I think I now have the new COVID!

[DonTom]

I would rather die than suffer through ALS

The one way where I would prefer to blow my head off instead of dying naturally.

I watched one of my coworkers, Bill, slowly die of ALS. When he was at home dying, all he would do is to beg others to kill him. At that point, he could no longer use his voice but had other ways to communicate. Anyway, nobody did and he died miserably, and very slowly.

IMO, he should have blown his head off while he had the chance. Later, he was way too weak to move anything other than his fingers, which was the way he was able to communicate.

Bill's very first symptoms were difficulty in talking and he had to talk very slowly. This was before he was diagnosed with ALS. There is no test for ALS, they test for all other possible things and when they all turn up negative, it is ALS.

ALS attacks the outer muscles first. Then it works on the inside, so you can no longer breathe. Otherwise, you feel perfectly normal. Probably makes it even worse.

BTW, Bill was married to a Jamaican woman. He developed the symptoms of ALS as soon as he got back from vacation in Jamaica. I hear the same thing happened to Lou Gehric. Right after a trip to Jamaica.

Coincidence?

BTW, since then, CA has PAD (Physician-Assisted Death). Was way too late for Bill. but that would have solved the problem. It is NOT considered suicide by the laws of CA.

ALS is 100% fatal. Nobody has lived long with it yet. I think that is a requirement for PAD and why it is not considered suicide for any purpose, including life insurance.

BTW, I do not know if NV has PAD. But it makes no difference to me. I have a CA REAL ID (but a NV driver's license) so if I got ALS I could legally use the PAD in CA. That is all that is required is the CA ID.

Yes, I am a BIG coward when it comes to ALS!

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Chef Duane]

With the vaccine, I am likely to suffer less. Without it, I am more likely to suffer more.

You are contradicting yourself. In Post #97 you said "My choice would be to die. No need to stay alive just to suffer." Now you say you'd take a vaccine to suffer less (the degree is irrelevant). Why not just exercise your choice and let yourself die?

 

[DonTom]

You are contradicting yourself. In Post #97 you said "My choice would be to die. No need to stay alive just to suffer." Now you say you'd take a vaccine to suffer less (the degree is irrelevant). Why not just exercise your choice and let yourself die?

Listen to what I mean, not to what I say!

It depends on the degree of suffering. I will not want to die over the common cold which I know will soon go away. Same with COVID. If my COVID symptoms were bad enough with a little chance of recovery then my decision would be similar to my getting ALS.

IOW, I would want to get it over with, either way, death or getting better in a reasonable time if it involved severe long-term suffering.

So far, my catching COVID, perhaps twice, has not been a big deal. Nothing worth dying over.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Chef Duane]

Listen to what I mean, not to what I say!

Just say what you mean and mean what you say. So much easier. Like telling the truth. It's so much easier than trying to keep all the lies straight.

 

[DonTom]

Just say what you mean and mean what you say.

Now that I re-read it, I would say I did say what I meant, based on what you asked--maybe. Wasn't clear, IMO.

You asked:
"Would you rather get violently ill"

Or:

"die from whatever disease you have in the first place"

Neither one sounds like a good choice to me. But "violently ill" needs clarification. That can mean serious lasting effects for life and a very poor quality of life. It can also mean very ill for two days and then I fully recover.

That would make a difference in my decision.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Onyrlef]

BTW, Bill was married to a Jamaican woman. He developed the symptoms of ALS as soon as he got back from vacation in Jamaica. I hear the same thing happened to Lou Gehric. Right after a trip to Jamaica.

What coincidence? Carefully thought out post hoc gooberology studies
like that, involving two samples, are definite proof going to Jamaica causes ALS.

 

[DonTom]

What coincidence? Carefully thought out post hoc gooberology studies
like that, involving two samples, are definite proof going to Jamaica causes ALS.

Airline pilots as well as those who have served in the military have a higher rate of ALS. But why is unknown--it involves some guesswork--but could it sometimes be related to travel?

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Oldgator73]

Airline pilots as well as those who have served in the military have a higher rate of ALS. But why is unknown--it involves some guesswork--but could it sometimes be related to travel?

-Don- Reno, NV

And maybe football players. Don’t know about airline pilots but military and football players maybe incur a higher rate of TBI which might be an underlying cause of ALS.