Would you deny treatment to live?

[Captain Caveman]

The reason why I ask is, there are more and more people that I know that go through big cancer operations, then years of treatment, medicine, appointments, bad days etc.. all to stall the inevitable.

Ronnie Barker springs to mind because he decided not to have heart surgery, and thus died shortly afterwards -

Ronnie Barker - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

So beit heart, cancer, whatever; would you try to keep going or just think, "Sod it, my number's up", and not bother with medical treatment?

 

[shockedcanadian]

Each person makes their own decision.

I would go to all lengths I could to try and save my life.

 

[Esdraelon]

I just lost a childhood friend to a stage IV lung cancer. He'd been given a prognosis of 6-9 months with aggressive treatment and had begun the treatments but one whole lung was so filled with tumor that when he happened to develop pneumonia, he just couldn't fight it off. He died less than 3 months from his diagnosis

 

[August West]

I had chemo at the age of 39 but I`m still here 31 years later. Would I do chemo again if i was 76 years old like this guy? Not if everything else was effed up, but otherwise, yes, I would.

 

[Arlette]

The reason why I ask is, there are more and more people that I know that go through big cancer operations, then years of treatment, medicine, appointments, bad days etc.. all to stall the inevitable.

Ronnie Barker springs to mind because he decided not to have heart surgery, and thus died shortly afterwards -

Ronnie Barker - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

So beit heart, cancer, whatever; would you try to keep going or just think, "Sod it, my number's up", and not bother with medical treatment?

No. There are things that can be done, so we do it

 

[Delldude]

Depends on how bad you want to live.

 

[Rambunctious]

You can't use a blanket to cover this subject... some people do fine with treatment and if they had refused it they may be dead by now.... its a case by case challenge...
If a doctor told me I have a good chance of beating cancer but I will have to go through two years of hell I would grit my teeth and go for the treatment...

 

[Captain Caveman]

Each person makes their own decision.

I would go to all lengths I could to try and save my life.

I'm a Ronnie Barker type of guy.

A few months ago, the NHS (UK) sent me a letter about making a bowl cancer screening appointment. I binned the letter. A month later, they sent out some kinda of little kit for a sample or do-it-yourself something, but I'm not sure, because I binned it.

Long story short, I bumped into a guy yesterday that was telling me how it's important to get screened for bowl cancer, he had the op to remove 6 inch of bits etc.. I didn't bother telling him I binned my test. Each to their own.

I have two sons, it just means they get a tidy sum each if I go out sooner.

 

[Dekster]

The reason why I ask is, there are more and more people that I know that go through big cancer operations, then years of treatment, medicine, appointments, bad days etc.. all to stall the inevitable.

Ronnie Barker springs to mind because he decided not to have heart surgery, and thus died shortly afterwards -

Ronnie Barker - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

So beit heart, cancer, whatever; would you try to keep going or just think, "Sod it, my number's up", and not bother with medical treatment?

That would depend on what I was diagnosed with, what treatment would be needed, and what my quality of life would likely be. For instance, I probably would treat for some cancers but not others like pancreatic cancer.

 

[Woodznutz]

I had triple bypass surgery 11 years ago. If my coronary artery disease acts up again I wouldn't do the surgery again. Hopefully stenting would be possible. If not, I'd just get my affairs in order.

 

[krichton]

Hope is a very powerful thing. It will keep a person going no matter how shitty their odds are. That's why they'll have the operations, chemo or whatever else to not just prolong their life but possibly cure the cancer altogether, regardless of the odds.