I need a fast killing disease (cancer?)

Ebola!

There was a guy who worked at the same place as my husband who went to the doctor, thinking he had pneumonia. He had cancer in his lungs that had metasticized and was gone in 2 weeks. Cancer can be that fast.

Pancreatic cancer. My understanding is that, by the time they discover it, it's generally WAAAAY too late. Like "six to eight weeks to live" too late.

jallenecs said:

Pancreatic cancer. My understanding is that, by the time they discover it, it's generally WAAAAY too late. Like "six to eight weeks to live" too late.

Click to expand...

I had a coworker who went from feeling fine to dead in eight weeks from pancreatic cancer. It was terrible.

A friend of my parents had a headache one day, a diagnosed brain tumor two weeks later and died about thirty days after that.

I agree. Cancer would work well, unless you want someone to be feeding her arsenic in her coffee every morning. Depends on the type of story, I suppose.

If she's a nurse, she could come in contact with one of the hemorrhagic viruses. They're very contagious and very deadly.

It's sad how many people know someone who has been taken by cancer so fast.

Brain tumors like glioblastoma can often be quick and unfortunately devastating killers.

jallenecs said:

Pancreatic cancer. My understanding is that, by the time they discover it, it's generally WAAAAY too late. Like "six to eight weeks to live" too late.

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I was going to say....

Cancer would be my choice ebcause it can take hold of you incredibly quickly. And alot of people are still very mobile right until the end. A friend of a friend had breast cancer, she knew and didn't tell anyone, and she was still working right up until a couple of days before she died.

A friend from works father was diagnosed with bowel cancer and told he had about a year, he died a week and a half later.

maggi90w1 said:

I need to kill one of my characters (female, 46). Right now she's still able to go to work (she's a nurse), but she already knows she is sick. In 12 weeks she needs to be dead (I could give her another month or two, but not much longer).

Click to expand...

Malignant or "refractory" pulmonary hypertension - basically pulmonary hypertension that is no longer responding to the drugs. The advantage of this over cancer is that there's no chemo or surgery possibilities to have to deal with. It's a progressive, terminal disease.

She'll steadily get more and more fatigued - the speed varies, so it's controlled by your plot. They usually die suddenly of a heart attack when the poor abused thing gives up, or it gets to the terminal stages and they check into ICU or hospice and just die. So the timing is up to you.

Colon cancer is another quick killer. Unfortunately it can be both slow and fast. And it's virtually undetectable unless you do a colonoscopy or it's too late and you're having pain.

Hi Maggi,

Your character, being a nurse, will probably realise that her symptoms are slightly more than the common cold.

After all, she's 46. She may have had 20 years experience on the wards. And then there's her co-workers, especially doctors, who may spot the symptoms too.

So, unless she wants to die, you may want to address those matters too.

Regards

Whacko

I knew a lady who died of ovarian cancer in her mid-40's. She didn't have any symptoms other than some fairly mild abdominal pain occasionally. When the pain suddenly became pretty bad, she went to the doctor. She died before the final diagnosis, just a couple of weeks after the pain became bad enough to really concern her.

Heart Attack. Some women get early heart attack. On a related note, John Ritter, I believe (terrible with names) died straight across from a hospital. They couldn't even get him across the street before he died. It was sudden, fast and rapid. No history of heart problems before.

You could also try Meningitis. It can kill overnight. (If you need an option that's not cancer.) That would be a careless death on her part, though.

Storyteller5 said:

It's sad how many people know someone who has been taken by cancer so fast.

Click to expand...

In the US 1 in 3 adults will get cancer, and a lot of them have poor chances of survival. I believe liver cancer has the lowest since it mets to everywhere.

My choir teacher was about that age. I ran into her at a store and she was fine and doing well. A month later I was talking to one of my friends still in high school who told me she had just died from ovarian cancer.

There are so few symptoms of that cancer, that often by the time it comes up its too late to do anything about it.

jallenecs said:

Pancreatic cancer. My understanding is that, by the time they discover it, it's generally WAAAAY too late. Like "six to eight weeks to live" too late.

Click to expand...

I knew someone who died of this. It was shockingly fast. All he noticed before he went to the doctor was indigestion and was dead in a month.

My dad died of multiple myeloma, bone cancer that spread all over his body. He found a lump in his groin, and was dead two weeks later.