canucker2016 a day ago

https://archive.is/9PJTq

    Request for Prayers
    November 12, 2024

    I am asking friends and well-wishers to pray for me. 
    I believe that group intention can actually make a difference.

    On October first, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Because of vascular involvement, surgery is not possible. I am taking weekly chemo treatments to shrink the tumor before surgical resection. I am tolerating the chemo pretty well, and I am in good spirits. Every day I make a point of getting out in the sun and walking with Cai and Poppy.

    I am receiving excellent care for my physical body from a team of doctors and nurses at Stanford and UCSF. I am also receiving several different modalities of holistic treatments for my emotional and spiritual health. The treatments are helping, and I am feeling much less pain now. I am even regaining a little of the weight that I lost.

    From my Iboga experience seven years ago, I know for certain that my consciousness and memories will continue after I leave my physical body. I have no existential fear of death. Actually more anticipation and curiosity.

    At 73 years, I have already lived an amazing and wonderful life. I have loved and been loved, beginning with my remarkable mother who believed in me. With my work at Apple and General Magic I am grateful that I could make positive contributions to the lives of many millions of people, and even affect the course of human evolution.

    But I want more quality time to share life and experiences with Cai and with my friends and family. My bucket list is not filled with places to travel, but instead with quality time with those I love and those who love me.

    I am living my life filled with gratitude. Each day is a special gift to be unwrapped, enjoyed, and cherished. 

    Thank you for praying for me.

    Bill Atkinson
  • pvaldes 13 hours ago

    Each time I see the words "Holistic" treatment I cringe

  • canucker2016 a day ago

    Steve Jobs also had pancreatic cancer.

    Quincy Jones just died from pancreatic cancer.

    • zxexz a day ago

      The best time in history to have cancer is now, and we need to make sure that statement continues to be true for every year yet to come. Having cancer is still some of the worst news an individual can hear. And it’s nigh but inevitable; we roll the dice every second.

      A lot of the issue is the hush-hush manner we treat the subject with, IMO, and the “us vs. them” mentality with the “pharma industry”. I don’t think anybody should criticize Steve for his course of treatment, but the charlatans that led him down that path. For every Steve Jobs there are thousands of Steves with a similar story.

      • runamok 20 hours ago

        The story afaict is less charlatans and more Jobs' hubris and ignoring his doctors. He has a pretty long history of questionable health decisions from what I have read.

        In October 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. In mid 2004, he announced to his employees that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is very poor; *Jobs stated that he had a rare, less aggressive type, known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.*

        Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for medical intervention for nine months, in favor of alternative medicine. Other doctors agree that Jobs's diet was insufficient to address his disease. However, cancer researcher and alternative medicine critic David Gorski wrote that "it's impossible to know whether and by how much he might have decreased his chances of surviving his cancer through his flirtation with woo. My best guess was that Jobs probably only modestly decreased his chances of survival, if that." Barrie R. Cassileth, the chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's integrative medicine department, on the other hand, said, "Jobs's faith in alternative medicine likely cost him his life ... He had the only kind of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable ... He essentially committed suicide."

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs (under Health problems)

        • zxexz 19 hours ago

          Did not know his was neuroendocrine. But still, something or somebody led him down that path (or rather, a multitude of someones and somethings, over who-knows-what timeframe). It's sad - not because it was Steve Jobs, but because it's an example of something that in aggregate would lead to substantially less suffering if people understood what was even possible.

          I've known a few smart people that died of things that they could have had a high change of not dying from if they took proper action when they first found out. For instance, I've known 2 separate Christian Scientists with (different, treatable - often curable without so much as minor surgery) Stage I or II cancers, who ended up withering away for a few years before passing.

        • Jyaif 17 hours ago

          He committed suicide, but more importantly in my view is that he needlessly used a donated organ that could have gone to someone that actually needed it. A real hero that guy.

        • TylerLives 9 hours ago

          Doctors say you must listen to doctors or you'll die. Give your money to doctors if you want to live.

    • compressedgas a day ago

      Jef Raskin also had pancreatic cancer.

      • melling a day ago

        All these people too. Hopefully someday we make an effort to cure it. We’ve made so little progress.

        Randy Pausch - Last Lecture

        Steve Jobs

        Patrick Swayze

        Sally Ride - astronaut

        Piers Sellers - astronaut

        Hans Rosling

        Richard Hatch

        Michael Landon

        Bill Hicks - Comedian

        Jef Raskin - Macintosh

        Aretha Franklin

        Luciano Pavarotti

        Sharon Jones

        Alan Rickman

        Dizzy Gillespie

        Benoit Mandelbrot

        Wernher von Braun

incanus77 a day ago

MacPaint, QuickDraw, Hypercard, Atkinson dithering... a true legend.