5 ms·

Much of my adult life was the same way. We used to talk about how great our family had it -- we went for decades without losing anyone close. We knew eventual

Much of my adult life was the same way. We used to talk about how great our family had it -- we went for decades without losing anyone close. We knew eventually our turn would come, but I treasured the time we did have. But come it did, about 7 years ago. Since then I've lost two brothers, my dad, my grandparents, and my best friend. The trite "fuck cancer" statement comes to mind regularly. Another friend of mine has cancer, my mom has terminal cancer, my stepmother has cancer... > I think I'm gonna call my mom. Always a good plan, I highly recommend it. I think I will do the same. Treasure your loved ones, even when times are good it can change suddenly.

adamredwoods 5y ago
I've also lost several loved ones from cancer. Stopping the metastatic progression is key to survival, but wow do cancerous cells ever know how to survive. We need to win this.
wnolens 5y ago
The same has happened to me. It's been almost every 1-2 years for the past 10 that I experience another great loss. Most recently was my mother. That one was/still is tough.
subsubzero 5y ago
I was in the same boat. Never experienced a death in my family until my Grandmother died in '18, then my Brother dies a few months later, then my Grandfather in '19 and then an Aunt in 2019 and a uncle in 2020. Needless to say its been very rough and made me realize life is incredibly fragile and enjoy every minute of your time on this planet.
loeg 5y ago
Found out my buddy has brain cancer last week. Fuck cancer.
gerdesj 5y ago
>> I think I'm gonna call my mom. >>>Always a good plan, I highly recommend it. I think I will do the same. Treasure your loved ones, even when times are good it can change suddenly. Absolutely. Now, I hope this does not come across as trite but I lost my mum to cancer in 1997. I was 27 at the time. It was hard, very hard as you'd expect. Time does heal but it takes a lot of time. I can still call my mum and she sometimes responds. Not literally - that's mad. I can still remember her values and guidance. That won't be same for everyone because loss is personal and so is all experience. I've buried (in the loss sense, not mass murderer sense) quite a lot of relos and it is hard and part of life. Whatever happens, you can always call your mum and she'll always be there in some way.
- javajosh 5y ago
  Same thing with my dad. I don't talk to him, but I can clearly see his face smiling at me, and hear his laugh, and it helps.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  > I hope this does not come across as trite Not at all. I'm sorry for your loss, and thank you for sharing with us - who all have or will lose someone - a way to heal.
lenkite 5y ago
Sorry for your loss. Losing so many people in such a short time is devastating. People talk about to going to Mars or other planets as a stupendous achievement. And it is. But I believe what would be the greatest human achievement would be fully conquering these leading causes of death: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease..and finally the biggest cause of death and the final frontier: dying of old age. Even an extension of human lifespan by a several decades in good health could transform civilisation. Yet, it seems that medical science has progressed only a few feet while industry/tech has sprinted miles. Life expectancy has plateaued and even declined across the world.
- lelanthran 5y ago
  TLDR - Before you cure cancer, you need to "cure" aging. > But I believe what would be the greatest human achievement would be fully conquering these leading causes of death: cancer, I dunno about the others, but with cancer I don't think it is possible to "cure" it. It's the result of a bad mutation when a cell reproduces (AIUI, it's to do with telomere lengths and statistically certain low-frequency events). Each cell that reproduces will do so imperfectly, and normally those random mutations aren't too bad. Statistically, one of those mutations will eventually be a mutation that causes the cell to reproduce without limits (normal cells don't reproduce very fast). Hence, the longer you live, the greater the chance of a bad mutation, i.e. cancer. The only way to "cure" cancer, then, will be to have cells reproduce perfectly, in which case you have effective immortality as long as no other disease or event kills you.
  - suifbwish 5y ago
    And yet there are species of animals that can live well over 500 years without aging much. If it just comes down to errors, perhaps we should focus on finding better error repair mechanisms. If half the money that went into building the ad platforms was put into senescence repair mechanisms, who knows where we would be. One sad thing about pointless high paying tech jobs is they often take brilliant minds and set them to work building a better bean counter in exchange for money. A good portion of work done every day by Silicon Valley will have no lasting benefit and will be completely thrown out. Humans are smart enough to understand this but not smart enough to break the meaningless cycle and work on goals that will benefit society over the next 1000 years.

adamredwoods 5y ago

I've also lost several loved ones from cancer. Stopping the metastatic progression is key to survival, but wow do cancerous cells ever know how to survive. We need to win this.

wnolens 5y ago

The same has happened to me. It's been almost every 1-2 years for the past 10 that I experience another great loss. Most recently was my mother. That one was/still is tough.

subsubzero 5y ago

I was in the same boat. Never experienced a death in my family until my Grandmother died in '18, then my Brother dies a few months later, then my Grandfather in '19 and then an Aunt in 2019 and a uncle in 2020. Needless to say its been very rough and made me realize life is incredibly fragile and enjoy every minute of your time on this planet.

loeg 5y ago

Found out my buddy has brain cancer last week. Fuck cancer.

gerdesj 5y ago

>> I think I'm gonna call my mom. >>>Always a good plan, I highly recommend it. I think I will do the same. Treasure your loved ones, even when times are good it can change suddenly. Absolutely. Now, I hope this does not come across as trite but I lost my mum to cancer in 1997. I was 27 at the time. It was hard, very hard as you'd expect. Time does heal but it takes a lot of time. I can still call my mum and she sometimes responds. Not literally - that's mad. I can still remember her values and guidance. That won't be same for everyone because loss is personal and so is all experience. I've buried (in the loss sense, not mass murderer sense) quite a lot of relos and it is hard and part of life. Whatever happens, you can always call your mum and she'll always be there in some way.

javajosh 5y ago
Same thing with my dad. I don't talk to him, but I can clearly see his face smiling at me, and hear his laugh, and it helps.
wolverine876 5y ago
> I hope this does not come across as trite Not at all. I'm sorry for your loss, and thank you for sharing with us - who all have or will lose someone - a way to heal.

lenkite 5y ago

Sorry for your loss. Losing so many people in such a short time is devastating. People talk about to going to Mars or other planets as a stupendous achievement. And it is. But I believe what would be the greatest human achievement would be fully conquering these leading causes of death: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease..and finally the biggest cause of death and the final frontier: dying of old age. Even an extension of human lifespan by a several decades in good health could transform civilisation. Yet, it seems that medical science has progressed only a few feet while industry/tech has sprinted miles. Life expectancy has plateaued and even declined across the world.

lelanthran 5y ago
TLDR - Before you cure cancer, you need to "cure" aging. > But I believe what would be the greatest human achievement would be fully conquering these leading causes of death: cancer, I dunno about the others, but with cancer I don't think it is possible to "cure" it. It's the result of a bad mutation when a cell reproduces (AIUI, it's to do with telomere lengths and statistically certain low-frequency events). Each cell that reproduces will do so imperfectly, and normally those random mutations aren't too bad. Statistically, one of those mutations will eventually be a mutation that causes the cell to reproduce without limits (normal cells don't reproduce very fast). Hence, the longer you live, the greater the chance of a bad mutation, i.e. cancer. The only way to "cure" cancer, then, will be to have cells reproduce perfectly, in which case you have effective immortality as long as no other disease or event kills you.
- suifbwish 5y ago
  And yet there are species of animals that can live well over 500 years without aging much. If it just comes down to errors, perhaps we should focus on finding better error repair mechanisms. If half the money that went into building the ad platforms was put into senescence repair mechanisms, who knows where we would be. One sad thing about pointless high paying tech jobs is they often take brilliant minds and set them to work building a better bean counter in exchange for money. A good portion of work done every day by Silicon Valley will have no lasting benefit and will be completely thrown out. Humans are smart enough to understand this but not smart enough to break the meaningless cycle and work on goals that will benefit society over the next 1000 years.