You don't ever know for sure. I've seen people with "less than a day left" take months, and people fully healthy drop dead from completely unknown health issues.

Another person said it, but I’ll repeat: you don’t know.

People who provide hospice care will tell you that many people have a “good” day right before they die. After weeks or months of decline, they are suddenly lucid and communicative. Families think this is a sign of recovery, but the workers know it’s a sign of the end. The patient is normally gone the next day.

A good friend of mine died of cancer in April. He was diagnosed a bit over a year earlier, and he went through multiple windows of “you’re cancer free!” to “you probably have a month left.” And there were many days the pain was so severe that he wished he would die already.

Six months before he died, he’d tell me, “I think this is it. I don’t think my body can go on.” And then he’d keep going.

If people could tell, I think our culture and our medical systems would look very different.

I get the point, reduce the suffering when you're at the moment. This is what I don't look forward to as well, not death itself, but dying in whatever form it takes. But know that any suffering is also finite, even the long ones, and hopefully you can avoid the few longer versions.

But for now, live for the moment. You get one shot at this, so don't spend it worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. Enjoy life, observe the details around you that we tend to block out as noise. Find ways to record and pass them on to others.