If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, would you want your doctor to tell you ? When would you want to know? Early enough to do a few things you may have wanted to accomplish in life? Or, at the very end of the progression of the disease when it is time for hospice? Be sure to state why either choice, or a choice that isn’t mentioned here, is important to you.
Originally posted 2016-08-10 21:36:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
I want to know as soon as they know. Just because that’s what usually happens doesn’t mean it will definitely happen. New discoveries for treatment happen all the time. I would be hopeful for that, I guess, but at the same time, I would be mindful that my time with friends and family may be short.
I don’t want anyone else deciding what they will or will not tell me about my own illness. I want to know what’s up, and then I will find a way to deal with it and make the best decisions for me and my family. I don’t want anyone else thinking they have the right to do that for me.
I would want to know as soon as possible. I would want to get my affairs in order and cherish the limited time I have with my family and friends. I wouldn’t want to leave anything unsaid and as sad as a terminal diagnosis is, it is also a great gift that you can do all of those things to make it easier on your family.
I also would want to have a say in the decision making part of the process about my treatment, progression, end of life decisions and even after life arrangements.
I would want to know as early as possible.
I used to love the country song, “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. He sings:
I went sky divin’,
I went rocky mountain climbin’,
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fumanchu.
And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I’ve been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin’.
Today, I hate this song. I lost someone to cancer who had no idea she was near death until two days before she passed. Every time I hear that song all I can think about is how its author must never have had cancer, and of how my loved one was robbed of doing what she wanted most to do in life. Had she been told just a few short weeks earlier, things would have ended so differently.