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51 hours left to live

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Re: 51 hours left to live

#41

Post by dalore »

jedsmith wrote: post #11
trin_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the reddit admins have repeatedly stated, that these numbers are bogus. its a anti-spam measure to throw off bottting attempts.

Hardly. They're fudged a bit as you say, but they're quite close to reality. Enough that I'd look at the proportion instead of the exact numbers, which is the meaning I was attempting to drive home. The numbers are fudged by a very small amount in a certain direction, based on my observation. I observed this by refreshing one of my own submissions and watching it gain a vote or lose a vote, and I knew exactly how man…

The bigger the number the more the fudge. And they don't just keep it in proportion too. Most articles on the frontpage have a 66% upvote ratio.

Re: 51 hours left to live

#42

Post by Luc »

Mz wrote: post #20
reason wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is sad about what conventional medicine has to offer?

If you read his comments, he has been battling cancer for 6 years. He has apparently had multiple surgeries. He is stopping the medication so he can have a "lucid ending" and spend some quality time with family and friends. He has been tortured by chemo. He plans on having jello as his last meal so he doesn't "mess" himself again. I have cystic fibrosis. I've gotten off of 8 or so prescription drugs. The drug side ef…

Sooo... you think Lucidending is sick from side effects, and thoughts of suicide will leave him once he stops taking these awful drugs?

Perhaps his or her situation is not as parallel to yours as you think. It's hard to say based on the little data there is, but perhaps all that is left for him or her is palliative care.

Re: 51 hours left to live

#43

Post by Mz »

rick_2047 wrote: post #39
Mz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having spent a year at death's door, I can assure you that when you are physically unable to go out and get a life, the internet beats the hell out of laying in bed and staring at a blank wall (which I got so fucking sick of, I bought a screen to cover the damn wall and later put curtains over it so I wouldn't have to stare at the damn blank wall ever again).

Phone calls?? Anyone?? There are plethora of people I would like to call.

Seriously:

A) How are phone calls "more real" than internet conversations?

B) Did you read the Reddit discussion you are criticizing? His handle is "Lucidending". He opted to go off medication in his final hours so he could be lucid and spend quality time with family before he checks out, something he was unable to do while completely fucked up on chemo and other drugs. He is spending his last hours with family and on the internet, the internet being a substitute for a physical world tour which he is physically unable to do.

Re: 51 hours left to live

#44

Post by Mz »

Luc wrote: post #42
Mz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read his comments, he has been battling cancer for 6 years. He has apparently had multiple surgeries. He is stopping the medication so he can have a "lucid ending" and spend some quality time with family and friends. He has been tortured by chemo. He plans on having jello as his last meal so he doesn't "mess" himself again. I have cystic fibrosis. I've gotten off of 8 or so prescription drugs. The drug side ef…

Sooo... you think Lucidending is sick from side effects, and thoughts of suicide will leave him once he stops taking these awful drugs? Perhaps his or her situation is not as parallel to yours as you think. It's hard to say based on the little data there is, but perhaps all that is left for him or her is palliative care.

I said no such thing and I have no idea where you are getting that idea. Given that cancer has spread to his brain and the hell he has clearly been through, I understand his choice. I've been in a similar situation. However, it just so happens that my efforts to stop the pain -- which conventional drugs were not effectively treating -- began killing the underlying infection. I was really quite annoyed when I realized that because it meant I would live and the recovery would be both long and hard. That was about 10 years ago. The recovery has, in fact, been long and hard -- 10 years and counting and in recent months it has been common for me to throw up all day one day a week, so "hard" is an understatement. But unlike with conventional treatments -- where my doctor literally told me "People like you don't get well. Symptom management is the name of the game." -- what I am going through now actually is getting me well.

I wouldn't wish what I am going through on my worst enemy. But it beats the hell out of conventional treatments for my condition. It both involves less suffering and actually is getting me well. It is hands down a better experience and a better outcome.

Re: 51 hours left to live

#45

Post by seabee »

dalore wrote: post #41
jedsmith wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly. They're fudged a bit as you say, but they're quite close to reality. Enough that I'd look at the proportion instead of the exact numbers, which is the meaning I was attempting to drive home. The numbers are fudged by a very small amount in a certain direction, based on my observation. I observed this by refreshing one of my own submissions and watching it gain a vote or lose a vote, and I knew exactly how man…

The bigger the number the more the fudge. And they don't just keep it in proportion too. Most articles on the frontpage have a 66% upvote ratio.

The 66% ratio is something of a meme in Reddit meta-discussion, and has been for a year or more. (As are complaints of 'why would anyone downvote this'.)

Re: 51 hours left to live

#46

Post by rmobin »

holdenc wrote: post #5

For some reason I am reminded for Steve Jobs' Stanford graduation speech when he says "you will die one day." In the video, it seems to roll off the audience as a cliche. But, it seems to have tempered much of his career with fearlessness, and the willingness to take risks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

It's so hard to think like this. I've read and watched this speech many times over the years, and I always thought it was awesome - but it never changed my behavior. I'm working on that more recently because I realize the power of understanding how many things "fall away in the face of death".

Re: 51 hours left to live

#48

Post by heyitsnick »

rick_2047 wrote: post #34
heyitsnick wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What amazes me about this comment is that you honestly do feel you are better to advise someone _how to best spend their time before they die_. This person has battled with cancer for 6 years, and has probably spent a countless amount of time thinking about this decision and how he chooses to spend his final time in the world. Do you not think he has a better educated and more heightened perspective on this issue? An…

Whats the obsessions with the word audacity?? Anyways, this is my perspective of the issue. And I do feels its ridiculous.

Still well behind the great peak that was the 1900s.

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=audacity&year...

Re: 51 hours left to live

#49

Post by alex_c »

Mz wrote: post #37
alex_c wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming you were downvoted for the vague swipe at "traditional medicine". It can be a touchy subject, because of the large number of crackpots, "vaccines cause autism", etc. To be clear, I suspect no HN readers will claim medicine has all the answers - far from it. I suspect the reaction is more to the false dichotomy between "traditional medicine" and "some other kind of medicine" (with the implied hints of con…

Thank you for the feedback. I routinely struggle with how to talk about offering a better solution. Most folks get all up in arms, like it is an attack, and then just do not listen to what I am really trying to say. Sigh. Have an upvote.

Very understandable - the problem is that it's tough, based on a brief post, to judge whether someone is an "alternative medicine" nut, with all the negative baggage that can imply, or someone with genuinely unique insights and experiences (hell, it's tough to judge in general, when dealing with things that are both emotional and not well understood).

Re: 51 hours left to live

#50

Post by Mz »

alex_c wrote: post #49
Mz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the feedback. I routinely struggle with how to talk about offering a better solution. Most folks get all up in arms, like it is an attack, and then just do not listen to what I am really trying to say. Sigh. Have an upvote.

Very understandable - the problem is that it's tough, based on a brief post, to judge whether someone is an "alternative medicine" nut, with all the negative baggage that can imply, or someone with genuinely unique insights and experiences (hell, it's tough to judge in general, when dealing with things that are both emotional and not well understood).

It doesn't help that I frequently sound like Elle Woods (a la the scene in Legally Blonde that goes something like this: "He's gay. -- what kind of shoes do I have on?" ..."Uh, black?"..."See, he's gay.") But I don't have a good solution for that because I find that if I try to preemptively explain at length, that gets even worse reactions. :-/
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