Fair enough. Die of some awful ass cancer if you like, or cough up your lungs for weeks on end clawing desperately for that last breath. I counsel against it, but no skin off my nose if you choose otherwise.
Is it ass cancer or dick cancer? I guess it doesn’t really matter. I agree with your sentiment, HMS. I too was only trying to answer what seemed to be a question. Now I’m coming to regret my concern.
And you finally get to your (hard-core golfer) dream golf course in Scotland!
But the Chemo has weakened you to the point that you cannot even walk it, let alone play it.He watched his wife play the course from his seat on a golf cart.
Some Bucket List.
Choose your poison, son.
I choose a tank of helium because it’s painless, and kind of funny if we’re being honest. What do you choose, and why?
Actually, it seems to me (since this is IMHO) that what you’re actually regretting is that your abysmal ignorance concerning prostate cancer screening was revealed.
Or do you think that you know better than most of the top-tier medical professionals?
(The same goes for HMS Irruncible. Is it really too much to ask that people refrain from spreading ignorance on this board?)
Considering the OP thinks that pneumonia is a pleasant way to go, I’d ask who’s the one actually spreading ignorance here?
Ignorance or simply not understanding?
Once again: I do NOT think pneumonia is a “good” thing.
Are you with me so far?
OK.
Now: the term “old person’s friend” is not MY CREATION. It goes back a few generations, as far as I can tell.
Now, here is the tricky part:
Sometimes, you don’t get a choice between “good” and “bad” outcomes.
Sometimes, all you can hope for is “less bad”.
How many times do I have to use my poor, dead grandmother as an example?
She was physically and mentally GONE. LEFT THE BUILDING.
But there was no physical or medical reason for her to die.
Under this condition, pneumonia WAS a blessing.
One time, as she drifted back out of consciousness, she didn’t wake up.
She was not “fighting for breath” - that is something only hale and hearty types do.
I refuse to go through this thread and count how many times this has been explained by myself and others.
Forget ignorance - first we need to work on “reading for comprehension”.
You asked, in your OP:
I answered:
I’m curious about what you think of my answer to your question.
Ahh, so you did intend to be insulting. Very good.
Where exactly do you see me advocating for general screening? Nowhere in this thread! You must have pulled that one out of someplace else. You can shove it right back where you got it.
Biopsy is not screening, although it may be employed as a result of screening. I agree that most men should not be screened unless they’re in a high risk group, as Qadgop said. I took the OP as meaning he was already past the screening stage and was mulling his next step. And I felt sympathy, given that he seemed to be considering suicide by respiratory failure rather than pursuing a determination of the actual cancer status of his prostate.
Clearly I was mistaken. The OP apparently wants neither sympathy nor information, as he has rejected both from various posters including at least one with extensive relevant knowledge. Instead he wants to lambaste the medical establishment while conducting a philosophical lecture about end-of-life choices. But he’s having an argument with himself, in fact, since no one has actually advocated any contrary position except “pneumonia is commonly a really shitty way to die”. And he lectures us on reading comprehension! Nope, I’m not interested in continuing.
This is the kind of idea I was looking for (before all the distractions). :rolleyes:
If the vaccines (I have another to go) just take out the “annoying as Hell to otherwise healthy people” bugs, but leave the function of “Old People’s Friend”, then they fall completely in the “Hell yes, get them”.
I was simply speculating that we sometimes need a back-up “escape mechanism” to get out of bad situation.
If there are still plenty of bugs if we become weak enough, no problem.
And: (Belated) “Thank you” for an intelligent response.
Can we just stop with the prostate screening/biopsie/surgery/Chemo/other treatment?
At least in this thread?
On the plus side, the
“suggesting is that you get tested for it regularly even though you have no symptoms. Yes, there are sometimes false readings but the majority of times there aren’t.”
mindset has maybe gotten the news that wholesale screenings and aggressive responses are no longer viewed as “good things”.
And we have even established that, for most of us, during most of our lives, pneumonia is a “BAD” thing.
Note to self: Next time, do not use simple words or show examples.
Had I not mentioned “it means pneumonia” we could have avoided the OMG! How dare he think a disease is a “Good” thing! mindset.
Had I not used the prostate screening example of “cure worse than disease”, we could have avoided *that *trainwreck.
Take heart – the vaccine could always prove ineffectual for you.
As a lifelong asthmatic, I agree.
If you exhibit symptoms of prostate problems and have them checked out, you are not receiving a ***screening ***PSA. If there are symptoms, the testing done is diagnostic in nature.
Same test; different timeframe and intent.
We are discussing screening PSAs here, the kind that used to be pushed annually, but which we’ve learned have turned up a shedload of false-positives and unpleasant and unnecessary surgeries.
How long ago was this? While the chemo for testicular cancer is probably the most brutal regimen on earth, most types of the disease now have a high cure rate, and there are various antidotes given along with (the most likely culprit) cisplatin to counteract the damage it can cause. I just wish something could be done about the hearing loss, if not outright deafness, that results from cisplatin and some other chemo drugs. 
As for not having your prostate checked, even if you refuse treatment for cancer, urinary retention from a swollen prostate isn’t a very fun way to go either.
Back in the old day, pneumonia was indeed called “the old man’s friend” because it would lead to anoxia and the person would basically sleep their way out.
This picture pops up on Facebook periodically. I know it isn’t Photoshopped, because I used to live in the city where it was, and drove by it many times. 
He died in 2013, mid-60’s old.
I took a quick look at the wiki for cisplatin - good lord, could we come up with a nastier drug if we tried?
I keep running into the thought: “If I knew I’d find out this much about medicine, I’d have been an M.D.”.
I do not know if the cancer had metastasized or if he was even considered for transplant.
We finally got through the “PSA will save us from having a finger stuck in our butts!” mindset, and now what is the news:
“Look! a new urine test which is 95% accurate*!” “Now we can screen everybody and still not have to have a finger up the butt!”.
-
- test group is too small be of any import, and the subjects had already been diagnosed.
IOW: this “news” is pure BS.
- test group is too small be of any import, and the subjects had already been diagnosed.
p.s. - I want to meet the guy with the spray paint.
I hated mixing the stuff up. I sure hope I never have to take it.
The HT3 antiemetics (Zofran, Aloxi, Anzemet, Kytril, etc.) were invented primarily to treat the nausea and vomiting that this specific drug causes; the old antiemetics like Phenergan and Compazine did not work for people on this med.
Echoing this good advice.
Pneumonia does in fact kill a lot of aging, debilitated people with or without dementia. It is not a blessing to get pneumonia and go through a protracted hospital course (possibly exposing you to other pathogens) while you are still healthy and active. Vaccination reduces your risk.
An exceptionally nasty drug even in the realm of nasty-by-definition drugs.
(kids: look up how chemo works. it is not sunshine and lollipops)
How much disclosure do the patients actually get before consenting to this treatment?
Is it all covered under an umbrella “Agree to Chemo” consent?
Yes, your hair is going to fall off. Yes you will go deaf, and quite possibly blind as well. Oh yes, this stuff attacks all kinds of nerves, so it’s a craps shoot as to how well your brain will work or your sense of smell or even tactile.
But, hey - we might knock out that nasty “cancer”.
Do they ever even ask “If it does work, how many more months of this really-pleasant-blind-deaf-and-dumb life do I get?”?