Lucidending and his few hours to live

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fy6yz/51_hours_left_to_live/

His views upon life subjects are really inspiring. I recommend everyone to read that thread.

May he find peace.

 

One of the things that I'm afraid of, is knowing when I'm going to die, I seriously couldn't stand to know the date and time of my death.

I hope he finds peace after all his pain.

 

Well this is just depressing IMO. I hope he finds peace.

 

I came across that yesterday. It really is quite sad to read, but it seems he's come to terms with his death and is ready to accept it. If anything it shows that we all really need to live our lives to the fullest.

 

Glad they've given him the choice. We've been debating "when does life begin" with the abortion issue for... well... forever. Very few have questioned "when does life end". I mean, some people are left on life support for decades. :?

 

He's a brave man. I know death is coming for us all but I can't accept it. I honestly admire that guy very much. I wish I could accept death like he has done.

Yakumo

 

This man is now one of my heroes.
Having recently lost some people in my family in similar situations has really helped me put death into perspective - and this LucidEnding fellow understands it, tremendously.

It sort of reminded me of Satoshi Kon's last letter, too.

This sort of thing makes me appreciate things a lot more clearly. Also, how cool is it that Oregon has that "Death with Dignity" law? Surprised me a lot, and made me feel glad.

 

I'm opposed to suicide or euthanasia to be honest. My dog got put to sleep without my knowledge 2 years ago even though I had the money to pay for her operation and cancer will eat everyone given time, if other stuff doesn't kill them first.

The only reason I'm not dead already is I'm too stubborn... many people have failed to send me there but there are fates worse than death, one of them can be living, though if you follow the Hagakure/Bushidou I guess you could live each day as if you were already dead.

Each to their own but when I die, I want it to be with my boots on as per Secondhand Lions

Anyhow, may they get the peace in death they did not get in life.

 

Dogs being put down without their owner's consent is one thing. Opposition to euthanasia, though... I can't help but find it incredibly patronising. If I want to end my life, what business is it of yours to say I can't or shouldn't? It is, after all, my life. Not yours. The only people for whom this issue truly matters are usually in a position where they can't make such judgements, and that strikes me as incredibly sad. If I'm ever stuck with no real hope of recovery I hope to fuck someone will pull the plug.

 

Personally I just don't want to die in a hospital. I'd rather be out in the woods somehwere and fall off a cliff, or just have a heart attack in a field or something. Like if the doctor came to me and said you have 2 weeks to live I'd go camping and just die out there. I can't think of anything more horrible than being in a sterile, smelly, uncomfortable hospital, staring at the ceiling for the last moments of my life. I'd rather be staring straight up into the sky.

But anyway, yeah I started to read through this on Reddit the other day but gaaahh, it's too heavy to think about at this point in time. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to ponder the afterlife when it comes my time.

 

I'd give you a lengthy response which will only serve to derail th thread so I won't and keep it brief.

What I will say though is no one owned the family dog, she was a free spirit but we just shared our life with her, but also as no one owned her no one had the right to terminate her. I don't believe there ever is a valid reason for self termination. No offence intended but the only people who go down that road are broken. If they were given the right form of support at the right time they could stagger on with thier shattered lives and still find some comfort somwhere, more pain too probably but if you want to have an omelette you have to break some eggs. Ultimatly it is their life, but their life is bigger than them. When you kill yourself you create histrinoic children or other shit too. It has a knock on effect.

I guess we differ in that I'm incredibly defiant. I walked to work with broken toes for example and another is I've done manual labour with broken fingers. They hurt like hell if you wake up in the middle of the night but if you just persevere and work them long enough they numb up so you can get on with your job and you haven't let anyone down - it is a sense of duty that keeps me going I've drowned, been stabbed, been attacked by big dogs and other forms of crap but I'm still standing. Not because I am too brave to back down but too stupid to know when to quit, though chances are I'd be better of dead if I'm not already

IMO you have to fight to the bitter end even when the odds are against you, but that's just me and I don't understand (or perhaps even respect) why people give up, but I do understand there has to be a balance so =/

I'd like to be blown up or shot in some Battlefiled, something ghastly anyway and I'd want an open casket regardless of how messy I look. A friend of mine died in an Army lynx helicopter crash but I never got to see the body. I don't like the idea of saying goodbye to a box....

 

This is what my father wanted to do, but due to him being rendered almost unable to move and ridden with dementia because of the god damn Multiple Myeloma, we all settled with him being sent back home after a couple weeks in the hospital.
Mexican public hospitals are depressive - the patient's family does almost all the nurse work that isn't primarily medical - and there really was no point in staying there, since the sickness won by checkmate. Multiple Myeloma destroys the bone marrow, then the kidneys AND the blood, so if you get Hemodialysis, the resultant Leukaemia kills you, and if you don't, you die of Kidney Failure.

So, anyway, we brougth dad back home with us in an ambulance, and it was easy to tell when the last night came. (He lived for like 3 days once we brought him back, and let me tell you, he was at the same time hilarious and depressive. The self deprecating humour of a dying cancer patient is... at a lack of a better word, very singular and intense.)
That night, we all slept next to his bed. Even the cats came and stayed guard, like sphynxes. So while he didn't get to go back outdoors and eat mexican beans in the countryside (really, that was his dying wish - he couldn't eat anymore, though, but he did gladly look at any food we brought him), he did get to listen to classical music for a whole morning with his kids, wife, friends and pets around him, and then, at noon he fell asleep.

Somehow, even the cats new he had died. Weird stuff, that.

And the funeral was a riot. Best. Funeral. Ever. (Really - we were all devastated, but we had to just... celebrate what the man had done all his life, after all).

So, in a few years, when the same happens to me, I just want to fall asleep listening to music, with my cats and my friends, and then for them to have a fucking awesome funeral in my honour.

It's only fair.

This being said, I hope it's at least ore or two more pairs of cats before I myself have to cross the rainbow bridge. (My cats are 2 and 8 years old - which would give me like 8-15 years to live, otherwise)

 

Exactly. If you were fundamentally physically broken why would you want to remain alive? Sitting comatose, or slipping in and out, waiting to die, in agony whenever you're awake? Fuck that. Let me kill myself rather than go through that, or at least give me the option of having someone do it for me.

Absolutely, funerals should be about celebrating the life, not mourning the death. I've discussed this with my family and we're all in complete agreement, so if any of us end up popping our clogs tomorrow the funeral should be a celebration of that life - and as positive an experience as possible for whoever's left.

 

I don't think it's anything you would do lightly - obviously he's given it a lot of thought, but is in a great deal of pain and has no real quality of life. If posting in the thread and reading all the replies has helped him regain that to some extent, then it's a nice end for him.

It's a controversial subject still, sure. He seems to be of sound mind, and it's his decision. I've known too many people who have died of cancer, and their quality of life really deteriorated by the end. If you care about these people, you wouldn't want them to suffer.

He's made a brave decision, and yes, he has some interesting views on life. I hope he finds peace.

 

If I were going to die, I would not spend my last hours on a social news site.

To each his own, but what do you suppose his family thinks of him playing on the computer while they watch him die?

 

Who knows but if he knows his time is coming he could get a room with a hooker first? It could give him reason to live if he had a pretty woman balancing on his balls/face/whatever. BTW alchy I meant broken mentally...

 

Only if she does the "Rear Admiral".

 

Depends on how much disabled you are I think. If I am tied to a bed and can barely speak, but still lucid, I'd communicate using a computer rather than sticking to wait for my last hours.

And think how he must feel while his very family is standing by his side watching him die. Suffering with them won't help at all, I would yes use my last bits of time with something entertaining.

But yeah, that's completely personal.

 

Personally I might try to write up my own personal biography but if I couldn't control my bodily functions and I was coughing up blood more often than I could get out words I'd seriously consider upping the morphine drip.

Everyone elses morals be damned, if I want to at that time I will do what I want. Keeping me alive to suffer because it'll make YOU feel better about living is not on the menu.

No offense intended to anyone who feels that way.

 

And you, sir, have just won the Euthanasia argument with this.

Death is part of life, and sometimes, we just have to accept it and move on. It's fucking scary to see it happen, because it makes you think of your own impending, inevitable, death.

Those who wish to deny choice are really just afraid of death, or want to be seen as strong, for some weird compensatory reason.

I say to each his own.