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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: FUCK YOU, CANCER
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
It’s not enough to attack her once. Oh no. You deceitful bastard. You wait until she’s come through the chemo and turned the corner toward survivorship and then you sneak up and attack her again, just when she’s beginning to feel human once more. Even that’s not enough for you, you greedy motherfucker. No: you slither off and lie in wait, while she has half her internal organs removed and goes through another chemo wash and begins to feel human AGAIN and is given a clean bill of health and then WHAM! You come back at her while she’s still trying to get her strength back and hit her yet AGAIN. How much of this is she supposed to TAKE? If you’re going to kill her anyway, can’t you at least stop playing cat-and-mouse with her, and let her plan what she needs to plan and let her have some peace and goddammnit, some dignity? FUCK YOU.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Someone very close to me suffered through a long and painful illness that lasted for almost two decades. Not cancer, but nasty as all fucking hell just the same.
So maybe I know where you're coming from here. I never lashed out at the illness itself, but yeah, I lashed out at something, that's for sure. Fucking warped cosmic lottery, probably.
So yeah. Fuck You Cancer.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
this could really be one of those eternal hell threads.
I'm with ya, Apocalypso.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
I'm with you, too. Lost someone, long ago.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
Someone very close to me suffered through a long and painful illness that lasted for almost two decades. Not cancer, but nasty as all fucking hell just the same.
So maybe I know where you're coming from here. I never lashed out at the illness itself, but yeah, I lashed out at something, that's for sure. Fucking warped cosmic lottery, probably.
So yeah. Fuck You Cancer.
Two DECADES? Oh, then I am a naif stray wandered into this vale. I've only (or really, SHE's only -- she does all the suffering, I merely watch) been here for, what is it now? Five years.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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goperryrevs
Shipmtae
# 13504
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Posted
quote:
Fuck you cancer
Amen.
I wish my dad was still here.
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"Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole." - David Lynch
Posts: 2098 | From: Midlands | Registered: Mar 2008
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
On behalf of my mother's dearest friend, Amen.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
On behalf of a friend who told me 2 days ago that she has advanced ductal breast cancer and is getting the surgery next week, followed by chemo and radiation.
On behalf of my best friend who died 13 months ago of colon cancer.
On behalf of my mother who died 16 months ago of brain cancer.
On behalf of my mother in law who died 3 years and 2 months ago of colon cancer.
And on behalf of my best friend who died 23 years ago this month of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. On behalf of my grandmother who died 44 years ago of stomach cancer and both of my grandfathers who died within days of each other 51 years ago of bladder cancer and lung cancer.
It's all awful. I find myself very very tired of this disease. Though I thank God for their lives and that I was able to be part of them. I miss the ones from 44 and 23 years ago every bit as much as the recent ones. Which is bad crap. Brings tears to my eyes just writing this. ![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif)
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Amazing Grace
High Church Protestant
# 95
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Posted
Right fuckin' on. *raises both middle fingers*
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WTFWED? "Remember to always be yourself, unless you suck" - the Gator
Memory Eternal! Sheep 3, Phil the Wise Guy, and Jesus' Evil Twin in the SoF Nativity Play
Posts: 6593 | From: Sittin' by the dock of the [SF] bay | Registered: Jul 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The sooner a cure is found, the better. That can't come too soon.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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TubaMirum
Shipmate
# 8282
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Posted
God.
Yes. Fuck cancer, and all the rest of them, too.
Posts: 4719 | From: Right Coast USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Yup, my brother the same. Too many people, far too young.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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shamwari
Shipmate
# 15556
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Posted
Swearing at the disease is one thing and a perfectly legit response.
But how do we cope?
My best friend is having treatment for it.
he is not swearing at it. he is living with it and the chemo seems to be working.
There is no bitterness. An acceptance that "shit happens" and a determination to work within it.
Brilliant by him
Posts: 1914 | From: from the abyss of misunderstanding | Registered: Mar 2010
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jlg
What is this place?
Why am I here?
# 98
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Posted
Fuck the stupid rules that restrict the morphine during the final days, weeks, months of prolonged cancer "because the patient might become addicted".
Posts: 17391 | From: Just a Town, New Hampshire, USA | Registered: May 2001
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The Silent Acolyte
Shipmate
# 1158
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Posted
Or, might use it to slip the bonds of earth.
Fuck the rules, that is.
[ 04. February 2011, 22:44: Message edited by: The Silent Acolyte ]
Posts: 7462 | From: The New World | Registered: Aug 2001
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jlg:
Fuck the stupid rules that restrict the morphine during the final days, weeks, months of prolonged cancer "because the patient might become addicted".
Don't you just want to slap them when they say that? (Or hit 'em with a shovel.)
We have a good friend who went through a two year ordeal with stomach cancer-- the misery of feeding tubes added to the misery of chemo and radiation. Just when he was getting his strength back it returned and his doctor told him he needed to get his affairs in order because he only has a few months. He didn't ask his doctor to be straight with him or anything, the doc just took it on himself to volunteer the information.
One of the worst, saddest things, to me, about all this is that this big, macho farmer who always kept us in stitches with his fantastic sense of humor, has been so beaten down by this cruel disease that he now can't chat for five minutes without starting to cry about something. It's as though the disease has peeled away every defense and all his emotions are raw and just below the surface.
If anything is "from the devil," it's this.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
My mother lost 1/3 of her tongue to oral cancer. Now she chokes when she eats, and she talks so badly sometimes even I can't understand her.
And it may still kill her. It's under control, not cured.
Fuck this disease.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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dj_ordinaire
Host
# 4643
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Posted
Nothing to say.
Except I miss my mum. And I know my grandmother misses both of her daughters.
Fuck it.
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Flinging wide the gates...
Posts: 10335 | From: Hanging in the balance of the reality of man | Registered: Jun 2003
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Not much I can say either except "fuck it" on behalf of my brother-in-law who died two years ago next week, and the many friends and acquaintances who have succumbed before and since.
May they all rest in peace.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Niteowl
Hopeless Insomniac
# 15841
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Posted
Absolutely Fuck Cancer! I've had too many friends and family die from this disease and hate it with a passion. I've been fortunate to have friends and family live after battling with surgery, chemo, radiation, etc. as well. There are no guarantees yet, though, which is why I do distributed computing to help find a cure. See my sig
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"love all, trust few, do wrong to no one"
Wm. Shakespeare
Posts: 2437 | From: U.S. | Registered: Aug 2010
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Tea gnome
Shipmate
# 9424
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jlg:
Fuck the stupid rules that restrict the morphine during the final days, weeks, months of prolonged cancer "because the patient might become addicted".
WTF? I'm really sad to hear that this is the case in the US, it's not here IME and I think of this as a very dated attitude. Sorry, am posting on phone, so can't go into much depth, but we make symptom management a priority for the dying patient. It can take a while to find a good balance. Would be happy to talk more about this later although there's another shipmate who knows more than me. Look at the Liverpool care pathway - might be interesting to you.
Tg
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Floating Fund!
Posts: 771 | Registered: Apr 2005
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multipara
Shipmate
# 2918
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Posted
Likewise here in Oz; I'd hate to think that palliative care in the US was still mired in Noah's flood.
Around here, that sort of attitude went out the window 30 years ago.
I might add without wishing to derail the thread that the neuro-degenerative diseases (such as motor neurone disease, advanced MS etc) and end stage respiratory disease ( such as emphysema, cystic fibrosis) can in many instances leave death by advanced cancer for gasping in the horrid stakes.
Just my 2 bob's worth.
m
m
Posts: 4985 | From: new south wales | Registered: Jun 2002
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jlg
What is this place?
Why am I here?
# 98
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Posted
True, multipara. Cancer isn't the only nasty way to go.
Just to clarify: Yes, one can find palliative care in the US, usually through some sort of hospice-care program. The problem is that a lot of hospitals haven't quite caught up and still have the stupid old rules in place.
So the doctors and nurses all know it's cruel and stupid, but 'hospital policy' ties their hands.
My father-in-law died of pancreatic cancer (which had spread into his spine by the end). He was all set up for home hospice-care at home (his wife was an RN). All the supplies (including plenty of morphine) were there.
Then one day there was some sort of problem (I no longer remember the details), the EMTs were called to help and he ended up being taken to the hospital. He never managed to get well enough to be released back to hospice care, and spent six miserable months in the hospital, slowly dying with inadequate pain control.
Posts: 17391 | From: Just a Town, New Hampshire, USA | Registered: May 2001
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Niteowl
Hopeless Insomniac
# 15841
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Posted
Personally, I think anyone with an excruciatingly painful terminal disease should be able to have any drug they desire from morphine to heroin if they so choose and marijuana for any nausea if the regular nausea drugs don't work. Our "morality laws" have become immoral.
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"love all, trust few, do wrong to no one"
Wm. Shakespeare
Posts: 2437 | From: U.S. | Registered: Aug 2010
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jlg:
Just to clarify: Yes, one can find palliative care in the US, usually through some sort of hospice-care program. The problem is that a lot of hospitals haven't quite caught up and still have the stupid old rules in place.able months in the hospital, slowly dying with inadequate pain control.
Hospitals and doctors are frequently wary because they are afraid drug law enforcers will swoop down on them and demand that they justify their drug prescribing.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
How about we fuck mortality ? After all is there any common way of dying that's kind ?
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Tortuf
Ship's fisherman
# 3784
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Posted
How very caring.
Who peed in your Wheaties?
Posts: 6963 | From: The Venice of the South | Registered: Dec 2002
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
W
L
B
M
K
Sometimes all we can do is light candles in Hell.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Think²:
How about we fuck mortality ? After all is there any common way of dying that's kind ?
Plenty. Massive stroke, massive heart attack, sudden serious accidents. There are lots of ways of dying where the conscious awareness of the pain lasts but a few minutes.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Panda
Shipmate
# 2951
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Posted
On behlf of my father, who started out with a supposedly treatable bladder cancer, which suddenly turned out to be a terminal brain cancer. By the time we knew, the brain swelling caused by the seizures meant that no other treatment was possible and he died two weeks later, last Tuesday.
Posts: 1637 | From: North Wales | Registered: Jun 2002
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TubaMirum
Shipmate
# 8282
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Posted
Condolences, Panda. Light perpetual shine upon him.
Posts: 4719 | From: Right Coast USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
quote:
Originally posted by Think²:
How about we fuck mortality ? After all is there any common way of dying that's kind ?
Plenty. Massive stroke, massive heart attack, sudden serious accidents. There are lots of ways of dying where the conscious awareness of the pain lasts but a few minutes.
Losing someone so suddenly can be devastating for those left behind. And can leave you little chance to make your piece with it.
Mortality is painful.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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The Silent Acolyte
Shipmate
# 1158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
...doctors are frequently wary because they are afraid drug law enforcers will swoop down on them and demand that they justify their drug prescribing.
Which is why I have to get down on my hands and knees and beg for codeine cough syrup, even though it is the only thing that works for me with my worst winter coughs. Which is why I keep a drug museum with my 5% consumed prescriptions for Percocet, Vicodin, and Toradol for when the kidney stones kick me in the gut.
I realize mine is a TICTH tangent from the main theme, but FUCK THE DRUG LAWS.
[ 05. February 2011, 19:05: Message edited by: The Silent Acolyte ]
Posts: 7462 | From: The New World | Registered: Aug 2001
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multipara
Shipmate
# 2918
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Posted
*tangent alert*
To follow on from Moo's post and that from previous US posters:
Not in the hospital setting we don't. Whatever "policy" regarding the proper use of narcotics/sedatives in palliative care ( or for that matter in the ICU, or in providing pain relief in the acute setting such as post op care) is not in the hands of ( non-medical) administrators. Drug committees decide the protocols ( input from pharmacists, pharmacologists and medicos)
In general practice there is a high likelihood of the practitioner being investigated for inappropriate prescribing of narcotics, because it is in the community that one sees drug-seeking behaviour.
Now back to the OP...
Posts: 4985 | From: new south wales | Registered: Jun 2002
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Think²:
quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
quote:
Originally posted by Think²:
How about we fuck mortality ? After all is there any common way of dying that's kind ?
Plenty. Massive stroke, massive heart attack, sudden serious accidents. There are lots of ways of dying where the conscious awareness of the pain lasts but a few minutes.
Losing someone so suddenly can be devastating for those left behind. And can leave you little chance to make your piece with it.
Mortality is painful.
My mother died of a sudden massive stroke. Having fun on vacation one day, coma the next, died a week later. Would I have liked to say good bye and apologize for about a hundred things? Yes. Would I trade with my best friend who nursed her mother through a year of painful ovarian cancer? No way. I'll just live with my guilt, thank you -- and thank God for my mother's quick merciful death.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Darllenwr
Shipmate
# 14520
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Posted
Both parents (in the last 4 years), both In-laws, grandmother (a week after my mother) - I'm not a fan of cancer. (I'm not exactly keen on MS, either, but that's another story).
[ 05. February 2011, 20:24: Message edited by: Darllenwr ]
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If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: I do not exaggerate!
Posts: 1101 | From: The catbox | Registered: Jan 2009
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Apocalypso:
It’s not enough to attack her once. Oh no. You deceitful bastard. You wait until she’s come through the chemo and turned the corner toward survivorship and then you sneak up and attack her again, just when she’s beginning to feel human once more. Even that’s not enough for you, you greedy motherfucker. No: you slither off and lie in wait, while she has half her internal organs removed and goes through another chemo wash and begins to feel human AGAIN and is given a clean bill of health and then WHAM! You come back at her while she’s still trying to get her strength back and hit her yet AGAIN. How much of this is she supposed to TAKE? If you’re going to kill her anyway, can’t you at least stop playing cat-and-mouse with her, and let her plan what she needs to plan and let her have some peace and goddammnit, some dignity? FUCK YOU.
My job for the last 16 years has involved spiritual care of people with cancer - also of their families and friends, and the professionals and volunteers who look after them. I've walked with people as they go through treatment, sometimes as they thrive afterwards, sometimes as they live with the threat of a condition that will come back, and back, and back. Years ago I lost count of the people I walked with to the point of their death.
And I am completely, utterly, with Apocalypso on this one.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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kentishmaid
Shipmate
# 4767
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Posted
Agree wholeheartedly. My Mum died of cancer of the oesophagus and it's still one of the least curable and virulent kinds. Bloody awful.
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"Who'll be the lady, who'll be the lord, when we are ruled by the love of one another?"
Posts: 2063 | From: Huddersfield | Registered: Jul 2003
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
I'm so sorry Kentishmaid. That's actually what my friend I mentioned has. I only called it stomach cancer because I couldn't spell oesophagus. It truly is terrible.
I keep thinking about Nicole's mom. How terribly sad and awful for her.
Multipara mentioned emphysema. Fear of that one is what motivated me to quit smoking. As horrible as severe pain is, nothing concentrates the mind like not being able to breathe. It deserves a few curse words, too.
![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Geneviève
Mother-Hatting Cat Lover
# 9098
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Posted
Fuck the doctor, new on rotation i think, who some years ago delivered the blunt message to a friend in the hospital with acute leukemia--came out of nowhere and he died in a few months--"We can't do anything more for you so you might as well go home."
I got there with a mutual friend about an hour later. We were sitting with the friend with terminal diagnosis trying to be of comfort. He's trying to somehow take this all in.
Perky, smart ass, asshole, arrogant shit doc comes back in and says (standing in the doorway),
"Well, are we feeling more cheery now?"
I swear this is true. I almost smacked her.
Then when I went to the hospital "patient advocate" (or whatever the title was) to complain, I was told that only the patient could make a complaint....patient is trying to deal with dying..duh.
Oh, and then he's in that same hospital's inpatient hospice ward. Until his wife happened to be there and forcibly put a stop to the process, people were coming in and drawing blood and doing little procedures for "research."
Fuck that hospital. A denominational one by the way.
Ack, the way he was treated has never left me.
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"Ineffable" defined: "I cannot and will not be effed with." (Courtesy of CCTooSweet in Running the Books)
Posts: 4336 | From: Eastern US | Registered: Feb 2005
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I think the problem with some medical staff may be that they see so much of seriously ill patients that they become desensitized. They forget that although they've seen patients with this particular condition numerous times, your relative (or you) may be experiencing this for the first time. The long working hours and pressure can't help, either.
Then again, some medical staff can be just plain insensitive.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I think the problem with some medical staff may be that they see so much of seriously ill patients that they become desensitized. They forget that although they've seen patients with this particular condition numerous times, your relative (or you) may be experiencing this for the first time. The long working hours and pressure can't help, either.
Then again, some medical staff can be just plain insensitive.
I think this is a huge problem. Doctors need to protect themselves from all the tragedy they see. Some of them do it by becoming completely insensitive.
I think the best are the ones who have had experience with serious illness and can understand the feelings of their patients.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Tortuf
Ship's fisherman
# 3784
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Posted
And yet doctors and nurses who are more subtle than Kevorkian help people die as peacefully as possible all the time. Because not helping can easily mean a long half existence in a coma.
When my father died he was told that he could be given assistance with breathing, or he could choose to discontinue Oxygen and die quickly. He chose, having all his faculties intact, to have Oxygen discontinued. He kept on a nasal tube (just air) to hold down on the discomfort.
Only, it didn't happen as quickly as he thought it would. His body had gotten used to low levels of Oxygen and he kept on breathing ineffectively, while his body worked overtime to try and take in enough Oxygen to stay alive. I think the worst part of it for him was he had time to be afraid of dying.
I had a long talk with the medical staff and was told that he would probably slip into the coma he had tried to avoid and that his death would take weeks.
My father and I talked about it. He chose to have his nasal tube taken away and to have a large dose of Morpheme to deal with the pain. The nurses couldn't turn off the air, so I had to. My father died within about ten minutes. The longest ten minutes of my life.
It wasn't really the lack of air that killed him. It was the Morpheme.
That is the way it usually happens. Morpheme is given to deal with the pain of cutting off air and the Morpheme deals with the pain (something they can legitimately do) and ends up relaxing enough heart and lung muscles to induce death.
I struggled for a long time with the notion that I had killed my father. The thought of it still tears me up inside. And yet, I know that I gave him a gift of dignity and no longer having to be afraid.
Death, and the process of dying are always a part of life. It is a defining piece of being alive.
Smart ass comments about death are simply rude and insensitive.
Posts: 6963 | From: The Venice of the South | Registered: Dec 2002
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
I was recently with a friend of ours when she died of cancer. God bless the hospice nurses who helped her partner open the special box of meds they save for the final hours and administered what she needed to have the pain and the panic from her losing her breath taken away. (A few days before she had asked her partner, "How will I know that I'm not breathing anymore?" She was very afraid of this.)
I hate cancer. It's one of those things that can make me question the existence of a good God.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Morlader
Shipmate
# 16040
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
My job for the last 16 years has involved spiritual care of people with cancer - also of their families and friends, and the professionals and volunteers who look after them. I've walked with people as they go through treatment, sometimes as they thrive afterwards, sometimes as they live with the threat of a condition that will come back, and back, and back. Years ago I lost count of the people I walked with to the point of their death.
And I am completely, utterly, with Apocalypso on this one.
Yes. Yes. Yes, Adeodatus. I too am with Apocalypso all the way.
Having been treated (chemo, radiation, surgery) for one cancer through 2010, I was pronounced clear on Dec 16. On Dec 17 I was told "we don't like the blood tests taken yesterday - come in for more scans". So now I have a new, more intensive, chemo regime which may lead to more surgery. So, FU cancer indeed.
BUT, I have received nothing but professional, sympathetic care and counselling. While there's absolutely no excuse for "feeling more cheery now, are we?", IMNSHO even saying "FU, unfeeling doctor" isn't on. Still less lashing out physically. There just has to be a distance from the personal traumas of the patients and their friends/families and the staff tending them. Rapid burn-out results if staff become "involved" (applies clergy/parishers, too, IME).
It could well be that my experience will be different as I progress 'down the vale' (thanks OP).
A different thought. Don't we pray for "time for amendment of life and the grace and comfort of thy Holy Spirit"? If that's really our desire why is a sudden death more merciful (upthread comments)?
[Apologies if I've strayed from Hell - my first post here].
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.. to utmost west.
Posts: 858 | From: Not England | Registered: Nov 2010
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I also agree completely with Apocalypso. A big fuck you.
What makes it worse, is the feeling of powerlessness. Even if you live healthily, don't smoke, eat good foods... Then it can still fuck you in the ass when you least expect it. It happened last week with someone I know.
I hope that one day they'll beat this sucker once and for all.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Morlader:
A different thought. Don't we pray for "time for amendment of life and the grace and comfort of thy Holy Spirit"? If that's really our desire why is a sudden death more merciful (upthread comments)?
I'm not aware of ever having prayed that. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of intending to sort things out later rather than trying to live my faith right now. I also find the idea of receiving notice of the end of my life and then feeling that I have to sort everything out with God and others frankly terrifying, and quite contrary to accepting the grace of God.
Other people are different, but for me that's a nightmare.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Arrietty
Ship's borrower
# 45
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Posted
I have always assumed that God can find time ('kairos') to extend the opportunity for grace to us even in the shortest amount of time as measured by the clock ('chronos').
So I would see that prayer as asking him to do that, rather than asking him to give us sufficient notice before we die.
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i-church
Online Mission and Ministry
Posts: 6634 | From: Coventry, UK | Registered: May 2001
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Morlader
Shipmate
# 16040
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
I'm not aware of ever having prayed that. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of intending to sort things out later rather than trying to live my faith right now. I also find the idea of receiving notice of the end of my life and then feeling that I have to sort everything out with God and others frankly terrifying, and quite contrary to accepting the grace of God.
Other people are different, but for me that's a nightmare.
The prayer extract is from BCP Compline.
Yes, "live each day as if 'twere thy last" is an excellent rule. But if you are 'given notice' are there no things in your life you can -should- straighten out?
Anyway, sorry for starting (or actually continuing) a tangent about drawn out v sudden death. Cancer isn't sudden.
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.. to utmost west.
Posts: 858 | From: Not England | Registered: Nov 2010
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