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18 March 2011

A Friday Night Question, as chosen at random from The Book of Questions...→[More:]

#75: After a medical examination, your doctor calls and gravely says you have a rare lymphatic cancer and only a few months to live. Five days later, she informs you that the lab tests were mislabeled; you are perfectly healthy. Forced for a moment to look death in the face, you have been allowed to turn and go on. During those difficult days you would certainly have gained some insights about yourself. Do you think they would be worth the pain?

post by: BoringPostcards at: 19:03 | 17 comments

....too many assumptions.

posted by The Whelk 18 March | 19:06

No probably not because I would have spiraled into a deep depression and probably done a shitton of drugs instead of realizing great things.
I'd probably sue for malpractice if I harmed myself during those days, too.
Aren't I a just a pile of smiles?

posted by rmless2 18 March | 19:16

I think it would take me longer than 5 days and 1 opinion to accept such a diagnosis was true. But beyond that, I can't imagine there'd be anything worth learning.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 18 March | 19:18

Yes. Had a tiny little brush with this kind of fear when I was called back in for followup after a mammogram. I am still glad that happened. I've appreciated a lot of things about my life a lot more. I also think it was good for me to think about what I would do if I knew the time left was limited. And I feel a lot more empathy with people who have terminal diagnoses than before.

posted by bearwife 18 March | 19:18

I think anything I learned would be lost in the long term and, anyway, I think it would take me longer than five days to come to any startling conclusions.

posted by dg 18 March | 19:35

Hrm. If it were only 5 days I think I would still be numb/in denial.

Given my track record though, I probably would have tried every ice cream flavor I could get my hands on in that period of time.

posted by gaspode 18 March | 19:39

Hrm. If it were only 5 days I think I would still be numb/in denial.

I suspect gaspode's answer would be mine, too.

I probably would have tried every ice cream flavor I could get my hands on in that period of time.

This part, too. Also, cake.

posted by Elsa 18 March | 20:05

TPS and gaspode's answers are about right for me. I'd be numb and waiting on a second and even third diagnosis.

posted by deborah 18 March | 20:25

This scenario is what I call "if it already happened, what can you do". Whether it was worth the pain is irrelevant because it happened and nothing can change that.

posted by Ardiril 18 March | 20:33

Historically, I respond well to being slapped upside the face by life and make positive changes when it happens. But since having kids, I have been faced with my own death only once and all I felt was the crashing sense that I wouldn't be there for them. I had no space in my brain to consider my own regrets and my own mortality-all I thought of was them growing up with someone else as their mother. And no insight is worth that pain to me.

posted by supercapitalist 18 March | 20:34

I would have learned nothing. And would probably be in jail from having spent the time since the diagnosis clearing out my hit, um I mean bucket, list.

posted by BitterOldPunk 18 March | 21:41

Been there. I had a biopsy of what my practitioner said was probably nothing. Went to get the stitches out, and, with her back turned to me, she's reading the pathology report aloud and says, "melanoma. . .probably metastacized." I went in to shock.

The mole was cut off right then, and after lots of scans and a surgery, no trace of the cancer elsewhere in my body, but I was really scared.

Not sure I gained any insights other than try to stay on top of health stuff (as I had had this mole for a time and only got it checked because I was at the Dr. for something else).

posted by danf 18 March | 22:08

I had a sketchy test result and biopsy a few years back, actually about 5 years ago now, and it didn't even go too far down this road, but it certainly caused me to take serious stock of my life and I made some very specific changes in priority because of it. So yeah, I think I would gain insights and would keep them. Once you realize at the fingertip-tingling level that it is that easy for health conditions to be exactly that real with so little prior warning, you take certain things in life more seriously (or less seriously, depending on the thing you're thinking about at the moment).

posted by Miko 18 March | 22:27

I had an HIV scare a few years ago, which is close to this sort of thing except the answer is "I DON'T KNOW" for eight days which was probably worse. I spent most of that time getting utterly, completely, walking-into-walls stoned and feeling completely detached from life. But damn did I have some joie de vivre when I got the right news back.

posted by mykescipark 19 March | 02:31

Really? In 5 days, I'd have told my family and closest friends, seen a lawyer, and probably quit my job. My own personal pain? Manageable. The shock to my son, family, friends, etc? Having to see the delight of my boss when I resigned? Totally awful. Having to go through months of "What? You're still alive? X told me ... ummm, well, uhh, you look great, actually"

posted by theora55 19 March | 14:14

We are all always dying. Always.

posted by Eideteker 19 March | 14:32

Do you think they would be worth the pain?

I had a woke up in the hospital with family around me brush with death/accident about ten years ago and even though the circumstances were different [by the time I woke up, everyone knew I would live, the question had been whether I would wake up] and it did cause me to make some profound changes in how I lived my life, mostly being kinder to people, less of a scenester, much less random recreational drug use, being kinder to my parents. In this scenario I think I'd be ragingly angry at the five days of OMG that I'm not sure if I'd be able to sit back and take stock of anything.

posted by jessamyn 20 March | 13:20

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