Yes, Timothy, I agree. I was told (in 1966!) that diabetes would be “cured” in my lifetime. I was 12 years old in 1966. I am 71 years old today. Still waiting…
I had bleeding in both eyes 20-something years after being diagnosed. Had a metric buttload of laser just so the surgeon could take a look. This is when I learned about managing my health care as I spent the next year hearing you need surgery/laser/injections at one appointment, I’d opt to wait to see if there was any change and at the next appointment they’d find I no longer needed whatever, next time recommend something else, repeat for a year or two. So another data point saying your doc’s platitude was incorrect.
On the positive side, I was listening to a great BBC Radio 4 show In Touch about living with vision loss and the episode had a rep from a company that was working on a 2nd gen system that would allow limited imaging of the retina at home. They said a US company had FDA approval for a 1st gen device. I looked it up, Notal Vision created a device for at home monitoring for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). AMD sounds a lot like retinopathy. Last eye appt. when the doc came in I said if we have time I’d like to ask a question for fun, appt. was super boring for him because I’m fine, I asked if Notal Vision’s device or something similar would be useful for him and his patients with diabetes if it was approved for use in the future. He said absolutely and we had a fun conversation. So maybe in 5-20 years we’ll need to spend less time going to appts to confirm that we’re fine.
What do you tell someone who has an incurable disease? When I was about 20 I estimated a reasonable lifespan of 40 more years and maybe 50 if I stopped enjoying the first 40. I believe that was accurate. How would you have explained that to a 20 year old?
I didn’t stop enjoying myself (well, no more than I do naturally) and the non-cure got better but there is no way I would have relied on that; I just kept on keeping on, to quote the bard and everyone else.
They’re not lying, they are hoping. They may be idiots but they do all they can do with their carrot, their stick and their stupidity.
This is not a criticism of you, your post, or anything you said. I know everyone is so “me” and I do not criticise that; what I’m saying is that to understand what doc’s say we have to understand where they are coming from. What they believe, what they have learned, how hopeless a terminally ill person is.
What we can give to these people is our understanding, our knowledge and our hope. Our tech, our cure, well, that should be paid for. Yet “understanding” is the most valuable commodity and one that cannot be bought.
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