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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

#301
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…

My experience has led me to the conclusion hospice needs strong regulation & it can't happen soon enough. Trigger warning: my story is both sick & sad.

When my Dad was on his deathbed at home with lung cancer my Mom was in charge of administering the morphine dropper on a schedule like she was shown to do by the hospice nurse. I was younger then, not dealing with it well so was self-medicating & was very out of it. No appropriate situational awareness at all.

The next morning after he was dead I was cleaning up & thought it odd that his morphine bottle was still half full but didn't think much of it. His body didn't look quite right either but being the first dead body I'd ever seen how would I know something was off? Decades later I learned his hands wouldn't go together because when he had died he was pushing her off him with all his strength while she was suffocating him. So on top of not getting his morphine he had her probably on top of his distended belly with all that pain exceeding what was already unimaginable, suffocating him.

Before my Mom died she asked me if he'd molested me & I was surprised. I told her no, of course not, & soon afterward she started mismanaging her diabetes just a bit more than usual. She died of a heart attack a few months later- presumably from the diabetes. Though I think it was a suicide after realizing what she had done to Dad.

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

#302

Really hope these breakthrough AI discoveries will dramatically accelerate cure for cancer (all types).

They will accelerate cheap screening before treatments

Early screening is usually the key. Cancers caught early can be easily treated.

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

#303

This is something that I see rather often in my career and I wanted to pass along one very important thing that I've learned over the years - please be sure that you have a will or an advanced directive in place. PLEASE do this. Have that difficult conversation about what steps you want taken to save your life. Do you want chest compressions? Do you want a tube inserted in your airway to assist you in breathing? Do y…

When it’s my time to go, I want to go. All of this trauma caused to family members isn’t worth it. This seems like a desperate attempt to save something that will end regardless of your actions. Property goes to the immediate next of kin in the absence of a will. A will is almost next to useless.

> Property goes to the immediate next of kin in the absence of a will.

Not accurate. It will often go into probate court or become property of the state.

> A will is almost next to useless.

False.

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

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy cow are you me? I haven't had as bad an experience as you either in terms of symptoms or medical care, but I'm hoping that right now I'm turning a corner, having started supplements of both of these and am feeling a lot better. The weirdest things I've been through were uncontrollable muscle spasms and numbness on half of my body, in various places. I had shingles a little while back and it seems like that side…

Not a doctor by did you try to also take magnesium? When I start to get cramps and muscle twitches a 2-4 weeks cures it completely

Actually, you know what, I think you're on to something. Had my second vitamin D dose Saturday and the cramps/spasms have come back with a vengeance. Apparently vitamin D supplementation can cause you to lose magnesium (it's used for converting different forms of D in the body or something). I took significantly more than I was (turned out I was only taking about 100mg per day, I misread the bottle) and it seems like it's helping so far.

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

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for me; they didn't get any yacht payments from me. When we had a medical disaster, I filed for bankruptcy once the bills came in, and this is with good insurance. It really didn't affect my credit score, and we bought a house and car 18 months afterwards. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, through no fault of their own. I mean, rich fat cats get debt forgiveness when things don't work out for them.

I'm guessing your assets were wiped out but you were able to qualify for house and car later due to cash flow. Anything I'm missing? Thanks for sharing btw

Nope. We just told the bank that we had a medical bankruptcy and they said "it happens all the time..." and proceeded with no issues.

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

#306
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An eternity to be concious is a long time. Over an infinite amount of time it can go wrong in an infinite number of ways. Seeing your loved ones is great. Exhausting the total combination of everything you can express with english words. Do you continue to make up new concepts forever to keep yourself entertained?

> Seeing your loved ones is great. Exhausting the total combination of Well assuming everyone is conscious in the next life and can interact with each other, then that would lead one to assume next life has technology at least as good as ours, if not better since it collectively contains the sum knowledge of every human who has ever lived. Unless we are just disembodied consciousnesses that can't interact with matter…

>God would help solve the boredom problem. So I'm not terribly worried either way. Cease to exist = can't worry about it. Continue to be conscious = won't worry about it.

Great idea. It will probably take a while for me to internalize it but I really like what you're saying.

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

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did your dad drink? I ask because my dad died of the same (although they never did find the origin other than liver) and he was not a drinker.

I think > 30% of fatty liver disease comes from insulin resistance

Yes, I've heard that as well but as I've said, the mystery is that he was 5"10' at 165lbs, he was fit. No diabetes or any health issues at all.

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

#308
post #15

My wife has one metastasis on her spine , it was detected 33 day ago, I fear that moment where she will be suffering enough that she will qualify for medically assisted death. According to the paper accompanying her incredibly expensive drugs (5700$/month) she has between twelve and eighty-eight months left ... I hope that she will cost money to my insurance for a long time! According to her oncologist we cannot know…

Sorry to hear. My mother had cancer in her spine for many years (10+) before she passed. I hate cancer. Instead of building weapons of war, we should be building tools to help completely control it, for all cancers, for all people, so it is no longer this UNKNOWN thing that keeps us up through the night, wondering, worrying when our time will be.

Thanks for sharing, your comment is somewhat reassuring... I'm sorry for your loss and hope it was it 10y of with a good quality of life.

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (5700$/month) How is this not profiteering?

The problem isn't (specifically) profiteering, it's unequal access. Those drugs are probably a vastly different price if your big insurance company buys them than they are if you're forced to buy them on your own. I'd like to see there being one price per drug with a small quantity modifier for bulk purchases.

Exactly, it is an acces problem, here, you cannot access those drugs unless your either are on a great private drugs insurance plan, are quite ritch or are terribly poor.

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

#310
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure all you need is a death certificate, which should be on file at her local courthouse.

I’m thousands of miles away from her local courthouse.

You should be able to send the clerk a self-addressed-stamped-envelope and a check for whatever the records retrieval fee is (available on their website).

Pulling legal records from thousands of miles away isn't exactly rare. You don't think lawyers fly all over the country all the time, do you?

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