How many of us go with decisions that have been made that we don't agree with, but have no choice but to agree to?
That has been the pattern for all of my adult life. I know that my decision for my father not to have treatment would be the best decision and in my father’s best interests, but another situation has now arisen where the path my father chose to go down no longer exists.
When we my mother was first diagnosed with lung cancer, she made her own decisions on her choice of therapies and never swayed from her decisions. In the longer term she spared herself from the side effects, associated with steroid treatment and chemotherapy.
Our choices
Choices are now in place and conventional treatment is being given. Having had a chance to catch up with my family at the beginning of the week, this is not the route I wanted. In turn, my father now wants a cast iron guarantee that if he continues to go down the steroid and chemotherapy route, he will be able to go back to his old life.
Being terminally ill at 83 it also makes it less likely. All it will do is buy more time, than he would have had without the treatment. I want him to be at peace, but can see now through chemotherapy, it never could.
It's sad for anyone going through chemotherapy, but it all becomes a heavy price to pay in the longer term because of its side effects and quality of life during the treatment period.
I agree with you. Now if your father was younger there might be a chance that he could over come this, but with his age I totally agree with you.
For an extra few months that will not be enjoyed, mostly due to the side effects of the treatments. None of us really want to die but are we going to enjoy life given this type of outcome?
I think not. Not sure how anyone dealing with cancer can, regardless of age. Of course it's up to the individual, but I would go for quality of life than life expectancy any time.
If our quality of life diminishes through treatments like chemotherapy we will have no life.
When my mother was terminally ill with cancer it became hard to give her treatment to make her quality of life better, because we knew her time was limited.
She did have a better quality of life for a few months. We as a family were all grateful to have that extra time.
I totally agree with your sentiments Randy, it is important to have a good quality of life, particularly around cancer. Lovely to have you back on site.
Sounds like it is a very tough choice since chemotherapy has so many negative side effects.
I'm guessing that he's not considering that in thinking of his treatment. Hopefully things will go okay for him and he will end up getting better.
I'm sure that you just want what's best for him in the long run!
Thanks Randy. Yes you're right, I do want what's best for him in the longer run.