The decision to stop chemo

[Tab]

14. Thank you so much

and I'm sorry for your dad (it wasn't clear, but I guess he has passed?)

I'm trying to avoid that situation. I've had 5 years of chemo, but we've used up the "good" drugs and the last two have kept me pretty incapacitated (until I stopped them) and my understanding is that any future drugs will have nasty side effects and there's not much that will improve it. To my mind, it's a no-brainer (which I might not have one anyway). If they're not going to make my life better, why bother? If you told me to deal with it for a year and at the end of the year I'd be cured, I'd probably go for it, but no one is making any such promises.

If I may say so, I wouldn't be so hard on your mother. She must have been scared and frightened at the possibility of losing him, and stopping treatment would be tantamount to just letting him go and she probably couldn't face that.

My wife's not in a big hurry to see me go (or maybe she is, I'll have to ask ) but she knows I don't want to spend years as an invalid to "prolong" my life. The same with the rest of the family - they're not thrilled, but they understand, and if I ask them what they would do if they were in my shoes, they also acknowledge they'd do the same thing.

Hey, if I feel good, I might be here for another 5 to 10 years - who knows. I've already exceeded my original expiration date.

Best to you and your family and thanks for speaking up.

- Tab