Don't bother, if you're in a position to do so, help them find a first-class brain surgeon. Get them into Sloan Kettering, Mayo, Duke or OHSU or whoever. Help them look for clinical trials to get chemo past the blood-brain barrier (I've heard some promising things in this area, though I'm not sure if it's being tested on humans yet). If they have a family that's taking care of them, offer to help them. Even just a grocery trip a week or something would be a massive help (obviously this depends on how close you are to them but you get the picture). Hell, offer to just hang out with your friend for a few hours so the family can get out and decompress for a bit if they need to.
Don't let them fall into the false hope of "I might have 5-10 more years". The person I knew fell into that and did absolutely nothing they wanted to do before they died because they were in denial and kept holding onto the expectation that they'd get better.
If they have money, every cockroach will come out of the woodwork trying to get a piece. Watch out for them if you can.
I know someone who got scammed out of a very substantial amount by a real brain surgeon in America(!!!), who referred them to a guy that sold a bogus device which he claimed would "destroy the tumor" (no FCC sticker on it and the entire thing was controlled by a Raspberry Pi when I disassembled it). Brain surgeon had a bunch of FDA complaints against them too and performed it in one of the poorest cities in the country, across the street from a burnt out apartment building. The local pharmacy had a constant police presence because of armed robberies for the drugs. These details scream sketch to normal people, but normal people aren't going to be dying of brain cancer in the foreseeable future. Desperate people will do crazy things if they think it offers some hope.
Agreed. Maybe look into end of life LSD therapy (https://www.webmd.com/palliative-care/features/facing-death-...) and work on the bucket list. That should be priority #1. #2 can be to try a lot of "out there stuff", but don't forget to live.
End of life bucket lists are a strange thing, I recall a close family member who entered hospice. They kept attempting to use their credit card to pay for all expenses, dinners, etc.
Of course, everyone around wanted to contribute - this person was not well off, the credit card was not used for much.
It took some weeks later after they passed for me to realize that they knew it was a credit card bill they would never need to pay. In all likelihood others contributions simply blocked them from feeling that they were contributing.
Lsd works in the sense that it makes you not care about dying that much, the ego death helps.
Combine that with ketamine for a nice anti depressant effect and you got a really good party going.
Why not do mdma also to kill the ptsd, maybe a visit a psytance festival instead of the hospital?
Jokes aside, its sad to prepare for death. I think drugs are not the answer, but they can help too. Depends on the people. Maybe hallucinogens trigger mental illness too. I dont recommend anyone to take drugs.
Not like they have much to lose
Hallucinogenic drugs can cause very disturbing thoughts and visions. One may be left feeling afraid and insecure after taking them, losing any progress one has made toward acceptance of death.
That’s probably why the suggestion was to look into psychedelic therapy, which utilizes a trained and experienced therapist in a controlled environment, rather than to hand their friend a strip of blotter.
See the problem with this disease is that the general treatment is shit.
With two inoperable tumors the chances that chemo and radiation alone do anything more than giving him a week or two are zero.
So in that respect, going to a first-class brain surgeon is no less a moonshot than any other bio hacks I can find online.
You're just recommending the "most-accepted" moonshot.
> going to a first-class brain surgeon is no less a moonshot than any other bio hacks I can find online
American "physicians received significantly less intensive care than the general population" at the end of their lives [1]. (Canadian physicians "used both intensive and palliative care more than nonphysicians" [2].)
The lesson seems to be yes, go ahead and pursue your moonshots, but don't let that cloud the reality of the situation and don't let the moonshots debilitate what little time you have left.
[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2482318
I'm sorry about your friend! Really, it's friends, I think... It's not fair to them, but its exceptionally unfair to you too.
It'd admirable that you're trying to help, that's the kinda person that I want to be when I, eventually, grow up.
I do wanna suggest that in the middle of taking care of your friends, you don't forget to take care af yourself. I give this advice knowing I'd never follow it, so maybe I should say try to ignore yourself as little as possible.
The OP you replied to is right, and if you read it again, you'll notice his actual recommendation wasn't any kind of moonshot. If you still don't see it, remember that in addition to the person diagnosed with cancer, the stages of grief hit their friends and family too.
I'm sorry for how messed up the whole thing is dude, and hope you'll be ok.