Freedom To Choose Life Or Death

img source

I had started this post 2 weeks ago. Life has just had other plans for me right now and getting time to due my due diligence to those I support and keep posting to stay afloat so to speak had/has gotten to be very overwhelming. I don't like when I cannot stay true to my word. The bright side.... I at least have some catching up to do so I have content to post!!

I do seem to miss #FreedomFriday postings. I have told @eaglespirit that I love these topics. Sometimes I just can't seem to get my post out in time. I want to support this project anyway I can, so I figured better late than never.

The Freedom to Choose Life or Death? How you see this truly depends on which way you look at this statement. Life being as it has been for about the past 6 months, we're going to choose to go with the standpoint from being ill.

The big question is when is enough, enough? or When is enough too much? To some people they get tired of fighting their illness. They feel drained. They see the drain on their loved ones and ponder the questions as mentioned. I believe with both of these it truly depends on the person and the scenario.

Let's take the case that happened not too long ago. On November 1, 2014 Brittany Maynard chose to die under the State of Oregon's 'Death with Dignity' law. If you aren't familiar with what happened, we'll do a quick overview.

Brittany Maynard was married in September, 2012. In January, 2014 she was diagnosed with:

grade 2 astrocytoma, a form of brain cancer and had a partial craniotomy and a partial resection of her temporal lobe. The cancer returned in April 2014, and her diagnosis was then elevated to grade 4 astrocytoma, also known as glioblastoma, with a prognosis of six months to live.

source

So is the right time to choose life or death? Do you continue to fight? Do you preserve the memories of your loved ones?

It is hard to imagine what she must have been going through being 29 years old, married for 2 years and no children. I had watched several interviews over the course of this issue coming into the limelight. What bothered me most, was the fact that she was so severely sick and in constant pain, people would be mean and rude to her face not just in the news and on social media. She had caught so much negativity she had to publicly make an announcement to get people to back off.

On October 29, 2014, she stated that "it doesn't seem like the right time right now" but that she would still end her own life at some future point.
source

At that time there were only 2 states in the country that allowed for 'assisted suicide' or 'death with dignity.' These states were Washington and Oregon. Due to the nature of the laws her and her husband decided to move to Oregon from California. They followed the law every step of the way. She had set the date and the arrangements were made. Due to media circus, she issued the statement I quoted above. In the end, everything went as she wanted it to go. Despite the agonizing pain she was going through (mind you not all days were bad, but the bad days outnumbered the good and bad is an understatement.) She did not want to lose her faculties she wanted to be as coherent as possible and she did not want to leave her loved ones with the image of her being in pain and wasting away. She wanted to leave them with good memories.

Currently, I have 2 friends that are living their lives at this point in time just like Brittany did. Each has chosen which path they want to take. I commend them both for having the strength to face the disease in the way that they choose. I don't want either in pain or their families for that matter.

Those that have followed me for a while know back in July I had a hysterectomy. The background on this. In 2002, I had been raped. Six months later I went in for a follow up Pap smear as directed by my then doctor. My results came back as abnormal. I had to have a biopsy done. Colposcopy if you want to know more about this absolutely wonderful procedure (Yeah NO). I was told then they were pre-precancerous cells and that at that time I became positive for one of the few of the large amounts of HPV strains. One of the ones that cause cervical cancer. I was told that I would should have an exam done about every 6 months, but definitely had to keep up with yearly. It was made out to be no big deal. Since that first colposcopy I have had over 25 Pap smears, 4 colposcopies and 2 LEEP procedures. At the time of my first LEEP procedure which was in 2009 I was at moderate to severe risk of cancer. The second one I went in at a moderate risk. My Pap 2 weeks later was at severe. So obviously something in my bodie was yelling it was finally time to take care of this. 16 years in and out of procedures and different doctors and pain. The goal was to get rid of anything that could possibly develop more 'bad' cells. Thankfully there was nothing left that should develop suspicious cells.

Everyone kept asking me 'What are you going to do if it is cancer?' I simply answered 'live my life.' I was not about to play the 'what if' game with this. Did I prepare myself, of course. When I found out that things were a lot worse than what I had been lead to believe, was I supposed to get mad and start yelling? What good would that do? What would that fix? It would do nothing. I thought about my my one friend who had cancer at the time (the other had not yet been diagnosed and a whole story of his own) The steps he had taken, the changes he made and the conditions he wanted to live out his life. I thought about the story of Brittany Maynard. My 2 biggest concerns were more regarding my family than me. I did not want to leave them with a lifetime of debt due to my medical bills. I did not want them to watch me suffer. I wanted their memories to stay intact. That was it.

So how or who says when or how we choose to live or how we choose to die? What is good for one person is not for another. It really isn't a question that has a definitive answer. Your beliefs, your feelings, your family all plays a part in what you do. Who is to say one way is the right way? The blunt straightforward answer. We're all terminal. We all will die, somehow, someway it is how life is designed. We live to die.

(I wanted to end this right there, but felt afterwards that I needed to respecify. This is not a suicide discussion that is something completely different. We can choose to cover that topic on another post if you guys want, just say the word. If we're lucky enough to get some discussion, please be respectful of each other)

---

Pay It Forward Contests

---

---

---

Steemitcentral

---

ASAP'ers

---

Dustsweeper

---

---

Earn passive Universal Basic Income

---

^{_{CREATE YOUR OWN @REVIEWME PROFILE TO START EARNING CREDIBILITY STARS FROM THE COMMUNITY!
CREATING YOUR PROFILE IS EASY! JUST FOLLOW THE STEPS HERE ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)}}

---

Thank you for your continued support, Love