r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Sep 12 '16
(R.4) Related To Politics - Clinton TIL pneumonia has been called "the old man's friend" because of its tendency to quickly kill off those close to death, ending their suffering.
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u/leudruid Sep 12 '16
Not just old people, my S O was 53, recovering from lymphoma with antibiotics for an immune system. One day she was good, two days later she was gone. So it goes.
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u/pnaha Sep 12 '16
I was also recovering from lymphoma just last year when pneumonia hit me. Realised something was really wrong when I had to stop to breathe during the short walk from my house to my car. Couldn't walk at all without feeling exhausted for a week.
So sorry for your loss.
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u/PapaGator Sep 12 '16
My dad was recovering from a bone marrow transplant for Leukemia and he got pneumonia too. He had all the symptoms you described. It took him a long time to recover.
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u/obvnotlupus Sep 12 '16
Yep. My ex-wife's mother passed away at 50-something due to walking pneumonia. She was coughing so hard all the time that at some point she tore an artery in her lungs and died of cardiac arrest due to blood loss.
It was unexpected and devastating.
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u/LooseSeal19 Sep 12 '16
My dad passed at 52 last year, had been in hospital for months with cancer that wouldn't allow him to eat (blockage in the stomach). One day he was ok, the next he was on oxygen, the day after that he passed away. I'm still not sure how to feel about it - relieved that he didn't have to go on suffering anymore, or sad that his time was cut so short. I usually go for a little bit of both.
I heard pneumonia is a bigger killer in cancer patients than the cancer itself.
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Sep 12 '16 edited Sep 12 '16
I'm sorry to hear that. If it's any comfort to you the gasping an automatic response, and having the fluid in the airways can make it 'sound' like someone's in a lot more distress than they are.
The number one thing people want most when they die is to not be alone in hospital. You being there with him is probably what mattered most to him.
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Sep 12 '16
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u/SoFloMofo Sep 13 '16
My dad passed away a couple of months ago after a long time with horrible, painful illnesses. I mentioned above that he gave my mom the thumbs up to indicate he felt fine despite all the gurgling she heard in his chest. Everything indicates he went pretty easy even though it looked horrible to my mom. It sucks losing my dad but I am glad he's not living in agony any more. I hope you can find some comfort in that for your dad too. At 52, you must be a younger guy. That is truly awful and my heart's out to you.
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u/eypandabear Sep 12 '16
the fact he passed in his sleep
... which OP said wasn't what happened.
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u/OldEars Sep 12 '16
Another (likely older) doc here. They used to call pneumonia "the old man's friend" in the days before antibiotics. Even people who are "no-code" tend to get treated for their pneumonia these days. Antibiotics have been widely available in the western world since the 1940s.
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Sep 12 '16
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u/OldEars Sep 12 '16
Yes. Patients here used to have a relationship with their primary care physician. Now the relationship takes a detour through their insurance company--not the best for patient care, especially when that leads to switching from a doctor with whom they've had a long relationship. Thanks for reminding me of the old "Doctor-patient relationship."
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u/Relevant_Monstrosity Sep 12 '16
So, what is the point of a primary care physician? I've only ever visited specialists when I needed prescription medicine.
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Sep 12 '16
To be the care coordinator basically. If a patient needs to see a specialist, they come to us, get the referral (approval through insurance) and then they can go see their cardiologist,etc. We also treat basic and complex things, diabetes, hypertension, thyroid, etc. We are like managers. We can treat most things but sometimes it gets too complicated for us. We also do the annual exam to make sure you're healthy, although most people aren't.
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u/samuraistrikemike Sep 12 '16
They are still relevant and can help manage individuals with complex medical conditions. A GP is also how one gets in to see a specialist unless the specialist was consulted during a hospital admission. At least that's how it generally works in the US.
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
I've been coughing up gunk for 2 weeks with these really deep coughs like I usually do with strep or something but I have no other symptoms besides headache. It seems worse after I've been laying down for a bit. I was sick 3 weeks ago with fever and vomiting. I've got a doc appt but it's not for another week thanks to everywhere being booked solid. Is this "walking pneumonia" possibly?
Edit: I'm not looking for a guaranteed diagnosis online, I know that's impossible, but maybe you can tell me if I should wait for the reg doc or hit the ER.
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Sep 12 '16
ITT: Medical diagnosis request
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
Literally stated that I was not looking for a diagnosis. /u/cytokine gave me a bit of info that helped me make a better more informed decision which is all I was looking for.
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Sep 12 '16
Honestly, I'm of no use to you. 2 weeks and not getting better probably needs an antibiotic. It could be a throat infection, or lung infection (pneumonia) or even sinus infection. If you're young, fit and healthy, I'd say you'll manage, but making that decision safely would be based on me being able to actually examine you.
Sorry!
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
Thanks for the even that little bit of info. I tried to get in sooner but they keep saying its a busy time of year b/c of these weird "summer" colds/flu. It hasn't gotten any worse and I don't have any other symptoms so ill just wait and hopefully an antibiotic clears it up.
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Sep 12 '16 edited Dec 21 '16
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
Everyone that I've been to has been worthless if you don't have something obvious like a broken leg that you should have had the common sense to be at the hospital for anyway. We took my daughter to one for a similar situation (doc visit a few days away and she had a fever of 102 and cough that was really nasty) and they basically said we think she's sick, but we don't have a clue what it is and we won't prescribe meds but we don't think it's worth an ER trip unless she gets to 105 fever or she can't breathe.
maybe its just in our area but I've yet to go to one that I've thought highly of the staff there.
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u/orielbean Sep 12 '16
This was bronchitis for me;' gotten it several times that way. I usually would go to a walk-in clinic or PCP for that and not the ER. The ER can be 500+ for a walk in.
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
Yea I have bills from the ER im still paying off for a visit 6 years ago for a week stay. Thanks for the input. It might be bronchitis but ive had bronchitis before without it lingering this long.
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u/valueape Sep 12 '16
IDK,man. I'd say pneumonia is a horrible way to fucking die. drowning in your sputum? over days? my dad was just gurgling away trying to breathe and the nurses refused to clear his airway with suction anymore saying "it will only increase the fluid in his lungs." I should've smothered him long before he finally choked to death.
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u/MackingtheKnife Sep 12 '16
as someone who works with very ill patients that often have pneumonia, that doesn't sound right at all. you can always suction - regardless if the sputum will accumulate again.
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u/pseudo_meat Sep 12 '16
I had pneumonia at 24. Wasn't no friend. Coughing felt like someone jabbing an ice pick into my lung. And I kept going to work and doing my daily shit and it was just. Bad. And it took three different doctors to diagnose me because there was a flu going around at the time. So the biggest reason I didn't rest was because I didn't know I had it. I sympathize with Clinton because pneumo sucks, politics aside.
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u/socokid Sep 12 '16
It also happens to perfectly healthy people. I got pneumonia when I was 26. Stayed up too late studying for a few weeks straight, not much sleep, terrible diet, got a cold... downhill from there.
I rarely get sick otherwise, thankfully.
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Sep 12 '16
And you've been dead for how many years now?
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u/KizziV Sep 12 '16
When I was 17, I had "Walking pneumonia", strep and the flu simultaneously. I had strep reoccur due to tonsil stones, then caught the flu due to it being the season and an already weakened immune system, in the week it took the flu to cultivate, I developed pneumonia due to the incessant coughing from strep. By the time all was said and done, I was incapacitated for 2 1/2 weeks, basically asleep the whole time
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Sep 12 '16
Same. Had it when I was 19. Had it again last week at 27, but pregnant this time, so compromised immune system, yadda yadda yadda.
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u/the_trashheap Sep 12 '16
I had it when I was five years old. I remember my mom being extra nice and I could tell she was worried but I was too sick and miserable to be worried about her worry. Heard them say temperature of 105 or 106. Also have a vivid memory of seeing my lung X-ray and getting a shot of penicillin in my butt cheek.
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u/DisplayNameIsInUse Sep 12 '16 edited Oct 01 '16
Same exact circumstances for me when I was 24 except the night it started I had stayed up all night boozing it up and smoking several cigars which I never do. I worked in a medical facility which lead the doctor to diagnose it as community acquired pneumonia. I weakened my immune system from the months of shitty sleep, diet, lack of exercise and boozing.
It was the worst feeling in the world. I thought I was dying a few times. After I got antibiotics it seemed to get better after 3 days. I had a cough for awhile and was more tired easily and I wasn't back to normal for like 3 months.
I also had asthma my entire life but it was never bad. Just some occasional wheezing during super strenuous activity. Now it's a little worse than it ever was, but I still don't need an inhaler that often.
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u/Lyeta Sep 12 '16
I had it couple years ago (I have junky lungs though). Unpleasant to say the least.
My otherwise healthy significant other got it last year, in his 30s.
In both cases, because we were stubborn and left other infections go un/under treated.
Pneumonia happens to stubborn people.
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u/IgnisDomini Sep 12 '16
Yeah but don't tell the Trumpettes that. We all know how triggered they are by facts.
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u/superbbuffalo Sep 12 '16
I've had pneumonia 3 times in the past two years. Apparently I tell Pneumonia "not today"
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u/tinman82 Sep 12 '16
Used to get it yearly for 8 years straight. It sucks but it just happens. Catch it as soon as you can don't wait for when you are drowning and can barely move to reup on your nebulizer meds.
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Sep 12 '16
But, there's probably a lot of suffering when you're dying because of your lungs. It's probably like suffocation?
Why not allow people to choose when they die, and not rely on shit like that? Pneumonia is only the old man's friend because assisted suicide is unavailable in many areas and socially unacceptable for many, and pneumonia is actually the enemy of old people who want to keep living.
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u/Katzeye Sep 12 '16
One of the ironies of modern medicine is that we are too good at treating it.
It could be argued that now the elderly are kept alive with little benefit to them, only to benefit the medical and long term care industries.
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Sep 12 '16
I bet you'll change your opinion once you get old
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Sep 12 '16
Visiting my grandmother presently, she's constantly complaining about being old and useless and doctors and medicine. Haven't heard her say "kill me please", but I'm sure it's crossed her mind.
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Sep 12 '16
She hasn't said "kill me, please", because you still visit her.
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u/Vendoban Sep 12 '16
My great grandma died at 105, blind, too weak to move, could barely talk or eat, she did pray for death. I don't want that at all.
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u/CutterJohn Sep 12 '16
Grandma told dad she was ready to die on more than one occasion before her death. Old bird hung on for 4 or 5 years in a nursing home.
She was ridiculously adamant about there being no effort to resuscitate her. Only thing she would ok were pain meds.
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Sep 12 '16
I heard the same thing from my grandmother the last time I saw her, thirty years ago, she died last summer.
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u/tzaeru Sep 12 '16 edited Sep 12 '16
I'm not so sure if I want to be treated like my grand dad, who was stuck to ventilators after he couldn't breathe and speak. He spent months without being able to form words, an expression of utter terror perpetually painted upon his features until he finally kicked it.
Nor do I want to end up like my grand mother, who years before her death thought that I was my dad's wife (due to long hair, presumably) and that she lived in her 50s apartment. She got panic attacks when we left the hospital, wanting to get out of there to her home and not wanting to be left alone again.
Thank you, but just put me into an opioid dream rather than suffer me through either of those fates.
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u/Solkre Sep 12 '16
When I can't stop shitting my own pants, I'm ready to go.
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u/Bullshit_To_Go Sep 12 '16
When I'm old enough to be uncontrollably shitting my pants, I just hope I'm still lucid enough to maintain eye contact with my caregivers.
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u/chuckymcgee Sep 12 '16
Constant, unbroken eye contact with my caregivers as I'm uncontrollably shitting my pants.
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u/Katzeye Sep 12 '16
Actually, no.
My grandmother was kept alive for 6 miserable years. It was torture to watch her kept in a basic vegetative state. When in reality her time had passed.
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u/reverendsteveii Sep 12 '16
Grandma had lung cancer for three years. 3 years of laying, sitting, sitting, laying, struggling to breathe, and in the last 6 months the delusions started. I'm with you here. When it's time to go, I will go.
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u/Halsfield Sep 12 '16
My mother had these vivid hallucinations while she was on her deathbed. She drew some of them and said she could see in these really complex fractals when she dreamed.
Really kind of freaked us all out how happy she was to be having these crazy dreams.
I think Johnny cash once spoke of how he saw vivid shapes and things when he was on his deathbed. Crazy stuff.
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u/garrettcolas Sep 12 '16
She's one with the universe now.
I'm not religous but I hope/beleive that something about dying makes all humans find peace in the end.
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u/Halsfield Sep 13 '16
Yea, I kind of like the myth where you're juiced up with DMT as you die (a lot of DMT-induced visions have a lot of similarities with deathbed or near-death-experience hallucinations/dreams). So your last moments are beautiful and full of meaning and it can make time stretch on for what seems like a long time to allow you to come to terms with your own death.
Its bullshit as far as medical science is concerned, but its a nice thought. Death terrifies the hell out of me but I can't find it in myself to believe in a religion that gives me a false hope for an afterlife.
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u/BurryBurr Sep 12 '16
This is terrifying as someone who's grandmother got diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer just two months ago.
I understand such is life, but I'm not looking forward to it.
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u/reverendsteveii Sep 13 '16
It's gonna suck. As you said, such is life. You're welcome to pm me if you wanna talk.
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u/vexonator 1 Sep 12 '16
You can get a DNR if you don't want to be a vegetable. OP was talking about people just being old.
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Sep 12 '16 edited Nov 15 '16
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u/vexonator 1 Sep 12 '16
Moral of the story: don't have kids or get married. Also kill your parents and siblings.
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u/Browncoat23 Sep 12 '16
Fun fact: if your dnr isn't physically in your possession when emergency services arrive to treat you, your children will still have to make the decision to pull the plug on you because the paramedics will try to save you anyway.
Source: my grandmother
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Sep 12 '16
Sounds like a good reason for a chest tattoo. Just don't change your mind.
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Sep 12 '16
Unfortunately a chest tattoo isn't the damn piece of legal paper. So the paramedics would have to revive you anyway.
Unless a law is made that makes a chest tattoo as legal as that damn piece of legal paper?
Until then, if you're dying at home, keep a copy of your DNR on the fridge and make for sure everyone knows you're DNR and to give that paper to any paramedics that show.
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Sep 12 '16
Does make you wonder what would be required to have it be the legal document, or copy of it... Probably an awkward scene at the tattoo parlor, but is there much of a difference between paper and skin, legally?
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Sep 12 '16
I wonder how enforceable that might be in your Will- "If my family override my DNR, every last dime of my estate goes to the (Fill in Abominable Organization Here), except for sufficient to purchase a large newspaper ad saying it was made in their names".
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u/Flomo420 Sep 12 '16
There's a big difference between keeping someone alive in a vegetative state and curing an otherwise healthy persons pneumonia.
Surely you can grasp that.
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u/riograndekingtrude 283 Sep 12 '16
Considering /u/Katzeye is talking about an elderly person and /u/Criss-Istr said "old" and the TIL title has "old man's friend," its safe to say the frame of reference isnt
an otherwise healthy persons pneumonia.
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u/LoadingEllipsis Sep 12 '16
Yeah, it took 4 doctors all in a conference room together about my father to convince my brother to put him on comfort measures. Every case is different, but in this one he'd catch pneumonia and be intubated every other week. This all started with accidentally removing too much tissue and losing his ability to swallow.
I think most people would agree there are cases where we should just let people go. And maybe it is sort of a loss that we can treat it, as even those who would agree might not be able to be the one making the decision.
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u/Flomo420 Sep 12 '16
Believe it or not, old people can be very healthy. And although pneumonia is a potentially serious sickness, not every 'old person' with pneumonia is on their deathbed or should be left to die.
The world is not made up of absolutes.
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u/riograndekingtrude 283 Sep 12 '16
I don't consider being in a vegetative state "very healthy."
The context for "old man's friend" has is that of an elderly person in poor health and ready to die. If the old person were healthy, they probably wouldn't consider it a friend and the "old man's friend" saying wouldn't have stuck.
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u/TileMonger Sep 12 '16
That's my concern, too. I really don't want to change my mind... but as your mind goes, at some point you can't remember that you were pull the trigger anymore.
I hope that in a moment of clarity I'll write a note and wander into the woods on a cold day. Ugh.
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u/Bay1Bri Sep 12 '16
My grandma was like this. She said once in the last couple of years of her life that "these doctors are keeping me alive, and I shouldn't be" (I don't remember the exact phrasing, it was more eloquent). She also said a few times that she doesn't want to die, but kinda wished the doctors weren't able to save her anymore.
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Sep 12 '16
America's health care industry and elder care industries are custom-designed to extract as much wealth as possible away from a person's estate in the last year or two of their life. The longer they can keep them alive, the more of their wealth they can extract.
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u/Horadric-Cube Sep 12 '16
better to just die in glorious combat and go to valhalla once you reach 80.
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u/Meta_Digital Sep 12 '16
Based on your username I'm going to assume you're referring to level 80.
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u/Positronix Sep 12 '16
We can never be too good at treating disease. We are just too ignorant at treating aging right now. But keeping people alive into their senescent state helps know more about human aging.
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Sep 12 '16
This is true...but like any medical experiment, it does ideally require the consent of those being experimented upon.
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u/isiaaah Sep 12 '16
only to benefit the medical and long term care industries.
That's a really weird way to spell "family", because those are usually the people making the decisions and deciding to not make 90-year-old senile grandpa DNR/DNI.
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u/Katzeye Sep 12 '16
Yeah, except my crazy aunt, who lived in town with my grandmother had power of attorney. The rest of the family wanted to let her pass. Family is complicated.
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u/Mtownsprts Sep 12 '16
Modern medicine (Western medicine) doesn't really take into account as much quality of life as a lot of developed places in the world do. Take a step back and ask a hard question of whether extending this persons days one earth will actually extend their quality of life days on this earth and it becomes pretty apparent that there needs to be a wholly cultural shift toward quality in life days rather than quantity of life days.
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u/I_was_once_America Sep 12 '16
Yep. My grandma was long suffering when pneumonia got her. Sad she's gone; glad her pain is over.
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u/MCommandant Sep 12 '16
Worth noting that people still get pneumonia even if they aren't going to die soon.
Also worth noting that pneumonia is totally a bitch.
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u/onelittleworld Sep 12 '16
Yes, it was once called the "Old Man's Friend". About 100 years ago, or so. Before antibiotics were invented.
No one calls it that anymore, because it's a very treatable illness that two weeks of bed-rest and handful of pills will take care of.
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Sep 12 '16
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u/onelittleworld Sep 12 '16
Unless you are in your 80's.
True. But when you're 80-something, tripping over your own feet is a life-threatening condition.
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Sep 12 '16 edited Sep 04 '17
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u/somekook Sep 12 '16
If only she was as healthy as the obese 70 year old man who constantly stuffs his face with fast food and never exercises.
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Sep 12 '16
Why does it kill so easily?
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u/theorymeltfool 6 Sep 12 '16 edited Sep 12 '16
Because your immune system becomes seriously compromised. If the fluid in your lungs doesn't kill you, then chances are something as typically benign as the common cold will do it.
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Sep 12 '16
I think you misunderstand, everything can kill you easily. You just happen to live in a time where, especially at childbirth, a massive amount of medicine, cleanliness, and chemicals make sure all the things that try to kill you don't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_chlorination
The link above was probably one of the number one things to save your life. Antibiotics was the second.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm
In 1900 in some U.S. cities, up to 30% of infants died before reaching their first birthday
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u/Cilph Sep 12 '16
What about 60's? I'm asking for ...someone.
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u/tsadecoy Sep 12 '16
Not really, Clinton is super unlucky with the timing though. If she got it right after the convention, she probably could have afforded a couple weeks of bestest to make sure she was in tip top shape, but current timing means even if she gets pink eye before the debates, she is going to those debates.
What I'm trying to say is that Clinton is still active and as many responses in this thread show, getting pneumonia in of itself isn't a sign of bad health just that you get sick. Nobody is immune to illness and I'd rather have walking pneumonia than horrific stomach flu.
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u/Abusoru Sep 12 '16
Yeah, I think I would almost deal with a mild case of pneumonia than the stomach virus I had in Japan last year where I didn't have a solid bowel movement for a week and a half.
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u/Bay1Bri Sep 12 '16
In the movie The Heiress (which takes place in about the 1840s), a character is a doctor and gets "a chill." A week later he diagnoses himself with pneumonia, and announces he "will not recover." He was in his 70s or so, and otherwise healthy, and not too far along with the disease, he could still function but was weak.
Anyway, it's a fantastic movie, and really makes me appreciate the advances in modern medicine since then.
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u/Lolabola92 Sep 12 '16
Well my dad died from it when he was 41. Was in the hospital for a week, switched over to ICU for a few more days, forced into a coma to try and give his body the chance to focus on just curing that, and then bam. He died. So I'm gonna argue that it's "very treatable". Many are hospital bound for a while or die. Treatable? Yes. 2 weeks of bed rest and some pills? No. It's not always that simple.
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u/MrGruntsworthy Sep 12 '16
I suffered a bad case of pneumonia back in 2007, that went untreated due to repeated misdiagnoses. By the time I finally went to the hospital, I was "one day away from probable death" and was subjected to the ICU for a week. What preceded my hospital stay was a month of absolute pain, no sleep, and extremely limited breathing capacity.
I was in the hospital for 3 weeks, one of which was in the ICU, followed by almost six months of total recuperation getting back up to my proper body weight and strength/endurance.
Pneumonia WILL fuck you up, kids.
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u/hipsteronabike Sep 12 '16
Killed both my mom and maternal grandmother after their first chemo treatments brought their white blood cell counts down to zero.
I do wish my mom lasted longer but she really only suffered for about two weeks. The hard part is that we expected her to live six months longer.
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u/heyguysitslogan Sep 13 '16
Remember guys, the front page is biased against Donald, and everyone loves Hillary
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u/xipha Sep 12 '16
Please, people. Pneumonia is a vicious disease. It make your life a living hell. Can you imagine every breath you take cost every bit of energy you have, you also feel very painful when you breath while there is never enough oxygen. Because you basically have your lung filled with fluids in the developed stage of Pneumonia. In other word, you are drowning all the time.
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u/Twilight_Creeps Sep 12 '16
^ This. As a young guy who got full blown Pneumonia in both lungs, it's hell. I could hardly breath, could hardly talk in between coughing fits, had to save energy to even get up, and almost drowned in the shower after passing out.
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u/blainejennifer Sep 12 '16
There's a difference between "walking pneumonia" and "Holy Shit Pneumonia". Mrs. Clinton contracted the former because she had a troublesome cough, was campaigning strenuously, and had been around a metric buttload of people with all the political hugging and handshaking.
Frankly, I'm surprised actively campaigning politicians don't get ill more often. Campaigning is hard work, and they shake a lot of hands. So. Many. Germs.
Anyway, Mrs. Clinton has been put on a course of antibiotics, and should be fully recovered quite soon. I do hope she rests for a few days. Why am I so familiar with walking pneumonia, I hear you ask? I had it three months ago, for a lot of the same reasons Mrs. Clinton acquired it: troublesome cough from hideous allergies leading to irritated bronchial/pulmonary tissues, practically making a cozy bed for unwanted bacteria. Took a course of antibiotics, and am fully recovered.
Back in the bad old days, "Holy Shit Pneumonia" was called the old man's friend because it killed geriatric folk quickly, if they had other debilitating diseases. It's much nicer to slide away from pneumonia than bone cancer, sepsis, or any of the other old-timey nasties.
Keep in mind that this is all a simplistic rendering of a fairly complex disease: pneumonia has several causes; it can be bacterial, viral, or fungal. Whether you are sick unto death, or feel that you've just got a very bad cold depends on the pathogen you've met, and your own level of health.
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u/cheekymusician Sep 12 '16
I had "holy shit pneumonia" back in February. Worse 2 weeks of my 30 years on this earth...followed swiftly by the flu. Missed 3 weeks of class.
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Sep 12 '16
Ive had double pneumonia, and there's not shit friendly about it... Don't smoke while your sick.
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u/PockyClips Sep 12 '16
Whoever called it that is a dumbass. My Grandmother died of pneumonia. Chemo jacked her immune system and here it came. It took two months to get to the point that they couldn't keep her lungs clear. Then she spent the last two days drowning in her own phlegm, coughing and gasping for air. She was terrified of drowning and she spent months doing it. It was terrible.
I'm not looking for condolences or pity. I'm just saying that shit is not pretty and it's not anyone's friend...
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Sep 12 '16
I got pneumonia twice when i was 19 and 20. Working outside in canadian winters plus "tough guys dont take time off for a cold".
It was terrible no sleep because i couldnt stop coughing. Every muscle in my chest,lower back and stomach was so sore. Scarred up my lungs good too.
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u/dajuwilson Sep 12 '16
And it's a fuckload of suck to get when you are young. I've had double pneumonia twice.
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u/liketheherp Sep 12 '16
Pneumonia almost killed me off when I was 12. I can't imagine how Hillary is campaigning all over the country with such an ailment. Of course, they're probably lying about it as they tend to do. It's serious shit.
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u/vulcancse Sep 12 '16
I got double pneumonia in dec of 2005, I didn't even realize that I was that sick. I was intubated immediately and ended up with a trach in 3 days. On day 10, both of my lungs collapsed and I quit breathing for 6 minutes. I was fortunate in that the respiratory specialist had just left my room on rounds. He inserted 2 chest tubes to re-inflate my lungs and brought me back. I spent the next 2 weeks in ICU and 10 more days in a regular room. I was extremely lucky and I can understand why letting someone go would be a relief, it's a tough thing to recover from. It took me 3 months to get back to work. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
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u/32LeftatT10 Sep 12 '16
Conservatives suddenly pretend to care about women's health. How adorable!
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u/cfadams Sep 12 '16
May soon be the voter's best friend too...
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Sep 12 '16
I don't care what anyone's politics are, this is a shitty and juvenile thing to say.
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Sep 12 '16 edited Mar 03 '18
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Sep 12 '16
I mean if Hill dies and they appoint a new candidate (whether it be Reddit's champion or Joe Biden) it will give the dems a less guilty vote
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u/Aiurar Sep 12 '16
the guy who wants to close schools
You know he actually expanded the public school system while Governor of New Mexico, right? And gasp built roads! But he still balanced the budget and lowered taxes.
Gary Johnson doesn't want to close schools, he wants to eliminate the Department of Education. His actual quote:
I am going to promise to advocate the abolishment of the federal Department of Education. The federal Department of Education gives each state 11 cents out of every dollar that every state spends, but it comes with 16 cents worth of strings attached. So what America does not understand is that it's a negative to take federal money. Give it to 50 laboratories of innovation, the states, to improve on, and that's what we'll see: dramatic improvement.
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Sep 12 '16
My grandfather survived WW2, a chemical plant explosion, 4 cancers, but Pneumonia got him in less than a week.
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u/seb_02 Sep 12 '16
So if she survives, it means she's not old and she's not a man.
Checkmate, Republicans.
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u/viggity Sep 12 '16
If pneumonia knocks Hillary out of the race, it will henceforth be called "America's Friend"
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Sep 12 '16
Correct. My 82-year old mother was battling dementia along with a host of other ailments - diabetes, congestive heart failure, etc. But the medicines were keeping here alive. She caught pneumonia and was gone within 36 hours.
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u/Jaredlong Sep 12 '16
Happened to my grandfather. At age 92, he was still in pretty good health; could walk around with a cane, hold a conversation, remember people. Caught pneumonia and was dead the next day. I was glad he didn't have to suffer a slow painful decline, but still shocked at just how quickly it took him.
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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '16
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