We know a nurse whose mom refused to be treated for a gynecological cancer because she “was ready to leave the world with dignity.”
She didn’t want to go through all the medical exams, the fuss and inconveniences of subsequent therapies, the nausea and pain, the hair loss and what have you. In her early 70s, she figured that she had a good 5 to 10 years left without any chemo or radiotherapy involved. She would turn to herbal treatments and other alternative “therapies,” though.
She basically went Steve Jobs all the way.
Eventually the cancer spread and broke through her skin in the form of ulcerating (“fungating”) lesions that emerged as rotten cauliflower-like sores that bled and oozed foul-smelling fluid. And it never stopped growing while it feasted on her body.
Her initial purpose was to silently leave the world in dignity and without pain.
But the harsh truth rarely grants one’s naive herbal wishes, and this time it didn’t happen either as she couldn’t stop screaming with her desperate daughter by her side —
And subsequently perished in pain.