Something is wrong with the whole system of how people are compensated for their work; a Starbucks employee shouldn’t have to rely upon the good graces of their customers (tips) to earn a living wage, either.
That being said, a heart surgeon has a very specific and wide-ranging set of knowledge and skills which not many people could have, not to mention the incredible amount of stress they’re under.
I’m sorry for both of you. I thank you for your words. As someone who’s right behind you in line, your words mean more to me (and hit harder, and cut deeper) than I expect they do for many.
Take my love with you both. See you on the other side.
No problem, I don't mind talking about it. It was stage 4 when it was detected. Right lung, pleura, up my lymph nodes to the opposite side. There was a lot of it. And I've had Stereotactic RadioSurgery a few times for metastases in my brain.
Herceptin (trastuzumab) is mainly for HER-2 overexpression, whereas I have HER-2 mutation. However, we did try it last year alongside another chemo whose name I cannot remember, and IIRC that's the combo which gave me neuropathy in my feet (I now take lots of gabapentin every day so my feet don't feel like they're on fire).
Other than the clinical trial drug, which helped for a few months, the one thing that did help but eventually gave me pneumonitis so I had to stop it, was Enhertu.
The biggest thing people who have lost someone close to them have to say is that they start to forget what the person looked like and sounded like. I am doing it - I think if you keep it casual, like "hey, I was just thinking about you and the day you graduate high school, and I'll bet....." kind of thing, you're making it less morbid.
I was recently released from a clinical trial because of too many “newly measurable” areas of tumor. I was offered CAR-T but was told that it comes with a high risk of possibly fatal infections and is not guaranteed to work at all for my cancer (HER-2 positive lung cancer, stage 4). I turned it down. I have a wife and 3 kids, I’d rather spend an unknown amount of time being fully present with them than risk my life today.
> What Taleb calls the Intellectual Yet Idiot (IYI) - someone who has the mannerisms and interests of a superficially intelligent person but who nonetheless is unable to self-reflect or deal with nuance, such as the Harvard-educated Ben Shapiro.
I worked in Harvard Square for 5 years (dead center, across the street from Curious George, between the Greenhouse and the Coop), and it was always my assertion that Harvard is full of Well-Educated Idiots.
That being said, a heart surgeon has a very specific and wide-ranging set of knowledge and skills which not many people could have, not to mention the incredible amount of stress they’re under.