CanTalk Blog

Ethan Remmel Ph.D. is a Developmental Psychologist and Assoc Professor at Western Washington University. He also has terminal cancer. He has blogged his experiences so far and is able to explain in a detailed and honest way the effects an incurable disease has on himself, his young family and his work. Fatigue, quality of life, difficult treatment decisions, and controversial topics like assisted suicide are all part of his day-to-day thinking in this phase of his life.

He says: “I will say that I am happy with my decisions to resume working (as I already discussed), stop chemo, and enter hospice care. Traditional medical care treats illness as a battle. Living is winning; dying is losing. But I find this battle metaphor unhelpful in dealing with terminal illness like mine. Living is not winning if the quality of life is low. And I don't accept that dying is necessarily losing. I think it is possible to die well, and that the inevitable end does not have to be considered defeat. I much prefer the hospice care approach, with the focus on quality of life. I am not trying to get better or live longer. Those things would be nice, but they're not my goal. My goal is to feel as good as possible as long as possible.”

To read more, go to www.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-while-dying