So I was recently diagnosed with polycythemia and the doctors words were literally "holy fuck! They didn’t tell you this 7 years ago???
I’m having a very hard time right now because people with this condition are expected to only survive 20 years after the diagnoses. Meaning I have less than 15 years to live. I’ll never see my child graduate high school. I’ll never see them get married. I’ll never get to meet my grandchildren… this sucks. I’m so terrified right now. What am I supposed to tell my wife? What am I supposed to tell my parents? I’m going to die before all of them? How did I upset the universe to deserve this? I’m so scared and I don’t know what to do. L
Not many get to choose how they go out, and its hardly ever fair. I dont have that much advice, but your loved ones do deserve to know. They will be as blindsided as you were with this new information. The only advice I can give for certain is spend every moment you can with the ones you love.
I don’t get to choose. My genetics chose. I haven’t even told my wife this news yet and I know what the response is going to be
What did I do to not be allowed to be a grandfather. Why can’t I spoil grandkids? What did I do? What do I have to do to get that oppurtunity. Someone please fucking tell me what to do. I’ll do whatever I need to. I don’t want to die
This is statistics, it doesn’t mean it has to be like that in your case.
Also I just read about it more, so it is like the opposite of anemia?
I see there are primary and secondary variants. The secondary for example can be caused by multiple things like sleep apnea so using CPAP can reduce it.
You should also consult another doctor and see what s/he says.
BTW when parent poster said that not many people choose how they got out, is actually true. For example you could be perfectly healthy 20 year old one day and next day have a fatal car accident. In your case is a bit bad, because how your doctor said it implied that the clock is ticking.
I’m not a doctor, but also have a chronic disease and with those predictions basically the way it works is gradually your health deteriorates quicker with the sickness and will be harder and harder to manage or the side effects of drugs you take also can cause problems etc etc.
Wikipedia says that untreated people die 1.5-3 years if untreated, and 10-20 years when treated. But it also says that most people are diagnosed in their 60s and that’s the patients the 10-20 years number was calculated from, which is close to natural life expectancy.
I would see another doctor to get their perspective. Chance is that you will live to old age as well.
BTW also if your sickness is caused by sleep apnea make sure you get CPAP. Sleep apnea can cause all kinds of issues (that might not even seem related) when not treated.
Negotiation is one of the stages of grief, if I’m not mistaken. This is a heavy grief situation, definitely.
You’ll go through the stages, and continue to feel it until you’re gone, probably, but once Acceptance sets in, you’ll be able to make the most of the time you have left! ❤️
I wish you the best, and tell your family and friends the bad news so that they can get through their stages of grief as quickly as possible too, so you can all start living the rest of your years not taking each other for granted.
Run as many scams as you can on lenders also
Not the time or the place for jokes.
May not be a joke. Might just be unethical life pro tip. I mean fuck it, right? Why NOT take out a huge loan? Buy a huge ass house, and sell it to your wife for $1 a year later?
With diagnosis 10-20 years that’s just statistics and statistics have outliers.
Second, after reading more about it I think OP doesn’t have to worry about it. It indeed says the prognosis is 10-20 years but the sample used for this estimate was ~60 years olds (most common age when the condition is diagnosed) and I think his doctor missed that part.
I would recommend to see another doctor to confirm this.