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Bridge to Nowhere

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Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#51

Post by trimethylpurine »

lucianbr wrote: post #45
bruce511 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In one sense your comment is accurate - hospitals exist to "do something". And yes, in the US the hospital us part of a for-profit health system. But your comment is not limited to hospitals. It's true for every business. If I sell an ice-cream my interest ends after you pay for it. Equally I'm not going to withhold ice-cream from overweight people - my job is to sell ice-cream. If the hospital was a non-profit, and…

> partly because that encompasses all of us, and partly because hospitals and doctors are primed for action, not inaction. This does not in any way justify pushing a patient into action when action may not be the best course for them.

I don't think that's what the previous commenter implied.

Especially in this case, that's not what happened.

Patient was facing a very painful, certain, and more immediate death. Or with surgery the patient might live long enough to discover that the tumor is benign and continue with a decent quality of life.

Action objectively offered a chance of survival that a lack of action could not.

I'd argue that even though it wasn't the outcome he hoped for, the author lived long enough to write this piece because the doctor pushed for action.

I think that fairly well removes profit from consideration. The doctor made the best call from every angle given the facts presented, in my opinion.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#52

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #10

How to avoid tumours growing in brain?

Besides avoiding obvious cancer-causing agents, not much.

In my case, it was a benign tumor (a hemangioma), that sprung a leak. The leak was what caused the problem.

Doctor said it had probably been in my brain, all my life. It just started bleeding, for some unknown reason.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#53

Post by Freak_NL »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #42
Mistletoe wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most brain tumors form in people without any known risk factors. But some factors may increase your risk for brain tumors, such as: >Radiation exposure. People who have had radiation to the head are at higher risk for brain tumors. Most often this exposure comes from radiation therapy used to treat another type of cancer, like leukemia during childhood. >Certain inherited syndromes. People who are born with certain…

What about smoking cigarettes?

Probably irrelevant to consider, given that smoking will significantly raise the risk of a host of other deceases already.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#54

Post by rixed »

hitekker wrote: post #50
sqeaky wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I started with "As you say we do need better advocacy and more transparency in difficult situations" and I agree with that. I just want religion left out of such topics, because it makes everything worse.

You have the freedom to hate religious people, but like the GP says, you may want to vent somewhere else.

The only message showing any sign of hate here is yours right there. Also, I don't think it's ok to ask someone to shut up or to go elsewhere. Let's not forget that being charitable is one of the rules we try to adhere to.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#55

Post by codr7 »

sqeaky wrote: post #33
arp242 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous poster was pretty clear their advice has nothing to do with religion as such: "Having someone - doesn’t have to be religious to be clear - who has been in those rooms can be helpful." Starting a flame about religion is very not appropriate. Please don't do that.

And I started with "As you say we do need better advocacy and more transparency in difficult situations" and I agree with that. I just want religion left out of such topics, because it makes everything worse.

Makes everything worse for you maybe, but that gives you no right to control the discussion. Your reactions are always your responsibility.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#56

Post by FactKnower69 »

arp242 wrote: post #32
sqeaky wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Previous poster was pretty clear their advice has nothing to do with religion as such: "Having someone - doesn’t have to be religious to be clear - who has been in those rooms can be helpful." Starting a flame about religion is very not appropriate. Please don't do that.

>Previous poster was pretty clear their advice has nothing to do with religion

>Sometimes, this is the gift of having a trained chaplain, pastor

oh, yeah?

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#57

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

ta988 wrote: post #40
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, thanks. That's odd - my Google search results didn't have anything predating 2014. Weird. I've updated my post with the correction.

Welcome to the enshittified google. It is becoming increasingly useless to find anything that's not recent and popular.

I’m making an effort to switch to Kagi this month; tried it?

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#58

Post by scotty79 »

lucianbr wrote: post #44
scotty79 wrote: post #15

That's a bit harsh on the doctors. If you or your loved one have a solid mass in the brain an evening of googling can tell you that it's most likely the end of the road rather sooner than later. There's very little anyone can do to help you feel better or retain illusion of agency over your life When you are finding this out it's usually because you already have significant symptoms that progress because growing mass…

Your conclusion does not seem to follow from the premises. > There's very little anyone can do Hence the validity of the "do nothing" option. > If you want to do anything else But you may want to do nothing. There are valid reasons for it. > So a surgery is basically a no brainer Non sequitur. Your context suggests that you think doing something is a good idea because you know of a case where it worked out. This is a…

> Hence the validity of the "do nothing" option.

It's hard. If you knew you are doomed that would be a valid option. But you can't know that even though it's likely. And on a slim chance you are not doomed, choosing to do nothing is pretty much impossible unless you already wanted to die and suffer unitl then. As I said, usually you don't randomly find out about tumor in your brain. Usually you learn about it because of some progressing symptoms. So you decide on a treatment based on those symptoms. Doing nothing when you suffer and something can be done to help with that is very hard despite risks involved and even ultimate pointlessness. You don't make decisions in those situations based on some theoretical existential framework. You make them on practical grounds. And "do nothing" is almost never a result. "Do nothing" is just an option you might regret not takin with hindsight or an option you might consider ahead of time entirely theoretically. In practice this option is almost never chosen and it's not because of doctors comunicate badly and could do better. It's because of practicality and need for maintaining illusion of agency over your life. It's very hard to belive your life will really end even though you know it's true. Doing something really is no brainer, bacause alternative is not really do nothing. It's lie down, suffer and most likely die suffering progressively more and you would have to consciously choose that. Rarely anone does.

> What is this even supposed to mean? Statistics is a useful tool. You're denying it with no argument. "I don't like statistics."

I love statistics. But statistics by its very nature can't predict what will be an outcome of a single coin toss you are about to do. There's nothing that can't predict that singular result. The only thing you really know is that neither head, nor tails is impossible. You life for you isn't a statistic. It's singular.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#59

Post by ryandrake »

nickff wrote: post #47
sqeaky wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My experience of US Christians is that most operate in good faith, and are as open to good mental health as any other group. Some proportion, a particularly vocal portion, have weird views about lots of things. People who think demonic possession is real (again, I am asserting tens of millsions of americans and probablly close to a billion worldwide) are operating in good faith. They actually think that stuff is re…

Was your original comment talking about ‘religious people’, or ‘American Christians who believe in demonic possession’? You seem to be shifting the subject to a favored target, rather than discussing the comment you originally replied to.

That’s the problem with HN comment threads: if you try to make a general point and use broad generalities, people will object and point out counterexamples to nit pick against those generalities. But, instead if you go into specifics, people will nit pick those specifics. You can’t win. It’s an inevitable part of arguing with software engineers who get paid to find the missing negative sign in 1M lines if code: you’re going up against pedants and nit pickers.

I understood OP’s general point as: bringing religion, particularly US Christianity, into life and death decisions is fraught due to its practitioners’ general and typical inability to separate fantasy from reality. With the disclaimer that there are always degrees and exceptions. Sure, it’s a spicy take, but I don’t think he needs to get piled on like he has in this thread.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#60

Post by casenmgreen »

I've not read the article, but I understand from the comments this is about glioblastoma.

I understand that these cancers requires carbs to grow, and going into ketosis - which is to say, fully depleting the body of carbs and having none in your diet - is a highly effective coping mechanism. The cancer basically stops growing. Of course, you then have to live on protein and fat, but better that, than death.

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