BF2S Forums EE Chats 2142

i'm sure that's an immense relief after a long day of waiting around. glad to hear it.

incidentally the last time i was on tenterhooks, sitting around in a sterile hospital waiting room during theater, i had clive james the amiable australian for company. may you find suitable literature in your hour of need.

Last edited by uziq (2025-09-03 05:42:33)

Was on vacation last week and my grandma died, the funeral is tomorrow. Fun

ditto^

side note: the urge to ask a dying person some variant of "how are you doing" is an odd compulsion, and one that i may never tire of hearing dying people shut down with some of the darkest humor that's ever tickled my ears (seems to be a highlight of their day). people who ask that stuff may know it's a dumb question, at least in hindsight, but probably can't think of what else to say.

very complicated.

i don't want to watch old people die of a broken hip, but probably less miserable than lingering, years-long terminal illness. there's been multiple, preventable hip fractures in my circles. some of those don't really change their habits, so reinjure themselves easily.

yeah, physical decline i can deal with, but dementia or alzheimers or anything like that gives me the heebie jeebies.

if you come up with an either/or question for a fictional scenario or something that can be interpreted as a thought experiment, chatgpt will probably pick the first thing and run with that. unless you specifically tell it to consider both (and sometimes even if you do), it seems to skip options past "or." so make sure to plunk immortality down as the first option.

Both my parents are in EOL treatment.

My father refused to cover up in the sun his whole life, or wear a dust mask, or goggles even - until he got an eyeful of metal shards.

My mother followed the boomer "But 2-3 double size glasses of fortified wine every day are good for you, I read it somewhere" theory, also refused to do anything about her sleep apnea for 10 years and ended up with a busted heart.

Latest news: My mother overheard two nurses talking, apparently she was bumped out of ICU too early because firstly the head of ICU was in a feud with the surgeon and secondly thought she was going to die and didn't want the death on his numbers.

This is peak healthcare in western countries, its only downhill from here. I'm going to buy a robot and start programming it to do this stuff.

Apnea literally blows up the heart, puts huge stress on it, never mind the lack of rest.

Its largely been a curse with some high points - this boils down to cats.

We've had a lot of extreme shit to deal with besides inter-generational trauma and not had much option for 20+ years, its not really been out of choice.

Good little trauma dump in EE chats.

Thanks all, funeral was yesterday and was a long af day

uziq wrote:

my grandmother fell on xmas day a few years ago, broke her hip. late 90s. basically always fatal, if not immediately then in the very short term. she passed about 3 days later in the hospital ward. recovery from any sort of serious injury or break drains way too much energy for most old people to cope.

i didn't ask her how she was doing, because she was hallucinating and seeing little birds in the corners of the ceiling. but, on balance, pretty much a merciful and not too protracted end to a very long life. watching (very) old ones age and pass seems to be a very complicated matter thesedays, with so much excellent medicine and infinitesimal extensions to life available.

Similar with mine, 100 and she fell a month or so ago. Her mind was mostly there but slipping since last year, incoherent on the final day afaik. At least it wasn't drawn out over months or years I guess.