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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

#171

Post by Sirened »

umvi wrote: post #99
no_time wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just feel that in general. Lying in bed on most nights I can "feel" my body disintegrating. Forever, irreversibly as I drift into cold nothingness. To end on a positive note, I still find it less terrifying than the alternative, which is living forever.

> To end on a positive note As a religious person this is actually like the most negative note imaginable for me. I mean, sure, I'll grant you life after death is "terrifying" in a "fear of the unknown" sense, but I would definitely prefer seeing deceased loved ones again and continuing to learn and progress after death vs. ceasing to exist.

I don't know, I've heard so many stories of people that, after 90+ years, are just bored of life. It's unimaginable to me now but I've only been an adult for a small fraction of the time they've been and so maybe you can really just run out of things to do.

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

#172

Post by jacquesm »

JamesSwift wrote: post #167
jacquesm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gah that sucks. The randomness of it all is maddening. I buried an uncle a few months ago, he had a very nasty case of cancer and was in so much pain that we were all so grateful that at least here in NL there was the option to throw in the towel. He was a super nice man and I regret not having more contact with him in my life (my family is rather fragmented). But so much suffering is just too much to inflict on anyb…

Yep. The randomness. And the helplessness of others (speaking as the relative of the cancer patient). Its just a terrible feeling all around.

Yes, the helplessness is terrible. It's one of the things I've really had to face up close recently and there is no really good way to deal with it.

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

#173

Post by jacquesm »

bitwidget wrote: post #166
jacquesm wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a super bad swimmer and my skin is hypersensitive to chlorine but this sounds like it is worth investigating anyway, thank you!

See if there are any saltwater pools next to you, they still need chlorine, but it looks like the chlorine effect is gentler.

Thank you very much, that might be just the thing for me. I really need a way to balance all this out and it has to be something that I can do on a schedule and indoors so it isn't weather dependent. The best so far was a trainer bike on a stand.

Of course I will need to become a better swimmer.

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

#174

Post by inamberclad »

burritas wrote: post #113
bane wrote: 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'd rather not go into personal detail but I share a similar experience. The thing that really drove it home for me was when I got back home and was telling my own doctor about my experience dealing with family in the medical system and she said I was mistaken or there was a misunderstanding because that kind of thing doesn't happen. I asked why she was siding with a doctor she'd never met before instead of listening…

It's a common theme - doctors just don't listen to their patients at all.

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

#175

Post by bane »

t-writescode wrote: post #116

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…

Argh, too young! I'm so sorry to hear about this. Covid has really messed up the system badly.

The medical treatment funnel gets very myopic treating the most present thing first, and often misses other problems going on at the same time. With my Dad we think the doctors were very focused on some other health issues that were complications from a knee replacement he had done about 5 years before.

The "you can only come in for a visit for one problem at a time" broken insurance system would have had him coming in all day, every day for visits, so he just went for what bothered him the most. Turns out his lung cancer wasn't his worst problem until it was.

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

#176

Post by bane »

tomrod wrote: post #14
tomrod wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 Simple Rules for a Supportive Lab Environment: https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article/35/1/44/113591/10-Simple... > These rules were written and voted on collaboratively, by the students and mentees of Professor Mark Stokes, who inspired this piece.

These are rules that are good for any team, not just for academic labs. 1. Encourage Critique But Not Competition 2. Model “Failure” and Celebrate Honesty 3. Be Approachable 4. Facilitate Communication and Ensure There Are Minimal Barriers to Asking Questions 5. A Supportive Lab Is a Social Lab 6. Give Timely (and Constructive) Feedback 7. Respect Others' Time and Expertise 8. Have Career Conversations That Cover Bot…

There's a lot of wonderful empathy encoded here.

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

#177

Post by anon291 »

Retric wrote: post #89
philliphaydon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with fat. People were cooking with lard for 1000s of years until the US decided fat is bad and people started substituting fat with sugar because when you remove fat, you remove flavour.

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.

No they didn't. Death rates from now treatable diseases were higher in the past. But if you managed to escape those and not die in a tragic physical accident, you lived basically as long as anyone else.

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

#178

Post by PartiallyTyped »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #43
endorphine wrote: post #3

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.

Oops.

This was supposed to write resuscitate.

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

#179

Post by seanmcdirmid »

adamredwoods wrote: post #101
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! New treatments at the UofIowa are sending patients home cured. Not in remission. Only very specific cancers, and at great cost. But there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

There currently is no "cure" for cancer. Patients can get to the NED (no evidence of disease) stage, but cancer comes back unless resected early enough. This may be referring to immunology, which is promising, but only keeps it at bay and needs continuing therapy. It becomes a chronic disease, which is preferable to a uncontrollable disease.

There isn’t just one kind of cancer. So even if a good fix is found for one kind it is highly likely not very transferable to another kind.

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

#180

Post by tasuki »

jacquesm wrote: post #56
imdsm wrote: 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.

Indeed, nothing to help focus the mind like having kids. Until I held my firstborn life was all fun and games.

Is it a bad thing for life to be fun and games?
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