It took a case of endocarditis, a 30% chance of survival, two heart valves being replaced, a pacemaker installed, and another brush with death during the 6 month recovery, all at age 24, to wake me up. Ever since then, one thing I've really wanted, with all of my heart, is for people to wake up - see that this is not forever and tomorrow is not guaranteed. Listen to me, listen to the author - please, do what you need to do to enable yourself to pursue the dreams you really have, stop "just getting by".
I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
141–150 of 153 posts
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#142[deleted]
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#143With much sensitivity to the physical and emotional turmoil the author must be experiencing right now, I disagree with his advice: > Stop just assuming you have a full lifetime to do whatever it is you dream of doing. Rare and catastrophic events like this that can severely shorten your life are ones you should not plan for. If they occur, that's very unfortunate, and maybe you'll still have a contingency plan that c…
Your odds of being the 0.00001% are very low, but someone has to be it. He's just saying recognize that. Recognize that all your hopes, dreams, fears, assumptions, etc. can literally be gone in an instant and live accordingly. I know it sounds ridiculously cliched, and of course you never think it will happen to you, but let me assure you that life really can be taken from you at any time, so live it with that realit…
That way of thinking is short-sighted and (in my opinion) stupid, though. If you plan around dying at any moment, then you'll never reap the rewards of planning for the future. Unless you mean "enjoy your life while it lasts" which is really cliché and pretty pointless advice.
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
OTHT, testing without reason will give you a lot of false positives that then have to be dealt with. It's a difficult thing to balance.
I feel like the cost of a false positive in medicine is lower than the cost of a false negative.
That entirely depends on, e.g., the false positive rate and the specificity of the test. Couple of quick examples of the top of my head:
* A false positive for a terminal condition or cancer may have a poor effect on the patient's mental well-being AND make them less likely to submit to testing in the future (see e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23540978 - "We conclude that the experience of having a false-positive screening mammogram can cause breast cancer-specific psychological distress that may endure for up to 3 years, and reduce the likelihood that women will return for their next round of mammography screening."). Depending on your false positive rate, that may result in worse outcomes overall.
* I had an MRI on my head a few years ago, and a _very_ small growth (* Parent suggests getting a hsCRP test. Whilst potentially useful, it's also non-specific - it'll be raised by pretty much any recent illness/injury/general inflammation, and will always be raised if, e.g., you have arthritis. You would likely need further testing to determine the cause (not necessarily free of risk/cost), and your false positive rate is likely to be higher if you are testing without other reasons to suspect it will be useful.
That's not to say all preemptive tests are a bad idea -- that's clearly not the case -- but as I initially said, it's a balancing act. Blindly added more early testing will not necessarily improve patient outcomes overall; they may in fact have a detrimental effect.
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Last ditch effort was an experimental drug... he's the only one alive I assume it wasn't the drug then but some other factor that was either missed or underestimated in his actual recovery. Wish more of these missing-pieces were known.
I might get downvoted for this, so please do your own research first before just dismissing it. There is this cheap thing of Vitamin C injections staight into the blood. A cure that has been "well known" for centuries, but dismissed because oral intake studies weren't promising. I love science, but in studies where a lot of money is made or can be lost, there is so much manipulation going on it makes you sick. I'm ta…
You're getting down voted because of your conspiracy nonsense. "X treatment is being suppressed because it would hurt drug companies".
Well it's not being suppressed and it's been studied since 1970. TDLR; It may help patient quality of life during chemo, it reduces tumors in some models but it reduces effectiveness of chemo in other models.
Here, read this: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/patient/vi...
(Warning - it's from the National Cancer Institute Complementary Medicine section so it's not considered a valid approved treatment in the US. That means something where cancer is subject.
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#146Any amount of unexplained rectal bleeding is reason enough to schedule an appointment with a doctor. The doctor is likely to recommend a colonoscopy. Removal of polyps (a likely source of bleeding) reduces the chances of cancer developing and can only be done during a colonoscopy.
I had rectal bleeding similar to the OP. My GP dismissed this as probably just a hemorrhoid, and due to my age at the time (42) didn't refer me to a gastroenterologist. Almost cost me my life. A year later, the symptoms persisted and he finally made the referral. The gastro doc knew instantly upon exam that I was in serious trouble. A scope turned up a 5cm tumor that required a full resection. Luckily I survived to write this post; 12 years that have been a blessing. To anyone with rectal bleeding of any type, see your GP and ask for a referral to a specialist, regardless of age!
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#147It's never too late to turn to the Dharma. I lost a child recently and the only hope I can find out of it has been to study what the Buddha taught. > if we start thinking about impermanence now, while we still have time to find skillful means to deal with it, then later we will not be caught unaware. Even though in the short term the contemplation of death and impermanence might cause discomfort, in the long term it…
FWIW, I don't think you came off as pushy or predatory (as someone who is firmly on the atheist side of things), but any suggestion of religion can easily cross that line when someone is in an emotional malleable state such as this. I think that's why people tend to be a little jumpy about it.
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#148Life is a strange thing. One day you can have everything and the next nothing. Then, answers are never enough. And you're left with the option to do the best with what you still have.
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obesity is merely one factor. I have read a number of articles on this and even written at least one (I get paid to ghost write health articles). My understanding is, no, they don't really know why. Furthermore, how to not be obese is not really a solved problem. Suggesting that fat people are merely irresponsible is pretty lousy. Most fat people have tried to lose the weight. Some have tried incredibly hard and done…
Most fat people have tried to lose the weight. Some have tried incredibly hard and done rather crazy-sounding things, to no avail. I half wish we didn't have these kinds of comments about weight loss; it comes from the Puritan-work-ethic-suffering-is-laudable style of thinking, and implicitly carries messages like: a) weight loss must include suffering, b) it must include hard work or you aren't earning it, c) 'quant…
Jod, would you please add your email in profile? Would like to followup with a question. Thanks!
Re: I’m 35 and I may suddenly have lost the rest of my life
#150Stop eating anything grown in the US or under the domain of corporate farming, anything grown with chemical (Monsanto/Bayer) pesticides, and look for as much communally, organic grown food as you can. Why has IBS exploded in recent decades? Miracle grow for cancer is literally being added to the food supply.
No surprise this has been downvoted. Apparently if you can't get a 50-year study to prove otherwise, we should assume any chemical added to our food is A-OK. Common sense be damned, we have money to make! That's America for you.
Just an FYI: Bayer is not an American company. They're also coordinating a buyout of Monsanto.