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What should I do next?

  • Leave

    Votes: 57 82.6%
  • Wait till surgery then take off

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Wait until after surgery to leave

    Votes: 5 7.2%
  • Stay and see what happens next

    Votes: 5 7.2%

  • Total voters
    69
Leareth - how are you at dealing with guilt?
Can you handle causing him significant extra pain and grief in his last days/months?

No judgement here - just asking if, by leaving him now, you'd screw yourself up in the long run.

Oh really? The fact that someone is ill is no excuse for acting abominably to one's partner. If anything his behaviour should be kinder to his partner, considering that his time with her might well be limited.

If the guy doesn't treat his partner decently even in what might be his last few months of life, he's obviously not worth staying with. And no, no one should have feelings of guilt over leaving such an idiot whether he dies or not.
 
Thank you guys for the comments and PM's (I will try to answer them all).

I am stuck in place until January when my new job starts, Since I will be working for the university I will be entitled to staff housing, which is cheaper than trying to find a decent place to rent in this city even if I could find a vacancy. Paying $1,200 for a 1BR is a little too much for me

As for the financial stuff, I think I would be affected by the common-law marriage status. The good news in that area is I have kept all our financial stuff separate, he has his own credit cards, bank accounts, loans etc and I have mine. The only place where our names are together is on the rental agreement.
 
Leave.

Take the staff housing. Get yourself off that rental agreement.

I've been in a similar situation. I stayed as long as I could, but figured out the guilt is a lot easier to handle than the emotional and financial problems I endured watching someone die. I don't want to get too much into my situation, as this is about you.

In the end, you need to take care of yourself first.

If you want to talk further, please don't hesitate to PM me.
 
Tuff love, babe. You are making yourself sicker than he is by sticking around and letting him be an irresponsible a**. He may need to lose you to realize that it's time he gets his act together and faces reality... consequences of sticking around may kill you before he goes!
 
Something no one seems to have considered yet....

To answer your question in the OP -- I think you should definitely leave. Life-threatening illness is not carte blanche to behave in such a reprehensible manner. Reading between the lines, my guess is that this is not the first time he has behaved this way, though at this point it has gotten very extreme.

You also should talk to a lawyer/solicitor about the financial issues to be sure that you are not responsible for his debts, medical or otherwise. Regardless of whether he lives, inheriting a mountain of debt from him will stay with you for years to come, and negatively affect your quality of life a great deal.

But I think there's another moral dilemma here.

Why is this man on a transplant list at all?

He has shown no regard for his health by insisting on drinking alcohol that he knows reacts badly with his medication. People with substance abuse issues, afaik, are generally not allowed to be candidates for transplants, b/c of the greater risk of them dying during and after the surgery, and their general disregard for their health.

A heart transplant recipient must follow a very strict health regimen to survive the transplant for long. This man has shown that a heart transplant would be wasted on him by his history of self-destructive behavior. This may sound callous, but the fact of the matter is that there are a very limited number of viable hearts available, and hospitals have a right to vet potential transplant recipients for patterns of behavior that make them ineligible for this kind of surgery.

-bastetbabe27
 
His behaviour suggests he has already left the relationship.
He is using you as an unpaid servant.
Go now and don't look back.
 
Leave

As a man of 25 who has been married for 2 1/2 years, I must say that I would NEVER, under ANY circumstances treat my wife in such a way. Period.

There is obviously no consideration for you in this relationship.

Some things are more understandable than others - blowing savings, for instance, isn't necessarily terrible, as one would expect him to want to spend it while he's got it and it seems it's his money to spend if you two have kept your finances completely separate. Running up credit card debts, while hardly mature, is somewhat forgiveable assuming that he has life insurance that will cover this and his other debts once he has gone. If he does not have this insurance, than he is simply being immature and demonstrating a complete lack of care for your well-being. I hope you are not stuck with the bill. Leaving now may help prevent that.

His adultery alone - not once, but twice - is reason enough to leave. There is NO excuse for that.

You've pointed out his sad past growing up in foster care. While unfortunate, his past gives him no excuse for his present actions. He can either be a "victim of circumstance" (and by "victim", I mean someone who uses his past as an excuse for his present actions) or an adult and his own man, willing to take responsibility for what he does. He refuses to grow up. Clearly he has made his choice, making your choice much easier. He obviously has no respect for you. Don't let him make excuses for his behavior. To paraphrase those great philosophers, Blink 182, don't let your future be destroyed by his decision to use the past as an excuse for everything.

Some have argued that because you've been with him so long you have a lot "invested". I would argue that this is faulty thinking. Consider the economic principle of Sunk Cost. Eight relatively good years are no reason to stick around for what looks to be, at most, five lousy years in the future.

His other actions - spending his "good" moments out with friends drinking - as one poster notes, this just destroys him more and more - while leaning on you for all of the bills, housework, and other obligations speak to even less maturity. Relationships are two way streets. If I were in his position, I would certainly want to spend time with my friends as well, but I'd want to spend much more time with my wife. I'd blow my savings on vacations with her, not alcohol with my friends (although I don't drink, myself).

His medical condition is unfortunate, yet it seems to me only another item to throw upon his stack of excuses - the foster homes made me do it, the condition made me do it, etc. He clearly doesn't love you and, if he says he does, then he is an even greater liar.

Drop him now. He obviously doesn't care whether he will live or die - why should you? No sense in going down with the ship.
 
Oh really? The fact that someone is ill is no excuse for acting abominably to one's partner. If anything his behaviour should be kinder to his partner, considering that his time with her might well be limited.

If the guy doesn't treat his partner decently even in what might be his last few months of life, he's obviously not worth staying with. And no, no one should have feelings of guilt over leaving such an idiot whether he dies or not.

I agree with you - and as i said i'm not judging.

However - in the real world what people should feel is often not what they do or will feel. People feel guilt for all sorts of unwarranted reasons beyond their control.
 
And this is exactly what is bothering me the most, the abandonment/guilt issue. He has no family except his estranged half sister, his mother gave him up for adoption when he was 7, he was never adopted and raised in a succession of foster homes. His longest term foster parent head him from 9-14 and she then dumped him in another home when she had her own kid and moved. I feel that if I leave now it would be another person abandoning him when he gets too inconvenient.

This is not your problem, and you're not thinking about leaving because staying is "inconvenient", you're thinking about leaving because he treats you in a way that is totally unacceptable.

Leave now.
 
First of all never post stuff like this on internet forums.

Leaving him seems the most obvious option ...

...

... however there is a good chance that you will never forgive yourself and you'll lose it if he snuffs it after or during the op. (not that you are wrong it's just human nature).


+ voted, hmmm see the job through to the end if you were married you'd be like sticking at it through better or worse (your not married but that's just a piece of paper). If you've gotta bail you could do it afterward.
 
Sometimes i would find people around me dont care if they upset me so logn as they are getting what they want. I had two very close friends who did this and i can tell you they are friends of mine no more. If someone does not care for you there is no reason why you should care at all.

Leave the bum and live your life, last thing you want is it to get stuck with all the bills. I am surprised that you needed to ask this but you should have left as soon as he started to run up the bills and cheated on you.
 
Leave him.

I had an uncle who treated his wife the same way. He lost his job due to alcoholism, wrecked his car, had a heart attack (No insurance because he lost his job) then he died. She was left with the bills. Dump him before it's too late.
 
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