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It's getting harder to die

plough.com

61–70 of 255 posts

Re: It's getting harder to die

#61
post #22

Recently watched someone close die over a couple days, after a long decline. The last 24 hours were monstrous to inflict on anyone. Torture. Evil. Hours and hours of faltering breathing, often restarting with what was plainly a panicked adrenaline-pumping response. It looked like they felt like they were about to drown every few minutes , hour, after hour, no relief. No IV fluids (terminal anyway, so no trying to kee…

> and unable to drink, so certainly terribly thirsty the whole time. I know people that work in hospice, and they say this is a big misconception (the article hints at it too). they patients don't die from lack of water, they don't want water because they are dying, and their body can't process it. In fact, as you kind of touched on at the start, giving them IV fluids can cause them to drown since their body can't pr…

The best thing they can do is shoot me with a nice does of heroin and after the high.just ending it.

We know how to end life's.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#62
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry for your loss. Edit: I feel a bit dumb now, I hadn't actually read the article yet, went straight for the comments. Seems like I'm just reiterating what it says. When I'm in that shape I just wanna go in peace. Preferably at home, in my own bed, surrounded by loved ones. No tubes down my throat, no shots to keep me alive at any cost, with no end in sight. Here's some good discussion on the topic between two…

The problem with this perspective in my opinion is that many times, especially for an elderly person, a small emergency can very quickly escalate into a life and death situation, and the outcome is not clear until it’s too late. you may enter the hospital thinking you have a decent outcome, but you end up with a bad outcome. for example, nobody plans to go on a ventilator. But if you need one (like severe pneumonia),…

you’re going to have a painful death with or without the tubes

But I feel that was the main point at the start of the thread: if death is certain and going to be painful, why must we drag it out? Why is that additional lifespan (measured in days) so much more important than comfort?

Re: It's getting harder to die

#63
post #17

Recently watched someone close die over a couple days, after a long decline. The last 24 hours were monstrous to inflict on anyone. Torture. Evil. Hours and hours of faltering breathing, often restarting with what was plainly a panicked adrenaline-pumping response. It looked like they felt like they were about to drown every few minutes , hour, after hour, no relief. No IV fluids (terminal anyway, so no trying to kee…

I'm sorry for your loss. Edit: I feel a bit dumb now, I hadn't actually read the article yet, went straight for the comments. Seems like I'm just reiterating what it says. When I'm in that shape I just wanna go in peace. Preferably at home, in my own bed, surrounded by loved ones. No tubes down my throat, no shots to keep me alive at any cost, with no end in sight. Here's some good discussion on the topic between two…

> I just wanna go in peace

I wonder what 'go in peace' means if you explain it medically. Possibly abrupt heart failure?

From the deaths of older relatives that I've (sort of) witnessed, if any other part of your body fails it's going to be slower and a lot more unpleasant.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#64
post #54

It's worse than the article says, because it's from a doctor's perspective. I have CRPS, one of the contenders for worst chronic pain you can have. It's a "suicide disease", because if it advances to stage 3/4, there's a suicide rate of about 70%. It sucks a lot. I've had well over 200 spinal procedures over the last 30 years to try to mitigate the pain, with dozens of other surgical procedures in less tricky spots.…

> I was threatened with an ITO (Involuntary Treatment Order) if I didn't go ahead with having an internal defibrilator put in me.

Did this threat come from a doctor? What an astounding lack of empathy.

I would switch medical providers in a heartbeat if at all possible.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone gets even that - I've had mobility issues since I was seven years old. It's been strange to realize that it probably shaped my personality somewhat; I always felt older than my peers in some way. The silver lining might be that while now they are starting to say how old they feel (I'm basically the same age as you), I'll often tell them that I don't feel any older.

> The silver lining might be that while now they are starting to say how old they feel (I'm basically the same age as you), I'll often tell them that I don't feel any older. As someone with chronic back pain since my late teens, this is... a nice perspective. My friend group isn't old enough yet for it to come up very often but I feel like I can relate.

Sorry if I'm being nosey, but I'm curious about the chronic back pain. Is it something that developed over time, is it gwneti, is it an injury? How do you cope and manage it?

Re: It's getting harder to die

#66
post #61
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and unable to drink, so certainly terribly thirsty the whole time. I know people that work in hospice, and they say this is a big misconception (the article hints at it too). they patients don't die from lack of water, they don't want water because they are dying, and their body can't process it. In fact, as you kind of touched on at the start, giving them IV fluids can cause them to drown since their body can't pr…

The best thing they can do is shoot me with a nice does of heroin and after the high.just ending it. We know how to end life's.

It's probably ironic that it's never been easier to buy that drug (and others) and decide your own fate compared with trying for a dignified and hopefully pain-free death the "legal" way.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#67
And that's a good thing

Or maybe people got softer. Do we remember the 90% of time where humans roamed this planet barefoot without painkillers, or healthcare, or a guaranteed source of water that does not carry those roundworm parasites that love to swim inside your eyes, or anti polar bear sprays so they didn't tear you off and eat alive?. Those were hard deaths.

The 120% of the times, being alive is the smartest option, even if this carries a cost.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#68
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing they can do is shoot me with a nice does of heroin and after the high.just ending it. We know how to end life's.

It's probably ironic that it's never been easier to buy that drug (and others) and decide your own fate compared with trying for a dignified and hopefully pain-free death the "legal" way.

[deleted]

Re: It's getting harder to die

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really resonates with me. I’m 30 now. I had a rotator cuff injury last year and lost some range of motion in my shoulder for about 6 months. This year I got a personal trainer for the first time. I’m really trying to fight to get in shape and stay in shape. I spent my 20’s working and for the last 5 years I work remotely, largely ignoring my health. Sitting in a home office all day is really bad for you.

Use the next several years to build as much muscle as you can without damaging your joints. It gets extraordinarily difficult to add new muscle as you enter your mid-30s, but fortunately you still have time. I work out 3-4 days per week for ~90 minutes each. If you've never done strength training before, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn how much extra mass you can add, while remaining on a typical diet, with…

I started lifting weights at 37 after 10 years of being very sedentary, and within a few months people were mentioning that I had put on muscle. My impression was that sarcopenia doesn't start until the 60's and even then there are benefits to resistance training.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#70
post #47

Slightly tangential, but I believe this article segues into a discussion about assisted suicide or euthanasia at the end of life. My entire family has been suffering over the past 18 months watching my 88-year-old grandmother slowly pass away from age-related deterioration and AD. I worked with mice during my PhD training in the US. If a lab was caught with lab mice suffering like my grandmother is without euthanizin…

Because far too many people believe that human life is the most precious thing on Earth and willingly ending it is literally the worst thing you could ever do.
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