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I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

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Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also have a lot of data on ways to reduce cancer before it happens. Reduce obesity. Reduce pollution. Etc. Yet we really aren't doing an awful lot about those things. Imagine for example if we had an obesity tax - everyone obese must pay 30% of their earnings into a Medicare fund. Sure it would be unpopular, but obesity would very quickly be solved, and cancer rates would plummet.

> " Imagine for example if we had an obesity tax - everyone obese must pay 30% of their earnings into a Medicare fund. " Imagine for example if we taxed the shareholders of CocaCola instead, they're the ones who got wealthy from obesity. And before you say "it was the consumer's choice", what was CocaCola's $4b/year advertising spend for, then?

I'd totally be up for fining companies retrospectively for harming people's health even before the harm was well understood.

That gives the companies an incentive to do the research ahead of time to minimize damages.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#132
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget people also died much earlier for thousands of years. There is a great deal wrong with very high fat diets, the issue is there’s also a lot wrong with very high carb diets.

> Don’t forget people also died much earlier for thousands of years. Funnily enough not from obesity or heart disease. They died from violence, starvation, infections, plagues, travel, etc. Fats were not a cause.

This is a ridiculous point. If you halved today's average lifespan, you'd see a dramatic reduction in cancer.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#133
post #104

Almost exactly 18 months ago, my then 87 year old father, after feeling unwell and having some fluid problems with his lungs was diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer. He turned down treatment and died at home a couple days before Christmas last year. I've come away from the experience very unhappy with the medical system. There's a long list, things that in any other industry would be prosecuted. The medical and hospic…

I won't agree about the American medical system but I'd say that our hospice system is pretty much Soylent Green .

The American medical system is an absolute travesty. To be fair to you though, this only really becomes obvious when one experiences functioning medical systems in other countries.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#134

Anyone else feeling anxious over their own mortality after reading this?

When I was in my 30s and had two small children, my appendix burst. It turned into a fairly routine procedure to remove it and get me back on my feet; but I realized that if I had lived even 100 years ago it probably would have been fatal. Near death experiences can change your whole perspective. When I was young and single, I did all kinds of crazy things that could easily have ended me. Once I got married and had c…

>When I was in my 30s and had two small children, my appendix burst. It turned into a fairly routine procedure to remove it and get me back on my feet; but I realized that if I had lived even 100 years ago it probably would have been fatal.*

I've lost count of how many "ordinary" infections I've lived through thanks to antibiotics. One would have for sure killed me. A puncture wound on the bottom of my foot in a dirty river in the south.

We're not even 100 years into having antibiotics. A species just getting started tbh. I wonder what will come next that is similarly "magical" to antibiotics.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#135
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually envy people who have such a drive to live to the point of battling cancer for so long. If I got diagnosed I definitely would just give up.

Just as one datapoint, I had stage 4 cancer in my 40s. They described the chemo as one of the most intense courses they can give. Took seven months or so. It sucked but was very doable - you just get up, show up, feel sick, then do it again. Don’t think too hard about it. Obviously ymmv, but I would not advise thinking of heavy chemo as a guaranteed torture chamber.

How old are you now and how long have you had stage 4?

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#136
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't say this any better. Once you have kids, everything changes. The impact of getting ill is no longer how it affects you, if you've done enough with your time, but how it will affect them. It's like a dark cloud that follows, in the back of your mind every day. Ultimately, it helps you realise what really matters, and what doesn't.

Ive just had my first child, shes 7 months old. Tbh the responsibility (coupled with the fact that im a bit of a hypochondriac) can sometimes feel overwhelming. Im blessed that i have her, but damn.

Those first few months are extra hard but cherish them anyway, soon enough she'll be asking you for the car keys. Time flies. And congratulations!

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#137

My mom had a cough that wouldn't go away and covid 3 or 4 times during the last 2 years. Turns out those symptoms were hiding breast cancer, which metasticized in 2 years, the chemo symptoms because too bad and so she had to stop, and now she's gone. She was 59. When I went to her house to tend to her dogs, she had been looking at retirement and hospice care for her "live out my last days" cancer life basically next…

The cough that wouldn’t go away was a bellwether to my wife’s ovarian cancer.

She was incredibly stubborn when it came to medical issues and had been experiencing some pain in her side that I had been stressing for her to get seen for. She went to urgent care and they did nothing, bolstering her opinion that it was worthless being seen for it.

The cough was a dry cough that was not very frequent but the older women in her periphery were very concerned about it. I didn’t think much of it, just a dry cough. The women in the other hand would say things like ‘I really don’t like that cough’ with a concerned face. I don’t know if they had an internalized correlation or it was just a sense of something wrong. It turns out that this is a fairly common symptom.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#138

Anyone else feeling anxious over their own mortality after reading this?

I had seriously contemplated suicide multiple times in my life (about 6 so far), and every time I managed to escape the intrusive thoughts. I have a heart condition and I may just drop dead, thus living alone means that there is nobody to regurgitate me. The way I have reconciled this is through accepting that I have already died, thus every day is a gift.

That's probably the most powerful 'life hack' that I've ever heard of.

Re: I’ve been battling cancer last 2 years, but now only have a few days left

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't agree about the American medical system but I'd say that our hospice system is pretty much Soylent Green .

The American medical system is an absolute travesty. To be fair to you though, this only really becomes obvious when one experiences functioning medical systems in other countries.

How else would health insurance executives, hospital executives, and doctors afford their third million dollar home? The system is working just fine for them.
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