Less than 2 weeks to live

[krcit]

I'm sorry. I just lost my best friend to leukemia in April. They gave her a couple of months, she died in 3 days. It's heartbreaking and horrific

 

[bettymae1121]

They gave my Mom 3 months.

She died in 3 weeks.

Ditto. When my mother told us she was given only 2-3 months, my brother and I droped everything to "fly out for the weekend". By the time we got there we were told she had rapidly deterioated and could pass at anytime. We went home on the same flight as her casket.

While it was hell on us at the time, I think I almost preferred it that way to what my friend is going through with her mother. She has terminal cancer and was told "about 2 years, give or take". She's about 1 year into it and based on how things are going, 2 years is likely an accurate assesment. While they have the advantage of more time to spend together, watching her mother slowly slip away and feeling like crap most days, having every family event tinged with "probably the last", and the never ending fights with the insurnace companies, is worse, IMO, than having only a few days or weeks to say goodbye.

 

[CentralFloridian99]

Prayers sent Then again, doctors predictions can sometimes be wrong.

 

[Fly4free]

A friend of mine had a dh who was dx with lung cancer at age 40 (never smoked) and was given 6 mos. to live. Sadly he only lived for 6 mos. It gave him enough time to get his affairs in order and say goodbye to family and loved ones.

So sad, life is so uncertain!

 

[Disney Doll]

I think most doctors are well aware of the fact that they are not God.

When they give a time estimate, they are taking an "educated guess" based on specific informaiton about this patient, and also based on their past exepriences with other patients. (ie-when Mr.Jones was that color yellow because of his liver cancer, he lived about 2 weeks".)

The stories that "stick" with the people are the ones where the doctor's prognosis was wrong because they seem like miracles. But for every "the doctor was wrong" prognosis story I've heard, I can tell you 20 where the doctor was pretty much right on the money in terms of tiome left.

Yes, occasionally someone surprises us with their will to live, but in the end, if a patient who was told he has 2 weeks to live lives for 17 days, are you going to say the doctor was wrong? Essentially the doctor's point is "not too long so do and say what you have to do and say".