Jerry, your honest feelings and opinions are most welcome at anytime. If what you says offends someone, then clearly they don't understand where you are coming from.
Quality of Life is a very complex and personal and subjective topic at best. It means different things to different people. Aside from a person's medical condition at a particular point in time, one would have to know the person, what they have been through in their lives, their philosphical and/or religious views on life in general, etc. So many factors.
This is why some people have "Living Wills" in place. My wife, as a nurse that looks over a lot of terminally ill people, and trust me, they are not just "old" people, they have patients even in their 40's at her facility, she sees a lot of things in her patient's eyes and hearts, along with their loved ones and family. She has strong feelings on the subject, and has learned to respect the patient and their family's wishes.
I would never, ever force my views or try to influence another human being on the subject. Too personal. For me, I am not afraid of dying, I am just not ready to check out yet, lol. I want to live as long a natural life as I can within reasonable means. Reasonable means to me, would or could be entirely different concept to you or anyone else.
Years ago, I did a lot of religious based hospital counseling type work, and was involved in a lot of death bed scenes and cases, and from those experiences, I learned a lot about
life and quality of life issues. I saw a lot of pain, misery, and suffering along the way. One reason why I have such strong feelings on Pain Management for example.
I am hoping that my PC is in remission, right now, I have just one reading that indicates this, so it will take several more good readings to be more convincing. Even my uro realizes this, as he's a big believer in pre-treatment PC PSA velocity. Either my PC has been knocked into full remission (and that is my choice), or its just be knocked silly for a spell, and will re-group so to speak, and come back again. If, and only if it comes back again, and recurrance is verified, would I even have to consider the next path, and we both know there is nothing left (at this point in PC treatment) that would be curative if the SRT ultimately fails. Right now, if I were faced with that choice to go down the HT path to "buy" some time, I wouldn't do it, nor do I have any interest in doing it. I can't say that with certainty, because I am not faced with that choice, can only tell how I feel about it.
Beyond that level of reasoning, I wouldn't discuss it online here in the open. I would reserve further conversation and reasoning to those I feel would have a caring interest, and not to get into some kind of "pissing" contest about who is more informed or educated on the subject than the other. I am not into those kinds of deals, very non-productive in my opinion.
You area good person, and I hope only the best and most positive thoughts for you. I don't know what your future holds for you, but am confident you will make the right choices for yourself, and your loved ones as well. And I would always respect your decision, as we all should.
David in SC