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It's getting harder to die

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Re: It's getting harder to die

#121

Post by pavel_lishin »

cjk2 wrote: post #91
pavel_lishin wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of me really wants to pick up hockey - just for fun, recreationally - but at 40, I'm worried that I'll get injured to the point where I won't be able to do other things I enjoy, like cycling. Hell, I fell off my bike from a stop a few weeks ago, and landed on my knee, and it took a week and a half before I felt like I could trust my leg to hold weight.

Don't do it. My sister took up hockey when she was 16 and lost 4 front teeth within 3 months. She's 45 now and just had the second set of replacements...

My teeth are already sufficiently bad that I'll likely need implants in the future anyway; I don't want to lose them, but it wouldn't impact my life as negatively as, say, a permanent back or knee injury would.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#122

Post by anonymouskimmer »

AlexandrB wrote: post #105
kqr wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that it's not certain. With the medical assistance you might recover fine and live another five happy years. Is it really worth trading away that opportunity just to not accidentally die on a ventilator? I'm not sure.

There's a good article[1] on this topic that talks about how older doctors generally choose to forego lifesaving measures. I think about it a lot because it seems like when a professional who's in the best position to know the tradeoffs makes this kind of decision for themselves they probably understand the risk/reward better than you or me. [1] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/03/how-doctors-die/

Plenty of people who make the sausage don't want to eat it.

I never wanted to go into medicine. Thus I do not believe the preferences of a typical older doctor represent my preferences in this respect.

I read an article once of a nurse who kept CPR going on her husband for somewhere around 2 hours until they could get him to a hospital that was able to restart his heart. I believe he ended up okay. CPR obviously isn't invasive tubing, but it's still kind of hard on the body.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#123

Post by kiba »

silverquiet wrote: post #69
blue_dragon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reduced physical activity in old age will accelerate sarcopenia. If you're hospitalized, especially for long period of time, that will also accelerate muscle loss.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#124

Post by andai »

rrgok wrote: post #118
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

I wholeheartedly support this point of view. Death should be an option freely and easily accessibile to anyone. Why have people here who don't want to be here?

I like to use a metaphor.

You're at a party. You politely say goodbye to everyone and start heading for the exit.

You are restrained and drugged.

Nice party, bro...

Re: It's getting harder to die

#125

Post by anonymouskimmer »

lurking_swe wrote: post #24
spurgu wrote: 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),…

https://www.sciencealert.com/study-more-patients-could-survi...

> Yet families are often asked to make the call within 72 hours of someone sustaining a severe brain injury. Unless patients make a rapid recovery in the first few days, it's thought they are unlikely to survive or recover much at all.

> The data Sanders and colleagues analyzed tentatively suggest otherwise.

> The data revealed that 31 of the 56 brain trauma patients who stayed on life support died within six months; and 45 percent survived. Of the 25 patients who survived, more than 30 percent recovered enough in that same six-month period to have at least some independence in daily activities.

> Just four patients recovered 'fully' to how they functioned before their injury.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#126

Post by kstenerud »

vundercind wrote: post #11

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…

Someone I know acquired potassium cyanide for this reason. She's getting up there in age and wanted some insurance against a horrible death.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#127

Post by crazygringo »

ericmcer wrote: post #3

Kind of a tough read, I just turned 37 and this was the year when it really hit home that your body degrades and sometimes it never goes back to "normal". I was used to sports injuries being a pattern of injury -> recovery -> ramp back up to 100%, but have suffered some injuries recently and am coming to terms with realizing I will never return to 100%. They will be lingering things I deal with for the rest of my lif…

It might not be applicable for you, but just in case -- take a look at myofascial release, similar to trigger point therapy. Basically foam rolling on your legs, using a lacrosse ball and progressively smaller rubber balls across your back and shoulders and pecs, and a TheraCane on shoulders, neck, sides, etc. Also Alexander Technique lessons, which retrains you to use your muscles without the tension habits you've accumulated over your lifetime.

The two of them together have changed my life. A lot of acute injuries of mine had healed, but had left my muscles extremely tight and essentially kind of frozen, which then creates problems with movement and posture and which then generates other kinds of pain. I too thought I'd never get back to "normal", and then was shocked to discover that I basically could, after a couple of years of undoing all the muscular tightness and "frozenness" through myofascial release and Alexander Technique. (Basically, the myofascial release gets rid of it, while Alexander teaches you how to prevent immediately re-forming it.)

It's funny that myofascial release is only just starting to gain awareness among the medical community, while Alexander Technique still mainly only has awareness in the acting and musical performance communities.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#128

Post by rrgok »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #100
jezzamon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile that with many people that attempted suicide due to some illness like depression, and then later very much we're glad they didn't die. "Only of sound mind" sounds difficult to measure. Related: Majority of gun deaths in the USA are suicides. In the gun control debate you might want to exclude those, right? But actually having ready access to a way to die increases the total number of suicides - i…

A permanent solution to a temporary problem still leaves the problem solved.

I usually say "No, death is not the solution, death just removes the problem.".

Re: It's getting harder to die

#129

Post by anonymouskimmer »

Krssst wrote: post #57
louwrentius wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m quite convinced that I live in a country where we never let people die like this. Also, I guess prolonging treatment is in the interest of for-profit hospitals as found in other countries, thus as long as your suffering is profitable, you wil…

> I guess prolonging treatment is in the interest of for-profit hospitals as found in other countries France does the same but has nationalized healthcare, so it does not seem motivated by profits. It puts pressure on the healthcare system and only brings additional suffering. We could change that, but implementing assisted death needs careful consideration and defeating politically the small subset of people that th…

> but implementing assisted death needs careful consideration

Yes.

> and defeating politically the small subset of people that think life with extreme suffering is precious.

You don't need to defeat us. All you need is a clear-cut agreement between the patient and the doctor, preferably in advance for those who are physically unable to decide at the end, similar to a DNI. Between the patient and the doctor, and possibly the patient's family, it's no one else's business (though I still think second-party euthanasia of non-terminal persons is disgusting, and that they should commit suicide without involving a second party). It's when government or other third parties start getting involved that everyone should have an issue with euthanasia.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#130

Post by anonymouskimmer »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

> I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch.

It is. Just flick the blade open on a switchblade and stab into your temple. You don't need a fricking second or third party to help you with this.

Some of us atheists view life as more precious than many religious people do because this is it.

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