r/mildlyinfuriating 1d ago

"I'm Sorry, I Have to Cancel"

31.5k Upvotes

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7.0k

u/penfoldsdarksecret 1d ago

My wife's hairdresser did that for around 6 months. Then she announced she was quitting. Then passed away (she was 35 or so) a few weeks later. Sometimes it's excusable.

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u/pyxiedust219 22h ago

not technically a provider of a service but i remember having an instructor for a class i was really excited for, who NEVER graded my work, i think at one point he was 8 weeks behind on grading in a 16 week course. around week 14 i was annoyed bc the final was coming up and he hadn’t even graded my midterm yet… and then i got the email he had died. definitely changed my perspective on what I view as important vs what ACTUALLY matters at the end of your life

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u/scarletnightingale 20h ago

I don't know what happened to my OChem professor in college but the guy was a great professor, clearly loved the subject, very animated and busy (jumped on a desk at one point to properly display a chemical attachment), then suddenly 3 weeks before the end of the semester he disappeared. We were just told he was ill. He wasn't around the next semester either. The semester after that he finally came back and was a completely different person. People who took his class said he had to sit in a rolling chair and push himself back and forth in front of the board, pointing at things with a yardstick to explain things all while just seeming exhausting and tired.

I hope he's doing better now but it made me incredibly sad to know someone who was so happy and vibrant and active got hit with something so hard that all he could do was push himself around in a rolling chair while getting out of breath. Dude was dedicated to his subject.

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u/drinkacid 17h ago

Sounds like a stroke or heart attack.

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u/ChocolateKey2229 15h ago

Or MS or Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue. Any of them can be devastating including stroke or MI.

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u/SnowflakeSorcerer 11h ago

Known to be Lively animated and enthusiastic, then gone suddenly for a semester and comes back exhausted and deflated sounds a like it was a little more than chronic fatigue, would the onset be that sudden and drastic? How would you even find this out?

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u/Money_Beyond_9822 7h ago

I developed chronic fatique from my covid infection and it was literally over night so definetly possible

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u/SnowflakeSorcerer 7h ago

I think I might have chronic fatigue but how would I know? Did u get tests done or something or is it self diagnosed? Not trying to be a prick, I just don’t know enough about ir

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u/Money_Beyond_9822 7h ago

Unfortunately its a differential diagnosis, like any other causes get ruled out and then if your symptoms persist its probably cfs. But i developed a plethora of symptoms over night after my infection and cfs is only of them. It certainly got better over time but at the beginning of it id be exhausted all the time and could easily sleep more than 16 hours but even after sleeping id feel tired

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u/diniefofinie 13h ago

Yeah this isn’t fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue.

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u/Katililly 11h ago

I have both of these. It definitely could be. It could be a bunch of different things. Any chronic illness or extreme acute issue could cause this. Unless you have inside info that we don't have, it's a stretch to just say you know for sure that it isn't either of these.

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u/sarahfclark1982 8h ago

If it was MS, they would have told you—I have it, and if it was the reason for MY delay, I would have owned up to it… but maybe that’s just me…

u/plonkydonkey 55m ago

Yikes, nothing to "own up to" here. People get unwell, for all sorts of reasons, controllable and uncontrollable. Don't ever need to disclose to others what the details of your health condition might be, it's nobody else's business shrug 🤷‍♂️.

u/Armenian-heart4evr 50m ago

How did they diagnose you! What tests were done? Did you have a spinal tap?

u/sarahfclark1982 40m ago

Yes to all of this. I was in a coma for two weeks in 2010… but yeah… diagnosed… didn’t get MS until 7 years later.

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u/scarletnightingale 11h ago

He was fairly young, still in his 30s, so while that's possible, it didn't seem as likely and he didn't really act like a stroke patient after he got back.  It wasn't any one sided weakness, it was just he was overall just... seemed like someone who was fighting for every bit of energy he had. That was the other thing that made it sad, he was still very young and at the start of his career. 

u/Armenian-heart4evr 48m ago

It could have been ALS -- "Lou Gherig's disease"!

u/Excellent_Yak365 52m ago

I had this issue after chemo and pulmonary embolism. Still messed up

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u/rectumfanny 15h ago

Mr Fargus?

2

u/Side_StepVII 3h ago

Dude had a stroke. I’d put money on it. The chronic fatigue is a tell tale sign of stroke. We have a friend who’s a teacher(coincidentally) that had a stroke a few years ago at like 39/40(idk exactly how old she is, but my age, and I’m 41). She’s pretty good now, you’d never know something happened, but she’s on adderall now to help with the chronic fatigue.

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u/D347H7H3K1Dx 7h ago

Around what year did this happen? If you don’t mind answering that is.

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u/scarletnightingale 7h ago

Probably around 2006-2007, I don't remember exactly, it was either around the middle of when I was in college. I'm blanking on his name right now. I hated O Chem, but he was a really good professor.

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u/D347H7H3K1Dx 7h ago

Interesting. If it was later than that COVID may have been a good possibility. Sucks when you have good passionate people become a husk of themself cause of sickness.

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u/scarletnightingale 7h ago

Oh, no, it wasn't covid. I don't think it was swine flu either, swine flu popped up when I was in college, but I think it was a little after this, but you are accurate in your assessment of his temperament and abilities after whatever happened to him happened. He was like someone who'd gone through long covid or really severe pneumonia.

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u/D347H7H3K1Dx 6h ago

Cancer possibly? I know that can take the shit out of you for a long time(both my grandmothers fought it). As for Swine Flu(I believe it’s H1N1) I am too young to actually remember that, around 2007 I was 12. I do know one of my ex boss had gotten swine flu when pregnant tho and her child is considered a bubble child cause of how bad it hit him.

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u/scarletnightingale 4h ago

My roommate got swine flu and had permanent lung damage. I don't know what happened to him. Cancer could be a possibility, all I know is that a healthy active man in his mid to late 30s just disappeared suddenly and came back months later barely able to function.

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u/D347H7H3K1Dx 4h ago

Maybe one of these days you could try to catch up? Not trying to be a smartass or anything, you do seem like you care and they made a strong influence on you with whatever happened.

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u/goranlol 19h ago

sorry but i thought this was gonna be about walter white lmao

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u/maaalicelaaamb 22h ago

This makes me so sad

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u/pyxiedust219 22h ago

yeah, it really threw me. weird thing, i barely knew him for 3 months, the class wasn’t even an in-person class so I only interacted with him digitally… and yet I think about him all the time

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u/UnrepentantPumpkin 21h ago

I once had a blind massage therapist who only interacted with me digitally.

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u/GrimCreeper913 20h ago

BOOOO... also, well played. Now please leave.

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u/Haunting_Key8298 20h ago

I don't fucking GET IT, but somehow it's STILL funny. How?!

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u/Careful-Arrival7316 19h ago

Digits, like fingers.

0

u/UnrepentantPumpkin 6h ago

Exactly. I’m surprised at the downvotes though. Reddit be fickle sometimes.

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u/TheTallEclecticWitch 21h ago

Yeah my friend’s therapist had a similar thing, but he knew she was wfh with cancer. She no showed one appointment and he feared the worst. The company he was going through wouldn’t tell him anything and just offered to pair him with a new therapist but he just didn’t think it was worth hopping again. He found her Facebook and found out she had passed a month or so after the incident.

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u/Samslovelyusername 8h ago

Happened to me, first therapist I actually liked seeing. After 2 months of repeated rescheduling and irritatation my mom got a call saying she was deseased and they didn’t know how to tell her patients. It was the first time I lost someone close, it hurt me to my core. All that time thinking she was like the other therapists, and didn’t want to see me, when her wellbeing should’ve been on my mind first.

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u/dfassna1 10h ago

It’s sad that people should have to be working while they’re dying. And that our healthcare system lets a lot of people get very sick before they get any help.

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u/Arttherapist 17h ago

I had a high school teacher who never marked any classwork and never returned any submitted work. I wrote an amazing poetry assignment and never got it back so its lost forever. This was before computers were used for assignments so it was hand written and my only copy. The teacher was my playschool best friend's mom.

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u/Randyaccredit 11h ago

So what happened exactly after you found out he passed did you get your paper graded by another instructor then proceeded as normal?

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u/pyxiedust219 5h ago

pretty much, except that the new instructor graded things differently so I had a learning curve right before the final lol

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u/gutzpunchbalzthrowup 5h ago

Few things are more important in life than your own health. Unfortunately, health takes a back burner in life because we are so focused and busy in other parts of our lives until it suddenly moves to the front of everything. Then it's the only thing that matters anymore.

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u/CrazyPoiPoi 19h ago

definitely changed my perspective on what I view as important vs what ACTUALLY matters at the end of your life

How so?

For you, getting your work graded was some of the more important stuff at that point in your life. You didn't and couldn't know that your professor was in bad health or even died.

1

u/pyxiedust219 5h ago

I’m happy to explain. My stress over that class was a mere blip in the entirety of my life. One that I remember due to feeling selfish for being SO focused on myself and unwilling to offer grace to a man who was dying. for me, that semester involved a lot more than just his class and my life at the time involved a lot more than just school— yet I expected for this singular course to be his only priority.

Even if I had ended up failing that class, which I didn’t, it would not be haunting me on my deathbed. Him having to spend his final weeks of his life responding to emails from students is much worse than anything that could’ve happened to me due to it

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u/TheRemedy187 17h ago

My old job we never had a chance for sick days. They would always talk about how they care about work life balance and preach to you about having it. Like they're telling you to have it like it's not them making the problem. Yes we did a lot of self management but if shit wasn't done there was no excuse. I remember travelling around with lung infection and then jus getting shit cuz my productivity wasn't good enough. I didn't want to go, it wasn't even my job they asked me to do something extra. My boss would also be having stuff like that getting really bad. It's like he never got better just illness after illness because his body is exhausted. and travelling around because the system was jus designed to overload you if everything went perfect. Obviously it never went perfect because that was never a reasonable expectation. My perspective went from wanting to move up to wanting all the fucking way out. Man I was travelling for work when both my grandparents died, missing so much with all my family in general. Heard that actually got even worse after I left. It was already escalating.

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u/Snoo-88741 2h ago

My first and best counselor, who helped me for years as a child, quit practicing because she had Alzheimer's and it was starting to get bad enough she couldn't work.

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u/Wild_Agency_6426 13h ago

The college still should give your money back since you paid and never received. They couldve given you a replacement instructor.

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u/pyxiedust219 5h ago

they DID assign a new instructor. he was still teaching, just fell behind on grading. i am unsure why this is what you thought the point was.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

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u/ctierra512 20h ago

weird thing to say

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u/Samurai_Meisters 20h ago

Cause of death: murder