Comment by cj

Comment by cj 8 days ago

14 replies

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My best friend died of brain cancer.

Although not from the cancer itself. He died of an opioid overdose. He was prescribed pain killers for cancer-related pain, and got hooked. His doctors stopped prescribing, so he found it elsewhere, and got a bad batch with fentanyl. (He was a VC living in SF, well to do, he had all the treatment money could buy, but cancer ended up not being what killed him)

I know this isn’t what you’re looking for, but be sure to not ignore other parts of his health. Addiction and other disorders are common among people with terminal or not-so-great prognosis.

The most you can do is to be a great friend.

stickfigure 8 days ago

> Addiction and other disorders are common among people with terminal or not-so-great prognosis

It's horrifying that we don't just give them what they want. Who are we to judge?

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  • cdrini 8 days ago

    I think that's a kind sentiment, but the counter arguments would be (1) they could very likely overdose and die, and (2) an addiction changes who you are, so it's not that "they" want it, it's the addiction that wants it. Your friend is the "they" before the addiction, and likely hates themselves after every time they fall off the wagon. To be clear we don't know the exact details, so we're speculating ; I could imagine some universe where it might make sense to let them, but in most cases I think what the real "they" would want is help breaking the addiction so they can spend their time doing the things that actually matter to them and give their life meaning.

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    • stickfigure 8 days ago

      That sounds incredibly patronizing. For some people, just being comfortable and happy for the remainder of their brief miserable life is meaning enough.

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      • cdrini 7 days ago

        And if so, then that's fine. But for others it isn't. And my guess is the latter is more common.

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  • avgDev 8 days ago

    Taking opiates from a terminal patient should be against the medical oath.

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nick__m 8 days ago

Stopping opioid because a cancer patient is addicted is incredibly cruel! sorry for your lost.

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  • cdrini 8 days ago

    Responded to one of your sibling comments with more thoughts, but it could very well be what the patient themselves wanted -- help with breaking the addiction so they could instead spend their time doing things they care about.

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egorfine 8 days ago

> He died of an opioid overdose

I'd say this is quite far away from the top entries in the list of worst ways to go.

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  • JumpCrisscross 8 days ago

    > this is quite far away from the top entries in the list of worst ways to go

    Genuine question: is it? I would have thought it's quite peaceful. Particularly since pentobarbital overdose is how we put down our pets [1]. (Not an opiate, but also renders you unconscious.)

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentobarbital#Euthanasia_and_a...

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    • egorfine 8 days ago

      It doesn't even matter whether this is painful for the body or not because you (as in your consciousness, your mind) are not there to witness the process and experience any physical feelings.

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      • JumpCrisscross 8 days ago

        > doesn't even matter whether this is painful for the body or not because you (as in your consciousness, your mind) are not there to witness the process and experience any physical feelings

        We have no known way to know this.

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        • egorfine 8 days ago

          I believe we do, given that thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of people go into a controlled opioid coma every single day to spare experience of pain and suffering and then come back alive and well, me included. I'm talking about sedation of course.

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paulpauper 8 days ago

Addiction and other disorders are common among people with terminal or not-so-great prognosis.

Or maybe his death was an outlier .pain meds are well tolerated by most people.

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