How did your family cheat death?

[Bucky]

Mine robbed death of his victory by each of us dying a little on the inside every day of our lives. When the Grim Reaper finally arrived, there was nothing left of us but a bare husk of our souls for the dark spirit to harvest. Ah, sweet & sour revenge!

[eyepaddle]

1. My Dad beat lymphoma, and my

Mom has been living with heart failure for close to two decades.

Plus there was this one time I was stuck in a nasty recirculating hydraulic at the base of a small waterfall. I had inhaled water and was choking and had to fight to the surface becuase the recirc was holding me down. That sucked. I was almost ready to give up and let go, but I thought about how sad my mom would be if I died before she did, and especially if I did that before I finished my Master's degree. So I decided to give it one more shot--it was a hell of a struggle, and I wasn't able to swim away from the hole, but I was able to swim parallel to curtain of the waterfall and make it a rock overhang and barely hold on to the ice covered sandstone, even as the current tried to push me into the undercut, and back to the waterfall. A buddy grabbed my hand and held me until they could get a rope to me and pull me to safety.

I haven't been the same kind of paddler since to be honest, and I have trouble watching the EXTREME videos these days.

[Bucky]

4. Dang!

Oh, wait. "That sucked." Okay, now I get the joke.

Yes, nothing like a brush with death to kick in the old appreciation-o-meter.

[eyepaddle]

23. Oh my. I assure you that pun was unintentional!

The entire affair was a serious buzzkill--I will say that!

[WillParkinson]

2. I looked death square in the face....

And promptly passed out.

[Bucky]

6. Phew.

What happened there? Did you really pass out?

[WillParkinson]

11. Will vs Cherry Picker.

I lost.

And, yeah, I think I passed out. I don't remember much of the accident.

The story (and other pictures) http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=9515330

[Deep13]

3. Loaded dice. nt

[Bucky]

5. How do you get dice loaded?

Trick question. The Dice Man is always loaded.

[Roon]

7. I have had aids for 21 years, i beat it!

Actually, on my mother's side of the family we haven't lost anyone yet,even my grandparents are still alive.

[Bucky]

8. Wow.

I remember when it was a death sentence (or rather felt like one) to several of my friends. I don't think I've personally lost anyone to AIDS in the last 10 years, though I have quite a few friends who are HIV+. It's something else I've just taken for granted, though I know they can't.

Congratulations.

[Roon]

9. Thanks, I started taking meds the minute i tested poz

started off with AZT,now on the cocktail of course. So far so good!

Most of the guys I dated when I came out are gone. Of course, they were older and had it for a real long time with no treatment. I used to read the obits in the local gay rag just to see who died. It's different now, thank god!

[XemaSab]

18. Impressive

:o

[rug]

10. Switched mailboxes with the neighbor.

[Lucy Goosey]

12. My Mom is still alive 4 years after a Stage 3 lung cancer diagnosis...

Only about 15% of people with the same diagnosis can say the same thing, unfortunately. She's not only alive, she's golfing and travelling and doing yoga and pestering me for grandchildren. You wouldn't know she has cancer.

[siligut]

13. I am shortchanging death. I sold my soul about ten years ago.

I figured I would get some use out of it while I could still enjoy it. Death is going to get a soulless, old hag when I go. My pops died doing something he loved, and lived his life to the fullest, can't do better than that.

[Old Troop]

14. Well, dad pulled off an inside straight, but he had palmed a card.

Death was not amused.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Mad obstetrician skills of the Dr. who delivered my daughter.

At the first difficulty of the head coming out, she said, "Tangled chord. C-section. NOW." Turned out the chord was making TWO turns around the baby's neck.

And now I have a ridiculously healthy, ridiculously smart and ridiculously snarky 9 year old. We not only cheated death, but brain damage as well.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Not much death-cheating going on in my family.

Members of my family have been dying on me since I was a young child, and I'm 64 now. I've come to expect it.

[XemaSab]

17. Grandma: terminal ovarian cancer. Her brother: malignant melanoma.

These were both in the late 1970's. They're both still alive and well.

[krispos42]

19. Switched charts in the hospital

It worked, but I had a hysterectomy.


Not fun. :-(

[Inchworm]

20. Two words...

Cocaine cowboy

Weeeeeeee~

:yoiks:

[cherokeeprogressive]

21. In 1979 I declined a ride with William Bonin, AKA The Freeway Killer.

It was the first and last time in my life that I hitch-hiked.

Between 1979 and 1980, Bonin tortured, raped and killed a minimum of 21 boys and young men, and is suspected of committing a further fifteen. Bonin was convicted and eventually executed in 1996 for 14 of those murders.

[zabet]

22. Almost died

in an industrial accident. Chemical exposure...lets just say no one has ever lived from the same exposure and the rats they tested with the same conditions of my accident all died. The doctors and the scientists and chemists can still not figure out why that stuff did not kill me.