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November 20, 2003

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What would you do if you had less than six months to live?

I don’t know why I didn’t feel led to include it in my last post earlier this morning, but the “very close relative” who has pancreatic cancer is my wife‘s father. He is currently in a hospital in Florida.

The doctors told him that both radiation and surgery were out of the question at this point. And he doesn’t want chemotherapy. In any case, according to the Medical University of Southern Carolina, pancreatic cancer “...has the highest mortality rate where nine out every 10 patients diagnosed with the disease will die.“ Treatment or not, it all boils down to a question of time… My father-in-law was given less than six months.

It is just too much to take all of a sudden, all at once.

What would you do if you had less than six months to live?

People always ask this question assuming that if we had six months to live, we would also have the strength and energy to live it. The sad fact is that most people who only have a little time left to live are too weak to shit on their own.

To live, then, becomes what you want to do. That is, until the pain becomes too great. Then what?

I can only imagine what my response would be when I’ve got a “tumor exerting pressure on a nerve, infection, inflammation, blocked blood vessels causing poor circulation, bone fracture from metastasis in the bone, side effects from various cancer treatments, or psychological or emotional problems“:

“Six months?! I have to wait six more whole months?!”

I am indebted to your praying.

Posted at 11:46 am

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Comments (5):
tim, I know what ya mean. thought through a lot of the same kind of stuff a few years ago when my grandfather was dying of lung cancer…it spread really quickly and all. but hey, he’s with his Father now. all that to say, I’ll be prayin’ for your father in law…and for you all.

jim () (URL) - November 20, 2003 at 12:19 pm

6 months …6 years …60 years

doesn’t matter. In the eyes of eternity, our whole lives are but a breath.

Though I don’t know you, I will pray for you and your family.

matt () (URL) - November 20, 2003 at 8:47 pm

We’ll be praying too, Tim. My dad died of cancer last year. He was able to have some very meaningful times even after they gave him a only a few months. But he’d been fighting it for a couple of years already, and your father in law may be in more pain right now, everybody’s situation is different. I’ll just pray that you all can make the best of this time together.

Laura () (URL) - November 21, 2003 at 07:00 am

wow tim! i’ll be praying for you for sure now. sheesh… had no idea after your last post it was so intense. hang in there.

lucas () (URL) - November 21, 2003 at 10:08 am

just to clarify… i AM praying for you and “praying for sure now” just meant whoa. words are funny sometimes.

lucas () (URL) - November 21, 2003 at 10:09 am

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