Average age of death in "In Loving Memory" section

[epstns]

Pellicle, as a "big city dweller" all my life, these images are simply stunning! Now I have an incentive to retire so I can travel and see some of this. . . before I'm too old to enjoy the trip.

Thanks for bringing these to us.

 

[valdab]

so, theres a little of where I'm living now .. my new home for now.

I've been on a bit of a kick in post processing stuff to 1) augment the features 2) fit the tonal range the eye sees onto a screen 3) diminish but not deny the existence of modernity 4) attempt an old look ... so I can understand if people are cringing at the HRDI, mixed with "grunge" and some other painterly light tinkering.

sorry to ramble[/QUOTE]

Don't always know much about the valve stuff to make any meaningful contribution but I do know a thing or two about photography. I love the way you have treated the images - not overdone; respectful and restrained. It looks like a beautiful place.

 

[cldlhd]

http://www.history.com/topics/hallow...y-of-halloween
I like the old sawmill shot , I like combination of beauty ( old abandoned machinery does that to me for some reason) and a touch of creepiness. Looks like it's from the set of '1984'.

 

[Nocturne]

Well there may be no "in memory of" the older folks because they could still be alive... just a thought!

...

There is a lot wrong with that idea.

It would make sense by itself if there were some "hurdle" that AVR recipients had to get over in their 60s where they were mostly in the clear after they hit 70.

Pellicle's comment about older people just not being on this forum as much carries more weight.

Either way, it seems... The numbers are so ugly, for many if not most it seems better not to look at them, and to be distracted by beautiful pictures instead.

 

[pellicle]

I thought I'd have a go at redoing this shot.

I use an app that allows me to paint on HDR effects as a brush. Of course the day didn't look that gloomy, it's an artifact of how the camera deals with exposure in the bright and dark areas.

So this

To this

I'm happy with the results given the materials I was working with

 

[pellicle]

Either way, it seems... The numbers are so ugly, for many if not most it seems better not to look at them, and to be distracted by beautiful pictures instead.

ok ... I'll take that challenge ... one of my pesonal heros in life is Carl Sagan. He died at the relatively young age of 62

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Death

After suffering from myelodysplasia for two years, and receiving three bone marrow transplants from his sister Cari, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, in the early morning of December 20, 1996.

I say that he drove the knowledge and virve of many thousands (perhaps millions) of people with his zest for life and knowing truth. He did not know he was going to die young when he was your age.

So, lets assume you will die young .. certainly it won't be younger than my wife ... so what will YOU do with the time you have? You have children I understood, perhaps be an inspiration to them at the very least. There is every possibility that you would never have confronted this in the way that you do now because of the condition you discover you have. I have made the same observations of myself and my condition many times here: I would not be who I am without this condition.

We can influence so much more than just ourselves. The reason I come here as often as I do is to attempt to assist people to make better choices. To make better decisions on their AC management and to provide a bit of thought that may help. This is not the only place I do this, there is my actual life too where I influence and guide those around me.

So my challenge to you is "how will you become better and help make the world and those around you better".

I know what I'm doing (and it isn't worrying about when I'll die, it never has been).

Just a perspective for you to grapple with in your darker moments.

 

[Agian]

More thoughts on death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUtCxe-xDg

 

[pellicle]

More thoughts on death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUtCxe-xDg

I worked with someone who seemed to believe their cat was as human as the rest of us .. but she was a Vegan too ... (well a part time vegan, she ate fish)

 

[Agian]

He had a field day in America.
My wife is convinced her mother is human.

 

[weissarthur]

I agree with pellicle as well... I have, however, been reading about "blue zones" and centurions. One of the indicators that someone is going to live to 100 is that they are healthy at 80. I'm healthy but had a major life event where i have two artificial valves in my heart and no spleen at age 42 (which is probably not dissimilar to any of us on this forum). Also I take warfarin everyday. It makes me think by blue zone study standards im already "not healthy".

What Im wondering about is less about average age of death and more about maximum life span given our situation.

Can someone who had an artificial heart implant when they were middle aged live to be a centurion?

What is the age of the oldest person we know with an artificial heart valve?

 

[Nocturne]

Pellicle,

Second exposure definitely looks less gloomy.

I remember Sagan fondly, although I was just a kid when his show was on TV. He influenced many people in my family, including a female cousin who went on to present in some televised science documentaries in Canada.

I do wonder how he would have fared if he had KNOWN at 40 that he was going to die in his early 60s; or even that it were a strong possibility. Maybe he would have accomplished more. Maybe not. Knowing where you stand is certainly a double edged sword, and the edge that cuts for you is not the first one you see.

I understand that if I have only 20 years left, it would be foolish to spend them crying about the other 20 I could have reasonably expected but won't get.

I've already helped some people with what I've learned -- just this past week on another forum (that was not specifically about AS), I met a gentleman who mentioned that he had recently had AVR at the age of 72. We were discussing something else, but as an aside I told him that I'd like to give him some good news -- from what I have learned (and I offered to share the links with him), due to his age at the time of operation his lifespan was likely not affected at all by the surgery (he had had OHS, not AVR, so in actuality he could probably be expected to live LONGER than the average guy his age, due to selection bias). He told me I had made his day, that he had been curious but had been afraid to ask anyone about it. It felt good to give him some good news.

I came here initially hoping for someone to tell me that I was wrong in what I had been figuring from the data I had been able to find online and in studies. For another study that showed that things were different from what I had been reading. But I did not find that here. No blame passed -- I mean, things are what they are. Looks like most of us have about 95% relative survival at the five year mark after AVR, and it goes down by about 10% every five years after that out to fifteen years -- so about 45% at 30 years if the pattern holds. If I can hold off needing AVR a bit over 12 years, I won't need it until 55 and might have roughly 50% of the normal chance of making it to 80.

You're right that that is not a death sentence (bearing in mind that everyone who breathes is living under a "death sentence" anyway). There is hope -- as evidenced by a few of the people posting here. And that is something to cling to.

And I definitely have a job to do for my kids. With luck I will do it as well as my own mother did -- she died suddenly at a very young age (early 50s) of an aneurysm that burst in her brain; it was totally unexpected. Years later friends told me that they had been worried about me because I had seemed relatively unaffected by her death, and moved on with my life much sooner than they thought was healthy. I told them the truth -- the fact was that the woman had done such a superlative job in raising me that I didn't need her by the time that she died. I missed her -- I still do -- and it was a tragedy that most of my kids never even got to meet her. But the fact remains that, despite many obstacles (she suffered from schizophrenia), she raised two children who didn't NEED her when she died. In the end, that is a parent's job, and she did it very well.

I have to do the same.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Pellicle,

Second exposure definitely looks less gloomy.

thanks ... that's what I thought the scene looked like. Finland in full light (which is paradoxically more bright in winter) challenges the camera (well, the digital camera). There is quite enough gloomy in the Autumn and often too in the summer (where it rains a lot). Anita used to call Finland "the promised land for the manic depressive"

I was just out photographing this evening and captured this image of kids still sledding on the slopes:

Its just past 4:30pm when I took it, so gloomy is not quite the word.

Earlier in the day (like 11am) it was more like this (standing over near that grove of trees) ...

... which was still totally overcast (and gloomy, but the kids were bundles of joy and energy)

You're right that that is not a death sentence (bearing in mind that everyone who breathes is living under a "death sentence" anyway). There is hope -- as evidenced by a few of the people posting here. And that is something to cling to.

I'm glad you're having a brighter moment

I often used to lark that Life is a fatal sexually transmitted disease. Which is true.

I came here initially hoping for someone to tell me that I was wrong in what I had been figuring from the data I had been able to find online and in studies. For another study that showed that things were different from what I had been reading.

well I still feel that you've got problems in your dataset for analysis due to biases caused by sample size in your age group, lack of a suitable cohort and unknowns about the prior health of the (uncertain ages) people who have had valves and OHS ... none the less at the very least we can agree to differ on the interpretation of the data sets and the importance of how that applies to you.

As my radiation physics friend says "it is what it is".

But the fact remains that, despite many obstacles (she suffered from schizophrenia), she raised two children who didn't NEED her when she died. In the end, that is a parent's job, and she did it very well.

I have to do the same.

I am sure you are right about your mother and the proof of that will be what your kids say to theirs about you (which I believe will echo what you've just said).

We march forward

 

[valdab]

Although I post little, I lurk and read and this post has stayed in my mind.

I have just spent half a day at A&E for the second time in 10 days having ongoing palpitations and a feeling that my heart is labouring investigated. Nothing has been found and I have been dispatched with the instruction to get my valve checked (last checked 6 months ago) for stenosis. This has never been diagnosed before, but the current symptoms fit. Or, I've been told, it could be the ongoing viral thing I've had on my chest for three weeks and can't shake off. I'm not very good at sitting still and resting unfortunately which probably hasn't helped matters.

Anyway - I'm of a fairly anxious disposition which I try to keep in check (hence my reluctance to absorb myself too deeply here). But the lovely doctor at A&E made my day when she calmed my fears by telling me about her elderly grandad (yes, doctors really are that young these days) who had a tissue valve replacement in his early sixties and is still going strong and in good health at the age of 82.

How does the adage go...? We don't know what we don't know. Or more specifically, how many octogenarian grandmas and grandads are there out there having a fine old time of it, not bothering to obsess about statistics and the possibility (!!??!) that they're going to die one day. And a tissue valve still going after 20 years is a bit of a result too!

 

[pellicle]

...
How does the adage go...?

if you don't look in the box you won't know if the cat is dead?

no ... different adage?

oops

I should make this my avatar here ... but who would be surprised?

 

[dick0236]

........... If I can hold off needing AVR a bit over 12 years, I won't need it until 55 and might have roughly 50% of the normal chance of making it to 80.

.

Nocturne, what happens if your doc says you need OHS next year...? The arguments you present to this forum are silly I got my valve at 31 and have already made it past 80.....and believe me, I am just a normal old man. That blows the hell outa your theory. BTW, I have lived longer than both my parents, my only sibling, both of my uncles and 3 of 4 of my grandparents so I don't think "it's in your genes"....and BTW my life and lifestyle has always been very normal......and, at times, I pushed the envelope more than a little.

Don't waste your time with a lot of "what ifs" and for Gods sake, lighten up, corrective surgery IS NOT a death sentence unless you choose to let it be. I do believe in "self fulfilling prophesy" and with your attitude you ain't got a chance of making 80.

 

[Paleowoman]

Great propellor cap ! is that yours ? Is it one of the Geek culture ones: http://www.geekculture.com/geekculturestore/webstore/caps.html#multi

I should make this my avatar here ... but who would be surprised?

 

[pellicle]

Great propellor cap ! is that yours ? Is it one of the Geek culture ones: http://www.geekculture.com/geekcultu...aps.html#multi

It's mine alright, on me

I got it of eBay while my proper one is under construction

 

[Paleowoman]

It's mine alright, on me

I got it of eBay while my proper one is under construction

I think I'll invest in one for my dh I just showed him yours

 

[Nocturne]

Nocturne, what happens if your doc says you need OHS next year...? The arguments you present to this forum are silly I got my valve at 31 and have already made it past 80.....and believe me, I am just a normal old man. That blows the hell outa your theory. BTW, I have lived longer than both my parents, my only sibling, both of my uncles and 3 of 4 of my grandparents so I don't think "it's in your genes"....and BTW my life and lifestyle has always been very normal......and, at times, I pushed the envelope more than a little.

Don't waste your time with a lot of "what ifs" and for Gods sake, lighten up, corrective surgery IS NOT a death sentence unless you choose to let it be. I do believe in "self fulfilling prophesy" and with your attitude you ain't got a chance of making 80.

Dick, your very existence gives me hope. So, while I'm sure that's not the primary reason you have been carrying on for all of these decades, thanks for that!

For me, even knowing that I have a very roughly 1 in 3 chance of seeing 80 feels better than NOT KNOWING. I dunno... Maybe I'm weird.

(I'm wildass guessing that 60% of people my age make it to 80, and half of that is of course about 30%.)

If I do make it to 80, I'll offer you a toast on my birthday.

 

[valdab]

if you don't look in the box you won't know if the cat is dead?

I'm 110% a dog person but I always wanted a cat just so I could call it Schroeder