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My Deathday

2026-05-08 · letter vlog · Hank · 5:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health (also: Personal life, Global development, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: heavy topic

Hank tells John he planned a party for the day he would have died of untreated Hodgkin lymphoma, finds it already passed (about June 2025), and notes that five-year survival is about 95% in the US and 89% worldwide where it was once near zero; we rarely notice the death days in our past.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's idea of a death day party for the day untreated Hodgkin lymphoma would have killed him, and his method

  • ★★ Hank once thought it would be fun to party on the day he would have died without cancer treatment: had he been born 100 years ago, lived where Hodgkin's is mistaken for TB, or refused treatment. — 00:00:00 · Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer, tuberculosis
  • ★★ Hank doesn't think a death day party is weird, though others seem to: it is fun, a celebration about being grateful. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank picked a method: the point at which 50% of untreated, recently diagnosed Hodgkin patients are dead, from old data, padded since they were likely diagnosed later than he was. — 00:00:29 · Hodgkin lymphoma

00:00:58 — Why Hodgkin lymphoma, thought of as mild, is aggressive without treatment; Hank still in remission, not cured

  • ★★ Hank says Hodgkin's, thought of as not particularly dangerous, is safe only because of treatment: it is actually quite an aggressive cancer. — 00:01:27 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★ Hank explains that Hodgkin cells signal healthy cells to surround them, so a Hodgkin tumor is only about 5% cancer cells and 95% healthy cells and can grow very fast. — 00:01:56 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★ Hank says chest lymph nodes can grow into masses pressing on airways, lungs and heart, and as a lymphoma it spreads to spleen, liver, lungs or bone marrow and can kill. — 00:01:56 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★ Hank says Hodgkin cells usually die under treatment but sometimes survive, which is why he is technically still in remission rather than cured. — 00:02:26 · Hodgkin lymphoma

00:02:55 — The math says his death day, about June 2025, has already passed

  • ★★★ Hank did the math and missed his chance: with no clean clock and too much precision, his untreated death day would have been about June 2025; he is unsure how he feels. (hedged) — 00:02:55 · Hodgkin lymphoma

00:03:24 — Hodgkin survival in the US and the world, a century ago, and the world on the path to solving it

  • ★★★ Hank says about 95% of people diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in the US are alive five years later, and about 89% worldwide. — 00:03:24 · Hodgkin lymphoma, United States, Earth
  • ★★ Thinking about health equity, Hank checked his odds as the average person on Earth, expecting very bad news; the survival figure was much higher than he assumed. — 00:03:24 · health equity, Earth
  • ★★ Hank says the numbers carry many uncertainties and might look better than reality, since people who die undiagnosed are not counted; but most are counted and most get good treatment. (hedged) — 00:03:24 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★ Hank says 100 years ago pretty much everyone who got Hodgkin's died of it. — 00:03:53 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★★ Hank says Hodgkin's is a big problem for an individual, which he lived through, but also a big problem for the world, whose effort to solve it he did not experience. — 00:04:22 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★★ Hank says he is maybe, probably done with his own journey; the world definitely is not, but it is on the journey. (hedged) — 00:04:22
  • ★★ Hank notes that health care is not equally distributed: some places have much higher Hodgkin death rates, and in some diagnosis is unlikely. — 00:04:22 · health equity, Hodgkin lymphoma

00:04:52 — Curative therapies now reach most people; the death days in our past, scarlet fever, gratitude; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says 60 years after the first curative therapies were cutting edge and available to a select few, they are now available to most of the world's people. — 00:04:52 · progress
  • ★★★ Hank says many death days sit in people's pasts, and we almost never look at them. — 00:04:52
  • ★★ As John said in his Tuesday video, Hank had scarlet fever as a child: another potential death day behind him that he never thinks about. — 00:04:52 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank says he is not grateful enough for this, but doubts anyone ever could be. — 00:04:52
  • ★★ Hank jokes he would need to live 100,000 years to lay flowers at the graves of all who put his death day in his past, so he is stuck celebrating birthdays. (playful) — 00:05:21

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: gratitude · Hodgkin lymphoma

Also: Concepts: bone marrow · cancer · five-year survival rate · health equity · progress · scarlet fever · tuberculosis

Places: Earth · United States

Also centred on gratitude: The Things that People Do (Thoughts from New York City) (Pizzamas Day 7) · We Could All Use a Little Change · My Greatest Tool Against Vaccine Misinformation · I am Grateful for My Worry · I Just Can't Do It Anymore · On Balance

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