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I couldn’t answer the poll because we have the best of BOTH worlds.
Live on a farm in lovely rural area with no crime at all, but only 12 miles from a mid sized city with all the needed amenities — two universities, two hospitals, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Costco, lots of restaurants, parks, music, etc
Thanks for posting that because sometimes I think I am the only poster who thinks that way, and I would rather die fairly quickly from a heart attack or a skidding off the road and hitting a tree than linger for months with cancer or advanced dementia. I do not have a "death wish", but now I worry more about being very old and disabled in some way than I do about dying.
Same, and I certainly don't plan to spend my final years (or decades) sitting in medical offices. It's amazing to me how many plan their retirements around proximity to doctors and hospitals. We are none of us getting out of here alive!
Same, and I certainly don't plan to spend my final years (or decades) sitting in medical offices. It's amazing to me how many plan their retirements around proximity to doctors and hospitals. We are none of us getting out of here alive!
For once I 100 percent agree with you!! I know a few people that go to a ton of specialists. I’m in the process of deciding which preventative tests I am willing to get and if I will get any more vaccines and if so which ones.
I have seen people on a ton of medication and I know some conditions are over treated at the early stages and being older you may die before having to treat. I worry the most about having cognitive functioning issues because then your life is over. At least with physical problems you might be able to still care for yourself.
Same, and I certainly don't plan to spend my final years (or decades) sitting in medical offices. It's amazing to me how many plan their retirements around proximity to doctors and hospitals. We are none of us getting out of here alive!
But decent medical care can make a big difference in what the last years are like. My wife developed a rare condition where her immune system attacked her body and without adequate treatment she would have had a long miserable path to the inevitable end. Instead, though it has been a definite slog, we have reached the point where we are planning on heading back to Alaska for a trip next year.
Yeah we spent quite a bit of time sitting in medical offices over the last year or so, but it was worth it to us to get our lives back and some more years together.
It doesn't always work out that the end comes so nice and clean as a quick heart attack during sleep.
Maybe and maybe not. The vast majority wishes to believe that if they do x, y, and z, they'll escape injury, illness, and even (irrationally) death. It's not necessarily the case, but it keeps doctors busy!
Thanks for posting that because sometimes I think I am the only poster who thinks that way, and I would rather die fairly quickly from a heart attack or a skidding off the road and hitting a tree than linger for months with cancer or advanced dementia. I do not have a "death wish", but now I worry more about being very old and disabled in some way than I do about dying.
I just want to add to the above that if I am ever diagnosed with a painful and terminal illness (or if dementia symptoms progress to the point that I know that I will end up not knowing my husband's name in a few months) that I will have the fortitude (strength of will) to end my life. I know that this IS the minority view and I don't expect that many people share it, but I do believe that people should be able to make that choice for themselves.
I do have the maximum amount of healthcare I can get (but not LTC), but that is in case of a severe accident or something that is "fixable" with a very high survival rate and little pain.
Thanks for posting that because sometimes I think I am the only poster who thinks that way, and I would rather die fairly quickly from a heart attack or a skidding off the road and hitting a tree than linger for months with cancer or advanced dementia. I do not have a "death wish", but now I worry more about being very old and disabled in some way than I do about dying.
Like several people said, people often have no idea how their end will come. A stroke, which many times has a good prognosis with rapid, competent medical treatment, can render someone permanently disabled if you don't get rapid treatment, or if you get bad treatment.
I've mentioned several times that one of my grandmothers had a stroke in April or May. She was taken to one of the area's tertiary hospitals. She sat in an ED for hours on a gurney.
Before I left my previous job, I implemented the software that is used for medical alerting/paging to on-call physicians, and we tested stroke codes with a provider in a testing group.
There was dedicated stroke coverage at that hospital at the end of last year. That stroke coverage was eliminated between when I left the job, and when she had her stroke. This is a city of 55,000 or so with no stroke coverage - if you have a stroke, you're just piled into the ED with everyone who may be there for any number of reasons.
If she was able to get a rapid response team in for her stroke, she might have had a better outcome. Yes, she had end-stage dementia, but the problem is there for anyone who has a stroke.
There's a difference between not wanting some complicated, harsh treatment for a terminal illness and being so far away from decent medical care that something that is readily treatable leaves you dead or permanently disabled.
Modern medicine can almost always "do" something. Some of us don't care to pursue those options.
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