Tracy:
I'm sorry to hear about your physical condition. Those kinds of issues can really weigh on a person's mind. I think you're absolutely right that the issue has to be quality and not quantity. The quantity is limited for everyone and we have more control over quality.

Your heart problems remind me of a former neighbor. He was in mid 70's when I met him, a Polish former Chicago dockworker and WWII veteran. He lived in the basement apt in the building next door and survived on his $345 per month SS check and picking up cans in the dumpsters. He was fiercely independent.
The slumlord who owned the building wanted to work on it so simply shut off the electricity, gas ans water, leaving Lou paying rent with no utilities. He couldn't move because he wouldn't accept government assistance and couldn't afford to get in anywhere else. For three winters he lived in that apt getting power from an extension cord from my house and water from my hose.
He had serious heart problems. In the last couple of years it would be routine for him to have heart attacks and collapse just about anywhere. I'd find him on my front steps, in the yard, in the apt, knocked down from a heart attack. He'd stick some nitro under his tongue and stagger to his feet again. One time I couldn't get him up so called 911. They took him to a hospital and wanted to perform heart surgery. He refused. I think he thought it would undermine his independence.
I finally talked him into letting me get him into subsidized senior housing. It was probably the nicest place he had ever lived. The problem was it was about 3 miles from my house. A couple of times a week, he would walk down to visit me, stopping periodically to deal with his heart attacks. I pleaded with him to take the bus (only 10 cents for seniors), but walking showed his independence.
I got a call from the coroner's office one day. He had died in the bathroom of the Burger King, halfway to my house with the open bottle of nitro in his hand.
To the people that found him, he was just a poor old dumpster can man, unlucky enough not to have good medical care. To me he was a courageous independent individual who confronted life on his own terms and was not willing to compromise on life's quality. To him, the issue was never, how will I deal with death, it was always, How will I live my life?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13