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For the family of a loved one diagnosed with a terminal illness--I can see the appeal. Being told it could be weeks, months, 2 years, who knows? That has to be torture. I have congestive heart failure. My dumbass doctor told me I could die any moment or live 3-5 years or make a full recovery. Fucking brilliant! It has increased my anxiety greatly.
voltaire1778
Level 5
Sep 30, 2018
1
Almost like he was giving me a choice. Hmmmm....let me think about it doc. I'll get back to you.
@voltaire1778 yep you have a choice not care or change things so you can live longer a choice only if you take it.
@benhmiller When I asked if diet and exercise could improve things, he just shook his head no. All he wants to do is drug me and do surgery. I've been changing my diet and exercising more. And reading up on CHF. Like I said, my doc is a dumbass. Recovery is possible, but you have to make a lot of changes in your lifestyle. He made it sound like a crapshoot. As a matter of fact, his recommendation was bed rest and do nothing physical--that's the worst thing you can do with CHF.
Why do you choose be treated by a doctor that you call a dumbass? If you really believe that change your doctor. If the next doctor gives you the same advice it's rather unlikely you got two dumbasses in a row. Then look at your own atitude. Good luck and I hope the more optimistic estimate proves to be correct.
Shouldn't they be working on stopping Cancer instead?
GipsyOfNewSpain
Level 9
Sep 30, 2018
1
See the post above yours. Everybody has a different field they're working in, and they can't all work on the same thing.
@tnorman1236 Priorities... finding out when cancer is going to kill me... is not that important to me as finding out cancer is not going to kill me but that is just me. Scientists waste time and money on their dreams. Like the Space Force Revisited but... hey... whatever.
@GipsyOfNewSpain now you are comparing liddle donie fish mouth space force to real scientist work? I thought you were smarter than that!
@benhmiller No I am not, that will teach you a lesson.
death is the easiest thing in the world to predict. i will predict it now: we're all going to die! there. you wait and see if this isn't true!
but seriously, an algorithm cannot predict death. it can calculate the odds but it cannot use every bit of information that would help such a calculation, because there are way too many variables. it's not ALL based on, say, a patient's metabolism, or the progression of the illness. some of it is based on the emotional state of the patient, and said state could be changed by a chance encounter, a visit from a loved (or hated) one, the callousness or solicitousness of a nurse, how dim or bright the lights are, any number of things! if this algorithm seems to have had some success, keep in mind the subjects of the predictions were already dying, or potentially dying, not as we all are, but more imminently, and more specifically, if i understand this correctly.
on the other hand, cats ARE superior animals.
g
genessa
Level 8
Sep 30, 2018
1
I agree, but I think the point of the algorithm is to help doctors be more accurate than they have been in diagnosing and treatment of end of life patients. If it helps, I'm all for it. But it's true that there are too many variables to be 100% accurate. Still, better is better.
@tnorman1236 i understand. i am not sure i agree that this would be better to know about end of life patients. about patients who MIGHT die, where the algorithm would be the least useful, it would be better to know, but if a patient is dying, what possible use could it be? so they can plan to have more empty beds in time for more dying patients? i can see some pretty cold uses for this algorithm in that circumstance.
g
@genessa That's possible, of course, but I think it has to do with the quality of palliative care, and preparing the patient and family for what's going to happen and when.
@tnorman1236 again i understand, though i think that anyone who is already considered an end-of-life patient already has a family being prepared and hopefully as much palliative care as possible. so maybe the algorithm says "friday at four in the morning" instead of "really soon" -- i guess it's okay but it wouldn't be at the top of MY list. still, it's interesting, in its way.
Well about 20% of the people ever born on Earth are alive now. Mortality is 80% so maybe it isn't that certain. a 4 out of 5 chance of dying still leaves an escape clause.
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