What is more important? How you feel or how long you live?

For me quality over quantity for sure. Tho for me the most important factor in quality is brain function, including communication and some mobility.
My high pain threshold has been one a mixed blessing/curse thing. It allows me deal better with chronic issues because they are annoyances mostly. On downside tho i sometimes i put off seeing a doctor because it doesn't hurt me that much. As i've aged having arthritis at sites of old injuries is common and i've resolved to see docs quicker about injuries and symptoms, even tho i know sometimes what they can do may limited.

But for me both physical and mental/emotional discomfort and pain are part our incarnate experience, so certain kinds and levels are acceptable as long as can think, communicate and hug/cuddle those i love.
 
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Ceege said:
Striving for Quality, Not Quantity, of Life - The ASCO Post

https://ascopost.com/issues/novembe...ty-not-quantity-of-life/#.Yuv-f1JGLZY.twitter

What are your thoughts?
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I agree that absence of pain and impairment are far more important than the length of our life. However, in the real world we do not have many choices. I reached age 87 and am male. The average life expectancy of American males is 75. I have also had bad pain and impairment from arthritis and some doctor abuse. I've learned to acclimate to the pain and also take Tylenol and Gabapentin to reduce it.

I feel I must accept whatever happens and just use choices available in the State of Connecticut in the US. Here they do not allow euthanasia but they do allow a Living Will and Advanced Directive. They allow one to refuse all treatment including nutrition and hydration and die but it takes about 3 weeks to end one's life using that method. I believe that John McCain and Barbara Bush used that method of ending their lives when their suffering became unbearable.

In the meantime I MUST accept whatever happens and make the best of it.
 

Someone reacting to an old post of mine on another site uncovered an old Haiku of mine i think is relevant here.

Lesson from failure?
If not of vital organ,
Survival likely.
© efbarmore Summer 2012?

The brain is a, perhaps the most, vital organ, even tho i believe the consciousness that resides in it survives the body's death.
 
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Mitch86 said:
I agree that absence of pain and impairment are far more important than the length of our life. However, in the real world we do not have many choices. I reached age 87 and am male. The average life expectancy of American males is 75. I have also had bad pain and impairment from arthritis and some doctor abuse. I've learned to acclimate to the pain and also take Tylenol and Gabapentin to reduce it.

I feel I must accept whatever happens and just use choices available in the State of Connecticut in the US. Here they do not allow euthanasia but they do allow a Living Will and Advanced Directive. They allow one to refuse all treatment including nutrition and hydration and die but it takes about 3 weeks to end one's life using that method. I believe that John McCain and Barbara Bush used that method of ending their lives when their suffering became unbearable.

In the meantime I MUST accept whatever happens and make the best of it.
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I admire your courage and attitude. I am 70 and experiencing similar pain. If we have a lot of pain through the day, it is a challenge to not get depressed about it. I have found that the need to be depressed can be averted in most cases. It is a choice to not give in to a paralyzing thought pattern. It feels like when we have a knee jerk reaction to something we don't like. We tend to protect and hide from things that are painful. Mitch is choosing how to take care of how he feels at 86 and in a lot of pain. That IS the challenge as we age.
 

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