My mother's dad died of stomach cancer, my mothers mom had a brain tumor and died of organ failure, my mother was an alcoholic and died of liver failure, my father was an alcoholic and died from massive organ trauma (he made a series of bad decisions in rapid succession), my father's dad had multiple heart attacks and died of complications from MDS, my father's mother is still alive. There's a history of mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and overall poor health on both sides of my family....
That said, I'm taking as good care of myself as I can without going to the extreme. I don't want to deny my one short, brief life the pleasures that are here to be experienced but I also don't want to artificially shorten my (already stacked against) life.
I have decided however that I won't be dying in pain in some hospital if I can at all help it. I've watched it happen. I'll either live somewhere that assisted is allowed, or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS...something, anything, other than the slow waste of a hospital.
As someone (~50) who has spent much of the past 2 months suffering in pain in some hospital, I endorse your decision. Several hospital-issued medication issues there that set me back.
I’m now at home, where I’m slowly healing just as well. As long as I can eat and drink (and failure to be able to do that is what sent me to hosp to begin with), I stay here.
I’m going to come out of this more healthy, I’m determined.
If you’re younger (or older!), I strongly endorse avoiding the pharma industry to the extent possible. The side effects will almost aways catch up to you at some point, usually during a crisis or other sickness. Work on your weak spots “naturally” (eg, if you’re anxious, master meditation and physical workouts). If you’re on a chronic drug, always carefully re-evalulate risks/benefits at least once a year, and find out if there are any new non-pharma approaches.
With a very few exceptions, pharma is about temporarily soothing symptoms while doing nothing for the underlying disease.
The challenge with such recommendations is that the reader must be able to understand which medicine can be safely skipped. I do not believe most people can make this choice safely.
For many conditions, such as arthritis, taking daily medicine is required and skipping that would decrease quality of life dramatically.
However, if you've a sore head then potentially skipping some medicine is fine.
>> With a very few exceptions, pharma is about temporarily soothing symptoms while doing nothing for the underlying disease.
I think you're quite mistaken. Pharma is about improving the quality of life and health outcomes for the patient. Some diseases cannot be magically fixed with drugs, e.g., Parkinson's, etc.
Which arthritis med, exactly? So many have been pulled off the shelf by the FDA.
But Levadopa for Parkinson’s (which I’m highly likely to get if I live long enough), and its newer analogues, may be one of the few worth the trade. Grandparents on both sides w/Parkinson’s.
99% of the other drugs are not worth the tradeoffs, for most people.
When I said Arthritis I actually meant Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), where Sulfasalazine is the recommended and effective drug treatment. I don't know much about osteoarthritis (OA) so cannot comment on it.
>> But Levadopa for Parkinson’s (which I’m highly likely to get if I live long enough), and its newer analogues, may be one of the few worth the trade. Grandparents on both sides w/Parkinson’s.
I'm very sorry to hear that. Are you taking any "precautions" to (potentially) delay or mitigate the onset of Parkinson's, e.g., healthy eating, exercise, etc? Do you think knowing what you know has had an impact on how you lead your life currently (#Yolo)?
Note: I'm a researcher in an adjacent field (digital health) and so please don't take anything above as medical fact.
That’s how I felt in my 20s. What’s above is my opinion in my 50s, after multiple hospitalizations and serious chronic illnesses.
Best option of all is to stay fit. Some of mine were out of my control (genetics), but some were probably not. And the extent to which the genetic ones expressed was probably somewhat in my control.
Well, yeah, I'm talking after regular exercise and a good diet.
I've seen people give in to stuff like wrist magnets and rejecting vaccines because they didn't like "chemicals in their body".
Why have this whole industry if people reject it?
I personally have the opposite problem - I can't get what I need.
I managed to a few times and can tell my life is noticeably worse without medication. So I guess this is the result of my experience so far.
Seeing people with access to prescriptions or suppliers who simply refuse to try "chemicals" because they can't be arsed to experiment or even learn how they work makes me sad.
I've also done some eldercare. I will be dying at home. All relations know that under no circumstances will I end up in a retirement home, or worse. That's a fate worse than death.
I've asked my family doctor to help plan ahead. So that it's my decision. Like getting a home euthanasia kit. Or whatever.
All of that advance planning might go out the window if you start to suffer from dementia and are judged to be mentally incompetent. Those relations could end up putting you into an elder care facility because you're unable to care for yourself and they don't want to facilitate your suicide. Most jurisdictions that allow assisted suicide require the patient to be of sound mind.
Yup. I worry about that. Happened to one of my relations (whom we were caring for). My primary motivation to preplan. Will keep my kit secret. I don't want to solely trust my relations to honor my wishes. But nothing's certain.
Highly likely that you won't. Standing there, ready to go, your survival instinct will go into overdrive and suddenly living a bit longer regardless of the pain won't seem so bad.
Oh, I thought it meant suicide by drowning (and becoming fish food). Pretty high chance of success... if you can take the leap. It's harder than you'd think.
You can't detect the lack of oxygen, only the buildup of carbon dioxide. You just get tired and pass out, it takes about two minutes. There's no panic.
If I'm ready to log off because my life has become weakness and pain, I'm not going to chicken out. But I'm not afraid of death, it's the dying I'm not so stoked about.
That said, I'm taking as good care of myself as I can without going to the extreme. I don't want to deny my one short, brief life the pleasures that are here to be experienced but I also don't want to artificially shorten my (already stacked against) life.
I have decided however that I won't be dying in pain in some hospital if I can at all help it. I've watched it happen. I'll either live somewhere that assisted is allowed, or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS...something, anything, other than the slow waste of a hospital.