As long as there are three year olds, paper and crayons, there will always be painters and paintings. The question, I suppose, concerns whether or not painting retains some relevancy in the broadest sense as an artform.From my own perspective, whenever I tell anyone that I am an artist, increasingly I feel as if I telling them that I am a lamplighter or a roof thatcher or (perhaps even more accurate) I am begining to feel like John Cusacks' puppeteer in 'Being John Malkovich'.
Modernism in art came to an end (probably) with the passing of POP in the late sixties and the Postmodern era seems to have accepted paintings' marginalisation.
As for your second point, what is the nature of the illness and do you regard it as treatable or is it terminal?