If you had cancer..

[CottonTop]

and were told you only had 6 months to live and that chemo or radiation would only give you say....3 extra months but you'd be sick all the time from the treatment, would you take your 6 months or try for the extra 3? What if they caught the cancer earlier and you had a 50/50 chance of beating it but the treatment would severely affect your quality of life with no guarantee that you would beat it, would you do it or let nature take its course?

 

Just curious.

[stewpot54]

I would not have treatment.I have seen too many go through hell on medical intervention and the end result is still the same.

I think young people should try everything that is available though.

[CottonTop]

Well, what do you consider "young" then? What if it was someone my age, 44, who had grown children versus someone my age that had small children?

 

I think, in this day and age of medical advances, that we are all taught that we have to fight, fight, fight and never give in. But that might not really be in someone's best interest. If it were me and I had received what amounts to a death sentence,I wouldn't have treatment either, stewpot. I would rather enjoy the time I have than be sick trying to delay the inevitable.

[Saffy]

My father in law has now decided to live his live in the quality not quantity stakes .. A hard decision to make, but the chemo was making him so ill. I think there comes a point where "you've had enough" .. and want to live the life you have left without feeling incredibly ill.

[norks]

My father developed lung cancer and the doctors told us that it was terminal.

Against my wishes my family decided not to tell him and he underwent chemo and radiation. It was an horrendous proccess and two weeks into the chemo then cancer had spread to his lympth nodes so they tried radiation, two weeks after that it had spread to his brain and two weeks after that he was dead.

I would always always let nature take it course. I watched my father fade from a great man to a shell and at the very end cancer even robbed him of speech.

In my opinion, sometimes radiation and chemotherapy make matters a whole lot worse.

[lubylou]

After reading your post Norks, im kind of glad my dad wasnt offered any treatment then, because he became ill enough with the brain tumors and lung cancer he had anyway, it sounds like it would have just made him worse, thankfully he got to spend some amount of normal time with us before he was bed ridden. So no, if i was given 3 months, i wouldnt have any treatment, but if it was a 50/50 thing, im not sure, i think i would try then.

[harvey19]

I think a subject like this is better discussed privately with doctors and family.

[stewpot54]

Well, what do you consider "young" then? What if it was someone my age, 44, who had grown children versus someone my age that had small children?

 

I think, in this day and age of medical advances, that we are all taught that we have to fight, fight, fight and never give in. But that might not really be in someone's best interest. If it were me and I had received what amounts to a death sentence,I wouldn't have treatment either, stewpot. I would rather enjoy the time I have than be sick trying to delay the inevitable.

Of course anyone with a good prognosis must give treatment a chance.

I was referring to the old amongst us who would perhaps just like to be comfortable with the help of drug relief and not try to fight the inevitable.

[kimba]

Would be an awfull deciion to have to make

[katy1981]

if it was me and they told me it was terminal and the treatment would only give me a few extra months but id be ill all the time id decline it as i have watched my own farther suffer severly just to have a bit longer with us (not by his choice) it my family who refused to accept the situation. i would enjoy any time i had left with my family and children.

 

if on the other hand i had a 50/50 chance then i would take the treatment as theres a chance and i know my children and family would want me to fight if theres a chance at least if i did die eventually from it they would know i tried what i could to stay with them, its regardless how old they would be it wil still hurt them the same.