Randy Pausch's Last Lecture...

[yulia]

There are a lot of little lessons to be garnered from this 11 min clip. Enjoy.
http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw[/URL]

 

[musicmom]

I agree 100% with what he says. Thanks for sharing. I wish everyone would live like this. Good post.

 

[Skyburning]

Hhe also has a blog http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/

This man is a huge inspiration to me.

 

[musicmom]

Cool. I was wondering if he had more stuff somewhere. Thanks skyburning.

 

[fallon]

thank you Yulia...You have no idea how much I needed that right now

 

[Amber]

Thanks Yulia! This brought tears to my eyes.

 

[Trina]

I saw this video several months ago. Very heart breaking, yet inspiring. Is he still alive??

 

[Skyburning]

I saw this video several months ago. Very heart breaking, yet inspiring. Is he still alive??

Yep, he's still alive, the blog I posted earlier in this thread has periodic updates from him with his status.

 

[yulia]

Yep, he's still alive, the blog I posted earlier in this thread has periodic updates from him with his status.

How is he feeling?

 

[Skyburning]

The good news is that the tumors appear to still be basically held in check.

The bad news is that the side effects of the chemo drugs have become too toxic. My kidneys are now performing at well under 50% efficiency (Creatanine is 3.4, and BUN is 54, for those of you scoring the game at home). My blood pressure has soared up to 200 over 100. . I may technically have "high output congestive heart failure," but that's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

The painful part is that we think my abdominal cavity has started to fill with fluid, a side effect of the kidney inefficiency and high blood pressure. . That particularly stinks because the fluid pushes on lungs and heart. I can't sleep (or breathe clearly) while lying down; I have to sit up and try to sleep that way. And I get totally out of breath after a flight of stairs.

So we're doing a bunch of things to address these issues:
- we're stopping all chemo
- I'm now on high blood pressure medication
- I'm taking a diuretic that is supposed to get my body to empty itself of fluids, so that my body (in theory) starts to absorb back the fluid in my cavity and start to urinate it out over time.
- I'm seeing a nephrologist (kidney specialist) tomorrow.
- Yesterday I got a blood transfusion, which greatly helped my low red blood cell count and is giving me more energy.

This is a setback, but hopefully a small one. However, if the damage the chemo drugs did to my kidneys is permanent, that would be really, really bad.

He is hospitalized and is expected to get out Monday. They are unsure how they are going to treat the tumors without chemo.

 

[Amber]

He is hospitalized and is expected to get out Monday. They are unsure how they are going to treat the tumors without chemo.

When my aunt stopped her chemo, she passed within the year.

I feel awful for this man. But I am so amazed at how he is passing his thoughts on before he passes, and that they're POSITIVE thoughts. So many want to blame God, blame people, blame society, but he's telling everyone how to lead a happy, healthy life. I wish there was a way to send a card, or something. I'd like him, or at least his family, to know how much that clip meant.

 

[Amber]

:biglaugh: I was glancing through his blog. Did y'all see where his son asked to see "Shampoo, the Killer Whale"? I near died in laughter. That is too cute!