new diagnosis

It is your choice and nobody else's. I've always listened to that "Small Voice" that guides a person one way or the other. Percentages are all very fine and well, until you become one. Older members here will probably start rolling their eyes about now as I tell you a bit of my past. I used to be a very active skydiver, with 1637 jumps under my belt. I only ever used my reserve once, but I can assure You I was glad I had one. That reserve added about an extra 30% weight and a similar amount of extra bulk. Probably cost about double what a rig without a reserve would have cost too. Also cost more in so far as the reserve had to be checked and repacked by a Master Rigger...used or not, every 200 jumps or once a year, whichever came first. The overall statistics for skydivers needing reserves is about 1 in 200 jumps, so about half of one percent. I've jumped all over the world with thousands of highly experienced meatbombs and have yet to know one who does not step out the door from 12,000ft without a reserve. Oh and by the way. 1% of kids in a large school with a thousand pupils is 10 kids. That one percent probably means a lot to those ten kids and their families. That's all I have to say about percentages. Each of us makes our own choices and then lives with them. Good luck with your treatment as you decide with your team, what that will be.