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Terminal Disease and Fighting Hard question

Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:29 pm
Posted by Geekboy
Member since Jan 2004
4979 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:29 pm
I've never quite understood how this works. And seriously, I'm not trying to be a smart arse here. I genuinely would like to know.

You hear a lot after someone dies of an illness they say, "They fought hard." How do you fight a disease hard? Is it prayer? Having a positive attitude? What indicates someone 'fought hard' against a disease?

There are people all over the place that don't pray, don't have a positive attitude, do pray, do have a positive attitude and some don't even think about it and just give up, yet they go into remission and some pull out.

So I've never understood what in means to 'fight hard' to survive an illness. I'm not belittling. I'm sincere in learning about this.
Posted by JiminyCricket
Member since Jun 2017
3563 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:32 pm to
Getting treatment even when it’s painful or difficult. Continuing to try new approaches rather than accepting that you’ll die and there’s nothing that can change.
Posted by kisatchie53
Member since Jul 2011
1964 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:33 pm to
Doesn't really seem that complicated They did everything the doctor recommended, chemo, surgeries, etc and gave it everything they had to try and fight it
Posted by RogerTheShrubber
Juneau, AK
Member since Jan 2009
260686 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:33 pm to
quote:

, "They fought hard." How do you fight a disease hard? Is it prayer? Having a positive attitude? What indicates someone 'fought hard' against a disease?


Living life fully, not backing out, taking your treatments, doing what you need to do.

I'm in that group. Undetermined amount of time.

This post was edited on 8/15/21 at 1:34 pm
Posted by OysterPoBoy
City of St. George
Member since Jul 2013
35173 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:33 pm to
quote:

How do you fight a disease hard?


Will to live.
Posted by UltimaParadox
Huntsville
Member since Nov 2008
40859 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:35 pm to
Obviously never seen anyone go through chemo.

Takes some courage to keep doing that even though what it does to you.
Posted by Beessnax
Member since Nov 2015
9148 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:37 pm to
quote:

They fought hard." How do you fight a disease hard? Is it prayer? Having a positive attitude? What indicates someone 'fought hard' against a disease?


I think those words are spoken by people who mean well during a time of loss but they have no real meaning. Its something we say to be kind.
Posted by tigahfromtheham
On your left
Member since Jun 2005
5801 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:39 pm to
I’ll take this one. From personal experience, my lady fought hard, meaning when she received her stage 4 diagnosis she went ahead with every treatment that “might” possibly help. We have kids so she felt the need to “fight” even though it was a losing battle. In hindsight I wish we could’ve approached it differently so that she was here longer but she was determined if there was a chance that she could do something she would try.

Turns out the chemo and immuno therapy was incapable of winning the battle. It’s a battle I’m thankful she fought on behalf of our kids. Sucks when it doesn’t work out though.
Posted by Willie Stroker
Member since Sep 2008
12900 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:42 pm to
quote:

So I've never understood what in means to 'fight hard' to survive an illness. I'm not belittling. I'm sincere in learning about this.

Have you ever heard people use the phrase “emotional intelligence”? You might lack it.

When you find yourself obsessing over the literal meaning of words instead of what people are trying to say, you just might be emotionally unintelligent.
Posted by RockinDood
Member since Aug 2020
918 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:46 pm to
quote:

I've never quite understood how this works. And seriously, I'm not trying to be a smart arse here. I genuinely would like to know.


“Fighting hard” against an illness is more about keeping your spirit alive and not giving up. there is a lot to be said about having the sheer will to live when your body has physically started to give up. You can’t punch a disease but you can certainly not roll over and take it.
Posted by Dixie Normus
Earth
Member since Sep 2013
2639 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:46 pm to
I deal with people at the end of life a decent amount. One of the most sad things I frequently see is an otherwise very healthy person losing a spouse of many years only to rapidly deteriorate in health the year after their loss and pass away.

Many times this happens with almost seemingly no biological or health reason. The only thing I’ve been able to equate it to is that they just lose their will to live after their person passes. It’s intangible and I have no way to explain it other than it 100% happens and I see it all the time.

So, as it relates to your question, I see it on the other side too. Take two people who were the same age diagnosed with the exact same terminal condition. There are some that have lost that willpower and just submit to the end and last a couple months even with the treatments. Then there are others that push themselves and make it a year with those same treatments.

I think this is what people are talking about when they say ‘fight.’ There is an intangible mental willpower to live that some people lose in situations of terminal illness for a variety of reasons be it loneliness, loss, or fear. I doubt there’s some study I could pull up to prove this other than I have just witnessed people in the same situation have dramatically different results. The only thing I can attribute it to is that some people just lose that ‘fight’ for some reason or another.
Posted by Boring
Member since Feb 2019
3792 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:48 pm to
quote:

Will to live.


Yep, I think OP’s question is a good one and don’t understand the downvotes. This goes beyond submitting yourself to treatment and enduring all the surgeries and drugs; I think he’s getting at…how do you “fight” something when you’re laid up in a hospital bed in a coma? And the answer is will. Something somewhere in your cells says, “I’m gonna keep on going motherfricker.” The fighting OP refers to isn’t the conscious choices, but the subconscious and silent mechanisms or bodies do (or don’t) turn on to keep our vessel ticking. People who are flirting with the knife edge of death on the operating table, call in the family, then miraculously a week later…they’re limping through the halls of the hospital making jokes with the nurses.

I don’t get it. If you’re a person of faith, maybe it’s god. If, like me, you haven’t been fortunate enough to receive the gift of faith, subconscious will is the only potential answer I can think of.
Posted by OWLFAN86
The OT has made me richer
Member since Jun 2004
175929 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:50 pm to
I'm not dying from my stroke even though at times I wish I had. Lying in that hospital bed and in rehab I was telling myself and everyone that would listen I was gonna make the quickest most remarkable recovery in the history of strokes

and then I got out of rehab and couldn't find therapy to save my life and that may be literal and I got depressed so insanely depressed. And I still had to get up every day and do what I could in a lot of days that was nothing more than wiping my own arse and fixing my own dinner but I did that and then with time I got a little better and could do a little more finally in January I was able to start therapy and make real progress .
But if I were to be honest I don't do it out of hope a lot of my fight if you wanna call it that is just out of anger I just refuse to lose I'm not enjoying my life these days I still feel depressed with where I am compared to where I want to be and especially compared to where I was
but the stroke isn't going to win


I imagine a lot of people facing death experience something similar. those that just keep trying even if you know you aren't going to win.
that's their attitude they know the end is gonna come they're not unrealistic they're not crazy but they just have something in them.
stubbornness, anger maybe irrational hope or delusion

for me,the stroke hasn't even been the real challenge,its finding therapy in the pandemic crazed world. All I want is to get better and its not happening cause of all the rues
so you get mad and fight. I guess other experience the same

hell what do I know I have brain damage
Posted by Mingo Was His NameO
Brooklyn
Member since Mar 2016
25455 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:53 pm to
quote:

hell what do I know I have brain damage


quote:

OWLFAN86


Take solace in the fact that has nothing to do with your stroke baw
Posted by AUbagman
LA
Member since Jun 2014
10569 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:54 pm to
Just not laying over and dying.
Posted by OWLFAN86
The OT has made me richer
Member since Jun 2004
175929 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:57 pm to
haha

my cognitive intellectual abilities remain unaffected and quite strong


and the brain is communicating with the muscles I'm getting signals I can get better it takes effort, pain time and money
my biggest challenge is the atrophy. 8 months with no therapy and very limited since,, but I do what I can

Posted by BluegrassBelle
RIP Hefty Lefty - 1981-2019
Member since Nov 2010
99064 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 1:58 pm to
quote:

You hear a lot after someone dies of an illness they say, "They fought hard." How do you fight a disease hard? Is it prayer? Having a positive attitude? What indicates someone 'fought hard' against a disease?


When my Mom received her terminal cancer diagnosis she went ahead and with treatment (chemo and later radiation for METs on her brain) in order to try to squeeze as much as she could out of the time she had left.

It was literally a fight for her to live every day that she did when she was in the throws of her disease. She could have very easily given up.
Posted by Mingo Was His NameO
Brooklyn
Member since Mar 2016
25455 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 2:01 pm to
quote:

my cognitive intellectual abilities remain unaffected


Good to hear

quote:

quite strong


Posted by OWLFAN86
The OT has made me richer
Member since Jun 2004
175929 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 2:11 pm to
quote:

tigahfromtheham

Posted by epbart
new york city
Member since Mar 2005
2926 posts
Posted on 8/15/21 at 2:22 pm to
quote:

I've never quite understood how this works. And seriously, I'm not trying to be a smart arse here. I genuinely would like to know.

You hear a lot after someone dies of an illness they say, "They fought hard." How do you fight a disease hard? Is it prayer? Having a positive attitude? What indicates someone 'fought hard' against a disease?


1) Don't bemoan your fate or complain about the unfairness of it.

2) Act with dignity / virtue in all things you do.

You could similarly summarize this as being properly stoic-- not to be confused with unemotional... It's more about acting appropriately to control what you can, but not fretting or being afraid of what you cannot. (I apologize for the over-simplistic definition which many people are more than familiar with... I'm answering you directly as you said you are honestly seeking an answer, so I will assume you don't know anything about this subject.)

This might sound easy, and in some ways it can be. Then again, it seems more common for people to complain about any burden they endure, to blame others when possible, and to milk their victimhood for attention or as an excuse to avoid fulfilling responsibilities.




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