Of all the awful infirmities I have seen being paralyzed to me would be the worst. I have had some clients that were paralyzed post stroke and the lucky ones only get one sided paralysis. I had one lady that I had to quit because she was so miserable. Not only was she paralyzed but she could not talk or swallow. I had to tube feed her through a tube going into her stomach.
She would chase me around in her motorized wheel chair, shut of her IV on purpose, ring her bell non stop, throw fits and cry. It was just too much.
Not to me. I’m not alone in fearing helplessness or extreme dependence on others much more than death. In fact, though I voted for blindness myself, I should probably have voted for total paralysis as the wost fate, as it would deprive me of the ability to choose to check out.
ETA: I’m quite survived that anyone voted for impotence.
Paralysis would be the worst fate to me. I value my independence. But if it were a loved one, I’m not sure paralysis would strike me as the worst fate for them. I’m not sure that makes any sense, but I gave up sense-making for Lent.
It makes sense to me. If I had to choose between quadriplegia or death for myself, I think I’d choose death (so long as it were relatively quick and painless). But if I had to make the choice for my wife, stepdaughter, or one of my sisters, I’d probably want them to live.
Amputation. Reason: my mother had type 2. She had one leg amputated below the knee due to gangrene. She went in to have her other leg amputated, went into a coma, and never came out. If she had taken care of herself, that might not have happened.
As the mom of a type 1, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. Sure, it’s hard starting out, but a lot of it becomes routine. And it’s made a little easier with the addition of an insulin pump. Diabetes does not have to be a fatal disease. Sure, there’s no cure: but it can be managed until there is one.
This is the attitude I try to take. Well, sort of. I tend to think that when I die it will be in some way related to my diabetes (unless I say Fool of a Took! the the wrong person one day), but I intend to do everything I can to stave off that day.
It also seems to me that ToeJam is using the term insulin resistance incorrectly. As I understand it, it refers to the body’s inability to use insulin correctly, not to the pancreas’s inability to create insulin in sufficient quantity.
Yes, I was just using a casual term for Type II diabetes, as I couldn’t recall the actual medical term for that specific late stage complication. I can only recall hearing it referred to it as “pancreas burnout” which is certainly not the proper term. But it’s where basically due to overproduction of insulin and increasing insulin resistance eventually the pancreas itself is no longer able to produce any further insulin, and basically ceases functioning…
Ah, apparently it’s called “Beta cell exhaustion” - anyways, here’s a Cite.
The idea of having both Type II AND type I just seems like a hassle, but I’ll stick with the idea of dialysis as my fear- as I only really fear a death sentence in the sense of waiting to die. Blindness does not worry me, nor does paralysis (assuming my mind is intact). But the idea of waiting on a list to live/die and burning resources in the meanwhile to keep me alive- that’s scary.
Though I’m pleased to hear that some people have been doing well on dialysis- the way it was presented in class with things like spontaneous peritonitis and crazy ascites, rampant MRSA, and things like uric acid buildup just made it seem really scary and NOT at all pleasant.
Blindness wouldn’t be fun to adapt to but having had blind friends before I refuse to think that it’s the worst thing ever. I could learn to deal with it. Not that it wouldn’t suck, but I’ve seen blind people getting along just fine. Humans are adaptable.
Paralysis would suck hard, depending on the extent of it. Given all of these options that’s the one I would least want. But I suspect I could learn to deal with it as well if I had to.