Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

benjamincburns.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 234 posts

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#201

Post by orangecat »

jkaunisv1 wrote: post #155
randallsquared wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if that were true, and progress on social matters slowed somewhat, might it not be worth it to save many tens of millions of lives every year?

I disagree. There is an obsession with preserving life in our culture, at any cost. But everywhere else in the world (ie. for other animals) there is abundant evidence that death is crucial to life. Without a tree dying, what would mushrooms feed on, where would insects make their homes, etc.? Didn't you watch the Lion King? Would you rather have tens of billions living forever in socially stagnant, oppressive condit…

Would you rather have tens of billions living forever in socially stagnant, oppressive conditions, or a few billion living in gradually-improving conditions?

This is a huge false dilemma.

Doesn't the quality of the life matter as much as the quantity?

Certainly. And the effects of aging are heavily detrimental to quality of life.

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#202

Post by idaniboy »

Mc_Big_G wrote: post #101
madaxe_again wrote: post #50

I don't have a brain tumour, but I have had, and am still having, an experience which has made me think seriously about my mortality. I'm 31. About three years ago I started having three/four day long bouts of total delirium, roasting fever, extreme nausea, can't even keep sips of water down when it happens - by day three or four, I'm usually too weak to move, totally dehydrated. Two years on, my GP is still going "c…

The ineptitude of doctors never ceases to amaze me. One particularly idiotic fellow proudly announced to me and the entire office that he'd discovered I have diabetes. Even if that has been true, the manner in which he announced his pleasure at the epiphany made me want to punch him in the balls. hard. After a confused and sad ride home it only took a short talk with my extremely unqualified wife to convince me that…

Doctors are people like you and I. They are imperfect and make mistakes. There are plenty of brilliant doctors out there and not-so-good doctors out there. It takes responsibility on the patients' part to advocate for themselves, do some research, and find the right fit for them.

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#203

Post by idaniboy »

cromulent wrote: post #179
paulornothing wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My GP is a Certified Nurse Practitioner and I'm ok with that because she actually talks to me about my life and what is going on to try and get the whole picture.

Isn't it strange that there is still no career path from nurse to doctor? Medicine is still a closed shop.

There is a path from nurse to doctor. It's called medical school. I've known nurses who have made the jump.

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#204

Post by byuu »

pstuart wrote: post #196
byuu wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly how I felt! I'm 31 now myself. I'm really hoping my experience is like yours, because I'm still not 100% myself again. Currently 2.5 weeks in. I can't even imagine what my levels were prior to taking the 500% RDV supplement I was on before having my blood checked. But at All doctors will only prescribe D2 (ergocalciferol); so you really need to go and get D3 (cholecalciferol). Your body naturally produces D3,…

Vitamin K should be considered here as well. K1 is found in leafy greens, while K2 is found in meat and poultry (liver is a super source), and natto.

> and natto

... erm, well ... maybe chest pains aren't so bad after all :P

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#205

Post by idaniboy »

mahyarm wrote: post #138
chimeracoder wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a direct response to what you said, but since this is a common discussion on HN, I just want to get some facts straight pre-emptively: 1) The AMA has nothing to do with limiting the supply of doctors in the US 2) The AAMC (not the AMA) formerly limited the number of medical students per-year in the US, but they stopped this practice sometime around 2004 with the stated goal of increasing the number of medical sch…

So how about a residency system that doesn't depend on medicare government funding? Or accepting foreign residency programs? I wouldn't think canadian, scandianvian, british, german, australlian, etc residencies and doctors should be considered invalid for example. From what I know, even being a Sweden trained doctor makes it hard to transfer into the USA and get a licence. Residents from what I know are not well pai…

The reason why foreign residency programs aren't considered valid in the US is quality control, from both competency and medico-legal standpoints. If you were CEO of a private practice or hospital in New York City, who would you hire? A grad straight out of a US residency or one out of Swedish residency? The safer bet is the one straight out of US residency for numerous reasons: you can more easily trust and call his references, he has already likely taken the US medical licensing exams, you don't have to give him an English comprehension test, familiar with the mess that is US medical system, etc...

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#206

Post by wavegeek »

madaxe_again wrote: post #50

I don't have a brain tumour, but I have had, and am still having, an experience which has made me think seriously about my mortality. I'm 31. About three years ago I started having three/four day long bouts of total delirium, roasting fever, extreme nausea, can't even keep sips of water down when it happens - by day three or four, I'm usually too weak to move, totally dehydrated. Two years on, my GP is still going "c…

> Mortality is the ticking timer that keeps you alive.

For some people this may be true. Here is an important alternate view - that we rationalize death as being valuable because we can;t fix it yet.

http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html

More on what you can do here

http://www.sens.org/

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#207

Post by wavegeek »

idaniboy wrote: post #202
Mc_Big_G wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ineptitude of doctors never ceases to amaze me. One particularly idiotic fellow proudly announced to me and the entire office that he'd discovered I have diabetes. Even if that has been true, the manner in which he announced his pleasure at the epiphany made me want to punch him in the balls. hard. After a confused and sad ride home it only took a short talk with my extremely unqualified wife to convince me that…

Doctors are people like you and I. They are imperfect and make mistakes. There are plenty of brilliant doctors out there and not-so-good doctors out there. It takes responsibility on the patients' part to advocate for themselves, do some research, and find the right fit for them.

To add to this, I used to be very critical of doctors but having had various metabolic challenges and going off and learning all that stuff, medicine is a difficult confusing mess.

If you disagree, read this (about 2/3 of which is relevant to me):

http://www.amazon.com/Endocrinology-Adult-Pediatric-2--Set/d...

There are thousands of diseases and not that many different symptoms. Most serious diseases have numbers of mild conditions that look very similar.

This is not to say there are not major issues with the way medicine is researched and practised. And that being a doctor does tend to encourage people to be arrogant and overconfident. And that the medical basically selects people who are good at memorizing stuff.

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#208

Post by nocman »

A cousin of mine recently lost her life in a very short battle with cancer. She was only 41 years old -- both of her parents still living. In the past few years there have been a lot of deaths among my family and friends. Some of them were very old, some very young, and some in-between.

I would like to encourage readers here to consider this. Your life here is temporary. Even if you are very healthy your whole life, one day you will take your last breath, and it will be over.

It is easy to get wrapped up in everyday life. Pursuing your goals and dreams, or perhaps just barely getting by, living day to day. I think most people tend to push off thinking about their own mortality.

And as it is, most of us have no idea how much longer we have. We could be here 50 or 60 more years, or we could die tomorrow in some sort of accident.

So the question I would like to pose is this:

Are you prepared for your own death?

Do you have any idea what will happen to you when you die? It is going to happen. Isn't it worth considering what the possibilities are, and spending at least some time exploring the question?

I believe I have shared this before here (at least to some extent). I am a Christian, and I believe the Bible is direct revelation from God. I believe there is life after death, and that the only hope for a peaceful existence after death is found by believing in Jesus Christ in this life. I would like to encourage anyone here to read for themselves about Jesus' life on Earth, and make their own decision as to whether they should believe in Him. I think the best place for you to start reading about Him is in the Bible, in the gospel of John ( https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NKJV&search=Jo... ). That book will give you enough information, IMHO, to make an informed decision about Him.

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#209

Post by Hapa »

This is terrifying story, my question is what we can do , so less people suffer from it. Here are few of my suggestions. I am curious about your opinion:

1. Obviously take care about your health.

2. Send as much money as you comfortable can to somewhere, where you think it might make the biggest difference.

3. Support indirectly companies which focuses on these problems. As consumer you can give them feedback on their apps. You can promote them amongst the friends(although make sure you aren't promoting some pseudoscience nonsense). You can choose to buy products from companies which helps the good cause.

4. Work on problem your self directly in work or in free time, by working on open source project, helping some organization.

5. Inform others about science. Many people don't trust the science, doesn't understand basic of scientific research, which can obviously hurt the research (by less funding, cancellation of research), helps ineffective pseudo-scientific treatment.

6. Give info to others about different treatments, and scientific breakthroughs. Many people have information about last treatments only through news, who can care more about great headline than boring truth.

7. Use your pc/mobiles by joining programs like Folding@home.

Any other tips?

Re: From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

#210

Post by ckmorris »

madaxe_again wrote: post #50

I don't have a brain tumour, but I have had, and am still having, an experience which has made me think seriously about my mortality. I'm 31. About three years ago I started having three/four day long bouts of total delirium, roasting fever, extreme nausea, can't even keep sips of water down when it happens - by day three or four, I'm usually too weak to move, totally dehydrated. Two years on, my GP is still going "c…

I also have had issues with my gallbladder that ultimately resulted in its removal by a surgeon. However, afterwards I gained over 120 pounds over a three year period. Recently a coworker brought it to my attention that grains, particularly wheat and anything with gliadin in it, can be especially harsh like sandpaper on the intestinal lining leading to a condition known as permeated gut.

The gut contains millions of microscopic structures known as microvilli and they facilitate the absorption of nutrients into our bodies. As the gut lining becomes more and more damaged by plant lectins like gliadin our bodies begin to suffer from starvation even as we intake higher numbers of raw calories. We also become susceptible to autoimmune diseases because lectins escape through the damaged gut lining into the body causing the body to mount a full scale autoimmune response. This happens as a result of our bodies producing antibodies to our own protein structures like the pancreal lining, the myelin sheaths in the brain, and other important components of the human body because lectins highly resemble these proteins.

Additionally I have since learned that a good portion of people who required surgical gallbladder removal have undiagnosed celiac disease or non-celiac gluten intolerance.

The only way to test for this if you do not have the antibodies they test for to make a diagnosis is to get a biopsy of your gut villi. They can use a camera capsule to inspect the state of your villi and make a recommendation.

Upon removing all grains from my diet and obsessively avoiding products that contain grains of any kind such as soy sauce for the past 10 months I have dropped 95 pounds and am on tract to return to my post graduation weight of 190.

This is not medical advice please seek the assistance of a physician before undergoing any significant dietary changes in your life.

Post reply on HN