What I find scary is everyone I knew that had 6 months to live only got a month or a little better- of course that was Pancreatic cancer too. I really dont know what I would do. It would depend on how mobile and pain free I was.
The question is selectively phrased so that you don't worry about the pain and mobility , you as are you are today for 10 months , I understand that is likely not reality. this is a thought exercise.
they told my wife 8 months if she did nothing up to 18 months if she did all the treatments.
she did all the treatments.
she got 5 months 23 days
more like 22 days diagnosis came at 4pm and she passed at 11 am that last morning she wasn't with it , was for the most part up to that last morning.
stage 4 metastatic bile duct cancer , it is a form of pancreatic cancer but it started in the bile duct that connects the liver , gallbladder and pancreas together to the intestine
it takes out the liver but it had already spread to the lungs and god only knows where else.
The point of the question is to ask yourself with a finite life left what would I do with it.
Then to realize you have a finite amount of life and go implement what you would do as much as possible. while also calculating savings and plans to live to 90-95.True only god can tell you how much time you have left , the medical school people will almost always tell you longer because they make money and learn about the disease by treating you , they also learn more about the disease to help the next person. so they want every minute of your time they can in treatment. you want every minute of your life you can to enjoy it and it is a balancing act for sure.
then every once in a while and people love to tell you about that outlier that they were given 6 months and they got 5 years , they really are an outlier.
I have watched too many people die of cancer thinking they could beat it putting off everything and focusing solely on treatment. living for that someday that never comes.
I also watched people sink their family in debt , they were told 2 years max focus on quality not quantity of life and they took that to mean buy everything because they were also in denial about the reality they were going to die. in the end it became clear they were a very selfish person who talked a good part.
In hind sight , for my wife, treatment was a total waste. way more pain and discomfort and time wasted. however you don't know that going in
I think she probably would have lived longer not treating the cancer because she started strong and the drugs weakened her fast and didn't touch the cancer.
she might have had 8 months from diagnosis had they not treated the cancer.
I can't say and I am not second guessing the decision we made , we made it to get all the time she could with the kids. we got what we got.