetic markers the only thing…

I think many don’t think of cancer cells as their cells. They’re not supporting life anymore so they don’t belong, and it’s important to get rid of them. Plus the immune system is often (not often enough) destroying the cancer(ous) cells which further indicates that they don’t belong. So it’s the rest of the cells vs the cancer cells.

It’s good that you’re trying to make the most of everyday. Best wishes.

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#105
post #15

As a human it makes me so sad to read this post. I hope the rest of his life is meaningful, comfortable and pain-free. As a doctor it makes me so mad. We talk about winning and losing against cancer like its some game or some foe personified. Just because there aren't any more chemo therapy options doesn't mean there aren't treatment options. Just because he'll be home and not in the hospital doesn't mean his doctors…

Bloody hell.

It's his announcement. If he feels it is a battle he has lost, well I can fully understand why, I'm not going to criticise his choice of word.

Only the title and first sentence contain an expression you heavy handedly dislike. I don't see him ruling out palliative care, or any of the other criticisms you level. The rest of the short post is a poignant summary and thanks. It's disappointing, but rather typical of HN, that the top comment and most of the comments are now around the language of cancer, not Alex, his life or work.

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#106
post #56

Mortality is one of those things that I grow more accustomed to the older I get. I hate it. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about death or things that cause death. Death is everywhere — the news, social media — two things I try to avoid. However, we cannot avoid death. We are all just living to die.

> We are all just living to die.

Pretty sure there's more to it than that, bud. But you know that already of course. Death is a great motivator to live a life with purpose and meaning, for one. Dwelling on mortality can bring a sharp focus to your life. It's a fear that transcends all other fears which may stand in your way.

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#107

My dad had one month and one day from diagnosis ("surprise, you have stage 4 lung cancer") to death. Fuck cancer. Thank you, Alex, for trying to make the world a better place. Open source is a wonderful legacy.

That's awful. My condolences :(

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#109
post #15

As a human it makes me so sad to read this post. I hope the rest of his life is meaningful, comfortable and pain-free. As a doctor it makes me so mad. We talk about winning and losing against cancer like its some game or some foe personified. Just because there aren't any more chemo therapy options doesn't mean there aren't treatment options. Just because he'll be home and not in the hospital doesn't mean his doctors…

Bloody hell. It's his announcement. If he feels it is a battle he has lost, well I can fully understand why, I'm not going to criticise his choice of word. Only the title and first sentence contain an expression you heavy handedly dislike. I don't see him ruling out palliative care, or any of the other criticisms you level. The rest of the short post is a poignant summary and thanks. It's disappointing, but rather ty…

This 100%

Re: Leukemia Has Won

#110
Wow. I read all of his posts marked cancer, and looked at the date stamps...and just kind of lost it at "34".

Fuck cancer.

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