Terminal Illness Gives Blogger A New View On Her Life
Nothing so alters a person as learning you have a terminal illness. Ronni Bennett, who writes a popular blog about aging, discovered that recently when she heard that canadian goose jacket cancer had metastasized to her lungs and her peritoneum (a membrane that lines the cavity of the abdomen). There is no cure for your condition, Bennett was told by doctors, who estimated she might have six to eight months of good health before symptoms http://www.canadagoosesalesus.com began to appear. Right then and there, this 77 year old resolved to start doing things differently something many people might be inclined to do in a similar situation.
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No more pretending that the cliche “we’re all terminal” (since death awaits all of us) is especially insightful. It slowed tumour growth, reduced the size of tumours and even helped increase the lifespan of some mice
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canada goose clearance sale This 77 year old resolved to start doing things differently something many people buy canada goose jacket might be inclined to do in a similar situation. canada goose clearance sale
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“It colors everything,” she told me in a long and wide Canada Goose Outlet ranging conversation recently. “I’ve always lived tentatively, but I’m not anymore because the worst has happened I’ve been told I’m going to die.”
canada goose coats on sale No more listening to medical advice from friends and acquaintances, however well intentioned. Bennett has complete trust in her medical team at Oregon Health Science University, which has treated her since diagnosing pancreatic cancer last year. She’s done with responding politely to people who think they know better, she said. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Online And no more worrying, even for a minute, what anyone thinks of her. As Bennett wrote in a recent blog post, “All kinds of things. fall away at just about the exact moment the doctor says, canada goose clearance sale ‘There is no treatment.’ ” Canada Goose Online
Four or five times a day, a wave of canada goose black friday sale crushing fear washes through her, Bennett Canada Goose Parka told me. She breathes deeply and lets it pass. And no, psychotherapy isn’t something she wants to consider.
uk canada goose outlet Instead, she’ll feel whatever it is she needs to feel and learn from it. This is how she wants to approach death, Bennett said: alert, aware, lucid. “Dying is the last great adventure we have the last bit of life and I want to experience it as it happens,” she said. uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose Parka Writing is, for Bennett, a necessity, the thing she wants to do more than anything during this last stage of her life. For decades, it’s been her way of buy canada goose jacket cheap understanding the world and herself. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose uk shop In a notebook, Bennett has been jotting down thoughts and feelings as they come to her. Some she already has shared in a series of blog posts about her illness. Some she’s saving for the future. canada goose uk shop
There are questions she hasn’t figured out how to answer yet.
buy canada goose jacket cheap “Can I still watch trashy TV shows?” buy canada goose jacket cheap
“How do I choose what books to read, given that my time is finite?
Canada Goose Jackets “What do I think about rationale suicide?” (Physician assisted death is an option in Oregon, where Bennett lives.) Canada Goose Jackets
Along with her “I’m done with that” list, Bennett has a list of what she wants to embrace:
Ice cream and cheese, her favorite foods. Walks in the park near her home. Get togethers with her public affairs discussion group. A romp with kittens or puppies licking her and making her laugh. A sense of normalcy, for as long as possible. “What I want is my life, very close to what it is,” she explained. And deep conversations with friends. “What has been most helpful and touched me most are the friends who are willing to let me talk about this,” she said.
canada goose uk black friday On her blog, she has invited readers to “ask any questions at all” and made it clear she welcomes frank communication. canada goose uk black friday
canada goose factory sale “I’m new to this this dying thing and there’s no instruction book. I’m kind of fascinated by what you do with canada goose coats on sale yourself during this period, and questions help me canada goose deals figure out what I think,” she told me. canada goose factory sale
Recently, a reader asked Bennett if she was angry about her cancer. No, Bennett answered. “Early on, I read about some cancer patients who get hung up on ‘why me?’ My response was ‘why not me?’ Most of my family died of cancer and, 40 percent of all Americans will have some form of cancer during their lives.”
Dozens of readers canada goose store have responded with shock, sadness and gratitude for Bennett’s honesty about subjects that usually aren’t discussed in public.
“Because she’s writing about her own experiences in detail and telling people how she feels, people are opening up and relaying their experiences things that maybe they’ve never said to anyone before,” Millie Garfield, 93, a devoted reader and friend of Bennett’s, told me in a phone conversation.
Canada Goose Coats On Sale Garfield’s parents never talked about illness and death the way Bennett is doing. “I didn’t have this close communication with them, and they never opened up to me about all the things Ronni is talking about,” she said. Canada Goose Coats On Sale
For the last year, Bennett and her former canada goose clearance husband, Alex Bennett, have broadcast video conversations every few weeks over YouTube. (He lives across the country in New York City.) “What you’ve written will be valuable as a document of somebody’s life and how to leave it,” he told her recently as they talked about her condition with poignancy and laughter.
Canada Goose Outlet Other people may have very different perspectives as they take stock of their lives upon learning canada goose coats they have a terminal illness. Some may not want to share their innermost thoughts and feelings; others may do so willingly or if they feel other people really want to listen Canada Goose Outlet.