5 ms·

Chemotherapy is scary. It seems so counterintuitive to choose to inflict this kind of damage to oneself, in the hopes that it will prevent an even worse outcome

Chemotherapy is scary. It seems so counterintuitive to choose to inflict this kind of damage to oneself, in the hopes that it will prevent an even worse outcome. Part of it is that there is this nagging feeling that it might not even be the right approach, given the legion of side effects of all kinds. Even oncologists get vague and evasive when this is questioned. In the end we can only rely on generalized statistics about survival rates, unsure of how it applies to individual situations. I disagree with the anger people often show towards cancer. It's like people project some kind of malignant personality onto the phenomenon. I think of it as a natural part of life, like early hair loss. You can die from it, but death comes anyway, for one reason or another. At least with cancer you have time to get used to the idea, unlike an accident, heart attack or whatever. I guess I am a bit of a fatalist.

firethief 7y ago
I don't understand what it means to "disagree" with someone else's personal emotional reaction. You wish people faced with some of the worst possible news would Vulcan up? Even from a coolly logical perspective, the slowness of it is not necessarily a bonus. It's not pretty. There's often a lot of pain.
md224 7y ago
> It seems so counterintuitive to choose to inflict this kind of damage to oneself, in the hopes that it will prevent an even worse outcome. Especially since the "worse outcome" -- your own non-existence -- is the one thing in the Universe you are guaranteed to never experience (though your loved ones can experience your non-existence, and that can be a good reason to try to avoid it).
- huherto 7y ago
  > your own non-existence - Why is it so hard to accept this? Why is it so scary?
  - jcims 7y ago
    Probably because, despite all the bullshit, everything we love is here too.
  - nql 7y ago
    My thought is that it is because humans are prediction machines, and death is the most unpredictable event possible. Many cultures try to make death predictable by introducing concepts of heaven, which does seem to work for people who believe it.
  - cgriswald 7y ago
    I’m pretty accepting of it, and in a weird way kind of looking forward to either “sleeping forever” or finding out I’m wrong about what happens. Still, in certain moments thinking about it, I feel fear. I think it’s instinctual. That said, I think I fear the moments before death more than death. I went to the hospital recently for chest pain. Heart issues run in my family. Both grandfathers and all but one of my uncles (on both sides) had heart attacks before they were my current age. I do keep myself generally healthier than they ever did, but of course a huge chunk of it is genetic. I didn’t feel I was having a heart attack, but I didn’t know. (I wasn’t, I found out later.) I felt a significant level of fear. My fear wasn’t really focused on death, but on never leaving the hospital; on the last time I did things being the last time; on being trapped, in a sense, prevented from doing the things I still wanted to do; and leaving my girlfriend and daughter to deal with either a protracted illness or my absence. Death itself wasn’t really a worry. I think I kind of grok that things won’t be my problem anymore then and I’m cool with it. On the other hand, maybe that’s just delusion. I’ll be third in line when they start handing out immortality shots. (Trying to split the difference between flawed implementations and over-regulation.) I think it’s just because I like to live, but maybe I’m just afraid not to.
  - robotresearcher 7y ago
    It’s the same scary as the state before you were born, ie. not at all.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- garaetjjte 7y ago
  >is the one thing in the Universe you are guaranteed to never experience Isn't this whole reason why dying is so scary? It would be less scary to die if there was some kind of afterlife (this is popular view given existence of various religions).
vo2maxer 7y ago
Ten years after my mother’s death from cancer, I still have trouble when I remember her long agonizing death. I didn’t get use to it then, and I wouldn’t describe my feelings now as significantly better. The pain has become somewhat less intense, blunted by blurred memories. The death rattle went on for an eternity, and still haunts me. So, no, I wouldn’t say I got used to it. And, yes, I am still very angry at such a biological “evil,” capable of killing indiscriminately both young and old. I respectfully disagree with your fatalism when it comes to the suffering and death of a loved one.

firethief 7y ago

I don't understand what it means to "disagree" with someone else's personal emotional reaction. You wish people faced with some of the worst possible news would Vulcan up? Even from a coolly logical perspective, the slowness of it is not necessarily a bonus. It's not pretty. There's often a lot of pain.

md224 7y ago

> It seems so counterintuitive to choose to inflict this kind of damage to oneself, in the hopes that it will prevent an even worse outcome. Especially since the "worse outcome" -- your own non-existence -- is the one thing in the Universe you are guaranteed to never experience (though your loved ones can experience your non-existence, and that can be a good reason to try to avoid it).

huherto 7y ago
> your own non-existence - Why is it so hard to accept this? Why is it so scary?
- jcims 7y ago
  Probably because, despite all the bullshit, everything we love is here too.
- nql 7y ago
  My thought is that it is because humans are prediction machines, and death is the most unpredictable event possible. Many cultures try to make death predictable by introducing concepts of heaven, which does seem to work for people who believe it.
- cgriswald 7y ago
  I’m pretty accepting of it, and in a weird way kind of looking forward to either “sleeping forever” or finding out I’m wrong about what happens. Still, in certain moments thinking about it, I feel fear. I think it’s instinctual. That said, I think I fear the moments before death more than death. I went to the hospital recently for chest pain. Heart issues run in my family. Both grandfathers and all but one of my uncles (on both sides) had heart attacks before they were my current age. I do keep myself generally healthier than they ever did, but of course a huge chunk of it is genetic. I didn’t feel I was having a heart attack, but I didn’t know. (I wasn’t, I found out later.) I felt a significant level of fear. My fear wasn’t really focused on death, but on never leaving the hospital; on the last time I did things being the last time; on being trapped, in a sense, prevented from doing the things I still wanted to do; and leaving my girlfriend and daughter to deal with either a protracted illness or my absence. Death itself wasn’t really a worry. I think I kind of grok that things won’t be my problem anymore then and I’m cool with it. On the other hand, maybe that’s just delusion. I’ll be third in line when they start handing out immortality shots. (Trying to split the difference between flawed implementations and over-regulation.) I think it’s just because I like to live, but maybe I’m just afraid not to.
- robotresearcher 7y ago
  It’s the same scary as the state before you were born, ie. not at all.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
garaetjjte 7y ago
>is the one thing in the Universe you are guaranteed to never experience Isn't this whole reason why dying is so scary? It would be less scary to die if there was some kind of afterlife (this is popular view given existence of various religions).

vo2maxer 7y ago

Ten years after my mother’s death from cancer, I still have trouble when I remember her long agonizing death. I didn’t get use to it then, and I wouldn’t describe my feelings now as significantly better. The pain has become somewhat less intense, blunted by blurred memories. The death rattle went on for an eternity, and still haunts me. So, no, I wouldn’t say I got used to it. And, yes, I am still very angry at such a biological “evil,” capable of killing indiscriminately both young and old. I respectfully disagree with your fatalism when it comes to the suffering and death of a loved one.