Tag: end of life

This is a tough subject and I am going to obscure some of the details for privacy purposes.  I am sure that there are people who can guess the subject and circumstances because they already know.  To them, I would say please respect the privacy of this person’s wish.  I am, by not naming or getting in depth with the details I think that this is a lesson for all of us. 

There is someone that I know that has a likely, terminal illness.  After seeking multiple opinions and specialists, the prognosis is ‘never been successfully treated’.  As every person in different, we don’t know what that really means in terms of what is the quality (and duration) or remaining life is.  I have an opinion based on observing  progressing symptoms, but I will keep that to myself.   

Growing up, I frequently worked with a local doctor doing odd jobs.  He told me one time that 90% of the men that make it to age 80 have prostate cancer.  I know people that have it right now.  The good news is that for the majority of men, they die of something else before prostate cancer.  My point is that there is ‘living’ with a fatal disease.

Let’s be honest, some day our day is coming.  I remember sitting in church one time and the subject of salvation came up.  The pastor was trying to get across and the idea of ‘still having time’ is one of the primary motivators for people’s sin.  I think death is like that as well.  When we do not have a sense of when the last day will be, we ignore doing the things that we should probably be doing thinking we still have more time.

Why am I talking about this today?  My observation of this person’s behavior is that they are so scared of dying that they are not living.  What does that mean?  I got a communication on Sunday from this person out of the blue that if I had been around any unmasked people that I should self quarantine for the five days prior to visiting.  Everyone reading this knows that Monday I talked about running around mask less on Saturday and Sunday.  

It is not that I am intentionally disrespecting this person, it is quite the opposite.  I even had a conversation with them in November stating that they have the right to direct treatment in any way they see fit; that includes barring people that have not worn a mask.  If I can, I will accommodate and I will take reasonable precautions and respect their wishes.  At this point, I am not going to change my values and beliefs just because we have philosophical differences.

As I do, I will digress a moment here.  This is a person that had Covid about three months ago and survived.   This is a person that has had all of the shots, including the booster.  Granted, I am not an expert in the current treatment, but I have dealt with enough doctors and the medical system to know that they are never going to give the green light to live your life, your way.  There is just too much risk out there, including their own liability.  

This is also a person never got deprogrammed and would see a headline and that would immediately support delusional constructs.  Try this one on “Immigrant Children Detained for Illegal Entry”.  This turned into Trump is coming for all of brown people and they have been separated from their parents to never be reunited as they will die in the concentration camps.  

When I talk about sharing more in similarities than differences I am talking about this situation.  I didn’t investigate the source of the information.  I would love to see the border open, if we get rid of the welfare state.  I am probably against separating children and parents in detainment.  But, who really knows the circumstances?  Maybe they were picked up separately, maybe it wasn’t safe to have kids with adults, what if the parents disowned them because they thought it was more likely they would make it into the USA?  My point is that you can’t just assume that the story is as reported.

A long time ago, I liked to listen to Dr. Dean Edell on the radio.  He was talking to someone about an eating disorder.  He said that they have done studies that starving rats would slow down metabolism and that they would live a longer life.  His point was however at what cost?  And do we know for sure?  What if you starved for 40 years to get cancer or hit by a truck, was that extra life worth it?

I have a step-Grandmother.  When I was young, she used to scare me (and my brother).  She would yell at us and shoe us outside from the pool table so that we wouldn’t interrupt her soap operas.  This was in the 1980s.  Amazingly, she had three VCRs to tape all of the soap operas concurrently.  My opinion now is that she was rough around the edges and didn’t have the patience for children.  As time has gone on, I have come to see a change to a sweet, old lady.  I do think it is a change of personality from my youth as a result of realizing that loneliness is worse than missing out on TV shows.

Getting back to my point here.  Fear is the result of programming.  Combine hope with fear and you have premature death.  By no means do I want to remove hope.  This is one of the main ingredients in successful treatment.    However, hope is not the same as living.  Hope will lead you to wait until the treatment is done and I think likely too late.  

End Your Programming Routine: At this point, I am not in a position to make the same decision fortunately.  I can’t help to think that if I was, I would choose my path differently. My wife accuses me of living in the future and not in the present, so I am not immune.  This does cause me sometimes to pause and analyze my behavior.  I still have time.