Cancer 142

I read all sorts of stuff, from the extremely interesting to the downright nonsensical. I sometimes get so confused I cannot separate the useful from the dross. I get caught up in those spirals of internet bollocks, where the truth is never as close as a bullet to Trump’s brain. I do read about death as it is something close to my heart (and lungs, and bowels, and abdomen).

Recently I read something about the four stages of dying. Please yourself regarding whether there is truth in this and where that truth might lie

1. Slowing down (6 months before death). The person becomes tired and lethargic. They slow down, they are less social and they eat less. I am all those things apart from eating less. I try but I don’t succeed. I am always tired and lethargic, I can walk less, I am less social. These things are true but hae been since my diagnosis 20 months ago, so perhaps I am a slow learner.
2. Declining strength (3 months before death). The person becomes debilitated, sleeps more, leave the house less, and again is eating less. Ignoring the eating, I sleep a lot less, 4-5 hours is a good night. As for leaving the house I am writing this from the Baltic coast in eastern Germany.
3. Transitioning (1 month before death). The person has hallucinations, seeing dead family members and friends. This one is slightly weird. It is claimed that it might be about the dead letting the dying know that death is ok. I can understand halucinations, though the person suggested most people have them. Unlikely I think. This perhaps arises from the religious beliefs of some people, those who – it is hard to believe folks – genuinely think that there is life after death. They must be on the magic mushrooms.
4. Actively dying (Days before death). This is when the person may be unconscious, eats no food, is incontinent, has breathing difficulties. There are metabolic changes, eg skin colour and body temperature. Eats no food? I will believe that when I see it.

It seems that I am on the first stage, but then I would be anyway. I have always been a miserable old fart who doesn’t like people.

There is a final stage, after death. Here there is the suggestion that the brain knows the heart has stopped, that it knows you are dead, perhaps for several seconds or even minutes. It would be good to test this properly but it would be difficult as no one returns from the dead, except perhaps Vincent Price. It fits with the anecdotal evidence that people who have been decapitated may move their eyes or their mouth. It does make sense. Why shoud the entire body should down at the same time? Imagine it though. You know you are dead . What do you think? Damn, I’ve had it now.

Last night, while eating at our excellent hotel here in Ahrenshoop, I saw a quotation that, if I was to have a headstone, might be a suitable epitaph. It is a quotation by Theodor Fontane, the Nineteenth Century realist German author

“…if one has the choice between Champagne and oysters – one usually chooses both.”

And therein lies the problem….