I’m guessing misadventure.
Cycling, climbing, canyoning or hiking accident; exposure (heat or cold, in the desert, on a mountain or in the ocean); large predator (bear, shark, croc, etc), perhaps something as commonplace as a car accident…
My parents were both healthy and living independently into their 90s. My mother passed at 92 following a brief battle with cancer and my father at 94 with his final years impaired by dementia.
I suspect my genes won’t outlast some unanticipated misfortune.
I would prefer the Tyrion Lannister Plan, but how my end comes is pretty much not up to me, so I’ll let it be a surprise
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Even though I know better, petting a bison.
Thankfully I tend to learn from other people’s mistakes. I intend of living to be 100, after that whatever happens happens.
Considering how much time I spend driving long distances, it could be a car accident.
If I contract Alzheimers and get bad enough, I will eventually die of carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in a closed garage with my car running.
My main fear is a car accident. Even though I cannot control other drivers it feels like that would involve some sort of failing on my part. I drive 30 min to and from my rural medicine office every day. I could move closer but then my wife likes where we live now a lot. I am trying to avoid long drives as much as I can now. If possible I take the train for instance if I am going to Toronto which is a 4 hour drive.
Prostate cancer probably.
I was diagnosed with Stage 4 advanced prostate cancer 2 years ago, its incurable but manageable with treatment. Currently on hormone treatment which is working great so far, got some side effects but nothing too harsh. However it will cease to work at some unknown point in the future at which time it will be chemotherapy/more chemical treatment and then who knows…maybe advances in science will have found a cure by then
I gave myself 10years from diagnosis, so 8years to go. If it gets too painful I’ll nip off to Switzerland to Dignitas or some such like.
If PC doesn’t get me then probably dementia as my father died with it - at least with that he didn’t have a clue what was happening.
Just wonder if others have ever given any thought to what they think will be their downfall?
I personally figure it will be some disease I don’t even know of that will take me out, Dad died of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Or I will lose my mind and wont know what I actually die from – I think this is the leading option these days.
I lost my mother to dementia. There is quite a bit of it in her side of the family. I fear that is how my end will come.
Yeah my Dad has Alzheimer’s as did his uncle. I feel like I’ll be a crazy old coot that doesn’t know who anyone is when I die.
I try to think about it. Thanks for this thread. Not.
Dad passed early. But more likely due to lifestyle choices given his diabetes and then a heart attack at 60. I try to avoid that path.
Mom is alive and well at 95! My wife thinks I’ve been dealt a great genetic hand and will outlive her (the wife, not my mom).
Sometimes when I’m in the garage, after a track weekend in the Porsche, I’ll just sit in the driver’s seat for awhile. Just sitting there in the car with the garage door closed tends to freak my wife out a bit. I tell her, I’m not going anywhere and it’s not my time. But it might be when I ride the bike on the roads later.
Wife and I have sometimes wondered if it would be worse to be the surviving spouse or the one that goes first.
The problem with that is if you get bad enough you won’t recall what you intended to do
Have you read ‘Still Alice’?
Sorry about the late diagnosis. I had my cancerous prostate removed 8 years ago and PSA still .0 something. Had a melanoma removed from my calf 6 years ago and so far so good. I think it will be a blood cancer for me. That’s what got my mom and my blood counts just keep trending lower and lower. Also have coronary artery disease and mild emphysema (dad’s side) so there’s always that. Maybe I’ll get lucky and just have lights out on a cold, wetsuit swim sometime in the future and avoid any poor quality of life decline into the abyss.
Well, we all die of something. The best we can hope is that it is a clean and painless passing many many years from now. Being a nurse in major medical centers I have seen more than my share of not so clean and painless ones. Burning looks like the worse, not being able to breath the scariest, rotting away with cancer not the best, ALS really sucks and dementia may be the hardest on the family.
As I approach my 72nd lap around the sun, I can understand why some people just give up the will to live. I used to not be able to understand the aging process, but the old aches and pains that I used to not have seem to show up most mornings to welcome me to another day. I was pretty clueless when I was young and looked forward to retirement. I thought I would feel like a 40 year old me only not have to go to work and just play and train all the time. Slow down grasshopper, that is not how it works. Long live us all.
I have said for a while that I will likely die getting hit by an automobile driver while on my bike. Probably someone drunk/high. Johnny Gaudreau’s recent death brings that to light…again.
Given it some thought,. Nothing horrible running in the family, so I’m going to guess either a sudden event (stroke, heart attack, car/motorcycle/bicycle accident) or more likely some disease. Prefer the former but 30+ years of doing chemistry, and the number of organic chemicals that i can identify by smell favors the latter.