False Hope and Terminal Illness - an alternative viewpoint
Nipples to Kneecaps - to die or not to die with cancer?.... was the question. To the ninety nine percent of the people around us, the answer was obvious: my husband Steve would die and die very soon. Steve and I made up the one per cent who believed the answer was: he would not die.
I know those around us, from the medical profession to our closest family, all thought we were clutching at 'false' hope, that we were naive and in denial. Some say, even now, you should not give false hope to those with a terminal illness.
But, what on earth is false hope? Hope is either hope or it is not. Do they mean people pretend to be hopeful and that's why it's false? Do they mean it's a lie? Do they mean if you have hope and the desired outcome does not occur then you have failed?
Surely it is cruel to deny a person any hope when there is always a possibility...even if it IS only a one percent possibility of success? People without hope die anyway.
Hope is an underestimated emotion yet when harnessed correctly it can overcome the so called impossible. Where there is a will, there is a way. Never give up.
Mandy's way of viewing HOPE. Let's start seeing HOPE as H.O.P.E.: How Ordinary People Evolve
How Ordinary People Endure, Escape and Emerge as Heroes.
It annoys me when people winge on about, "Oh you shouldn't give false hope."
The dictionary defines 'false hope'' as wishful thinking, unreal hope, fantasy. I see nothing wrong with wishful thinking. Now 'unreal' hope? What is reality, what is real or unreal? Fantasy implies not of this world, something outside of the norms. Well, isn't that exactly what you might need when told you have three months left to live at the most? Something above and beyond what is in this factual world?
Ours was not false hope, it was 'real' hope and our hope that became a reality. My reasoning is that if it can happen once, it can happen again...and indeed it has!
