Simone Giertz on her brain tumour [video](youtube.com) |
Simone Giertz on her brain tumour [video](youtube.com) |
I've seen cancer show up unexpectedly among two friends. One discovered she had leukemia, and underwent chemo and a bone marrow transplant. She died from a lung infection because of her weakened immune system after the transplant, not even a year after the initial diagnosis. She had just turned 27.
Another friend discovered they had an extremely rare form of mesothelioma, the asbestos-caused lung cancer, except theirs isn't due to asbestos and isn't in the lung. There are less than 300 documented cases, rare enough that there are no experts, and they're a case study. They're currently living with the uncertainty in their mid-30s.
Both friends were in great physical health (the former made the regional swim team, the latter climbs the highest peaks in North America for fun) until the diagnostic.
Seeing this has reinforced my nihilism (there is no meaning to life but the one you apply to it), and gave me greater understanding that our multicellular bodies are a peace treaty among cells that is likely to break down at any moment.
A philosophical nitpick too, you're likely describing absurdism, not nihilism. Nihilism doesn't accept the self-application of meaning/purpose. Whereas other forms of existentialism do accept that self application of purpose is valid, with absurdism being the only one which offers that any self assigned purpose is equally valid to others.
I only say this because both handle the question of suicide differently. I'm on the fence between being a nihilist and an absurdist weekly.
You're right, thanks for the clarification! I got confused between existentialism and nihilism, I admit I don't know the differences beyond what's infiltrated pop consciousness. You sent me on a wikibrowsing quest ;)
I do try to stay fit and eat healthy but there are times that I realize that I have no control over randomness or my genes. That is humbling and scary at the same time.
Not sure if this is the case here, but fatal heart attacks in healthy physically active young adults are often the result of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
This is a fairly common (~ 1 in 500) inheritable condition that can be easily diagnosed by ultrasound. Everybody do yourself a favour and get at least a routine checkup in every few years. It prevents deaths.
Plus, I'm thrilled to see somebody else with a nice sense of gallows humor. Sometimes, we have to laugh so we don't have to cry.
I was honesty expecting her to wheel out her robot arm holding a scalpel.
Here's hoping that her Paetreon https://www.patreon.com/simonegiertz holds her over. Maybe some folks will sponsor some projects.
I'm so glad that Patreon exists for moments like this, when a person just needs some time to deal with a health or a family issue and cannot focus on creating new material to maintain their finances.
I'm not opposed to the concept really but you get that dumping more money to a middleman is more of a symptom than a solution
I just looked into her videos and some stuff is really funny. like where she had a robot that served her a soup. it also was an ad for google home and at the end she said, google home probably won't come with a robot that will serve soup, which is probably a good thing :D
Yep, that is exactly it. Eventually, we all lose ability in our bodies, if not from illness or injury, simply due to aging. And dealing with those changes is part of life. I don't envy someone being thrown into those changes in their youth... but there is more to recovery than just gaining your physical state. Moving forward with your life, and finding happiness and joy wherever you end up is a far more important goal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Brain_tumor_diagno...
"John McCain survived this" is not a pitch I want to hear from anyone, especially a doctor.
Obviously I can't predict the future, but it seems like she's going to be okay.
At the same time this absolutely terrifies me and shows how fragile life is. Thankfully Simone is in Sweden so she does not have to worry about the financial impact (she has enough to worry about). I am self employed here in the US and pay for my insurance plan 100% out of pocket (don't qualify for any subsidies). The plan is frankly god-awful with something like an annual max out of pocket of $10,000 and $7,000 deductible. A cancer diagnosis would financially ruin me even though I pay nearly $400 a month in health insurance premiums. If I was diagnosed with cancer, the last thing I should have to worry about is how I am going to pay for it (especially seeing as I pay more than my fair share). The reality is I have way more of financial burden even though I am paying full price than somebody who get's their plan subsidized from Obama Care. They pay significantly less (sometimes nothing), yet have better care than me.
I can truthful say, I would fear the financial impact more than the cancer which is a scary reality.
https://twitter.com/SimoneGiertz/status/990983271705018368
I guess she has a health insurance as part of her employment at Adam Savage's Tested.com.
Having a Swedish citizenship, she also has the option to travel back to Sweden, sign a form and within a day or so be eligle for free healthcare there.
I have never had to sign a form to get healthcare here.
Good luck Simone!
I wonder what one can do to make sure to not run into the same surprise. I am guessing because of the many kinds of cancer that you can’t just do a “cancer checkup” twice a year?
If you don't want to run into the same problem, the absolute best thing you can do is to keep your body in the best shape possible. Physical exercise often, not overeating, getting an appropriate amount of rest.
Everyones' bodies are different and YMMV, but the tools to prevention are well known, they just sometimes don't coincide with people's chosen lifestyles.
You might want to also consider adding a little more olive oil to your food, and/or researching it more. It's really quite impressive.
Just eat healthy, exercise, enjoy life, and tell people you love them while you can.
My (then 70yo) mom got diagnosed with something very similar three years ago (golfball-sized tumor just behind one of the eyeballs). It was super scary for everyone involved.
The surgeon (in Linköping, Sweden) was one of the top specialists globally on this type of procedure - I did a ton of research before the surgery.
Recovery took a few days. They were wonderful at the hospital.
She's fine now, but her eye-sight on the affected eye is like 30%. I think the reason for this is that it was diagnosed quite late.
I'm quite surprised that such a young person like Simone (she's 27 according to wikipedia) has a golf-ball sized tumor.
This is exactly the sort of thing the social safety net _should_ cover. Otherwise only popular/beautiful people get the help they need.
There's a whole bunch of other people out there facing equally rough times, and because they don't have a million youtube subscribers they are not going to have any chance of riding it out on Patreon donations.
100% support Simone - but don't do it pretending there's nothing wrong with society and the way our governments treat _most_ people in awful situations.