Ever think about what you would do in similar circumstances? Faced with a terminal diagnosis, I would choose the same path as Mr. Johnson. I'm not going to spend what little time I have left hoping for a miracle, looking for a holistic treatment or trying experimental drugs.
In a way it could be a totally liberating experience. You could pretty much say or do, within the limits of the law, whatever you like. Mend fences with friends and family you may have hurt. Settle scores with assholes you never liked. Tell everyone what you really think. Drink to excess every day. Try heroin. Try crack. Hookers every day. It's like having a free pass.
Six months. The clock is ticking. What would you do?
7 comments:
I have found over the years people often change their minds when faced with mortality and go for treatment. Sometime children influence their decision. I have thought about it and the two of us have talked about it. We have made the decision you said you would make, and hope the pain can be managed.
If there were no hope, I hope I would opt for your decision.
isn't that pretty much how you live your life now?
I guess it is, minus the heroin, crack and hookers.
My grandma chose the same path a little over a year ago when she had cancer. She didn't want to put herself through the pain to delay the inevitable (and she was 78). I respected the hell out of that decision.
I would do the same; especially if there was no hope. It would allow a person to get their affairs in order with a clear mind. Maybe mend a few fences or make a few more enemies.
It would most certainly depend on the age I was. Being a former supervisor of an in home care agency, I saw all lives affected with both decisions. I have seen people die with grace, untreated by radiation or chemo, and I have seen folks die with the treatment sooner than later, anyway. I have and currently have a friend who is 57 and choose chemo treatments. It has, thankfully, extended her life a few years already. She does have her periods of down time, but she's still kickin' even working part time.
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