HW 32 - Thoughts following illness & dying unit

The most nightmarish practices around illness and dying in my opinion are probably dying alone.  The scariest thing in my opinion is dying alone because dying itself is very scary  thing.  But when your all alone and have no one to comfort you that makes it even worse.  Just imagine literally being the most scared you have been ever and not having anyone around you to assure you that things will be okay and that they are there for you.  I don't even think that I would want to go through that process without someone.  I don't think I could go through it without someone.  My father told me that when his father was dying he was there with him for his remaining days and to his father that meant the world to him.  Being there during someones last moments could be the best thing you have done for this person and you wouldn't even know it, just to have you there could be the great ending to the final chapter of someones life.

HW 31 - Comments 3

Harry,

I think that your topic was very interesting. I was thinking about chosing this topic since it is such a controversial issue in this country as you stated in the post. I feel like you really got a good grasp of this topic. I think your best line was, "When interviewing my family friend about the care he received in the hospitals in California, he too recalled that the treatment he finally received was "lucky" as well"


Evan,

I really think that this was a good idea for a project. I thought that your questions were very well thought out and deep. The way that the person you interviewed responded to your questions seemed to be with as much truth and as much clarity as possible. I felt like your best question was, "What do you do if you think a patient is making the wrong choose by giving up?"


Alex,

I thought that your topic had a really big impact on you. It seemed like this experience was very hard on you and changed how you thought about this issue. It really made me think more about this issue as well. I think that your most insightful line was, "to see something I can connect with better then anything else, which is another human, dying like that makes my stomach turn."


Chris,

I know the feeling of having a friend whos parent is like a parent to you. But i do not know the feeling of almost losing that person. I cant even imagine how your friend must feel about this situation. Since it was hard for you for him it must have been 10 times worse. I feel like your best line was, " I learn that illness and dying is apart of our daily lives and we are going to have to deal with it sooner or later."

HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

The aspect around illness and dying that I decided to explore what the average life expectancy for people with AIDS in the united states was.  I wanted to explore this because I have someone close to me who has been living with this disease for about 14 years now.  I wanted to compare his experience with living with aids and how long he has been living with it to how long the average american is living with AIDS.  When I had the interview with this person they told me that they have been living with this disease and not letting it change how they lived their life.


Some information that I gathered was the actually life expectancy for an american living with AIDS.  As much as I did not want to use this source(considering it was fox news) I did not see any reason for them to lie about this issue.  The article tells us about the average life time of a person with aids.  It was actually very surprising when i found out the life expectancy.  The article states, " An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over those two-plus decades is more than $600,000, new research indicates."

The way that I explored this issue was through an interview with a family member with this disease.  He has been living with the disease for 14 years.  So according to this information he only has 10 years left(go forbid).  When i told him about this pole he seemed not to surprised.  He said that when he was diagnosed he was told he would'nt even live for that long.  He actually made a joke that he was "glad to know he had more time".  Although when he heard how much the health care was he was not surprised. He said that he of all people knew how expensive it was to get all the medical needs that he had to acquire.   

What I learned about this was not only do people go about this disease differently but people with this disease live for different amounts of time.  Depending on how bad it is will affect how long you have to live.  I also learned that for a disease that kills you quickly it does give you a good amount of time to live, although 24 years is not a lot of time, it is if that is all you have and your making the best out of it.  

What this shows about dominant social practices in our society is that different people go about different diseases in certain ways.  Also that depending on how long you actually have completely affects your mindset on life.  The reason this matters is because when your dying you usually want to die in peace.  When you get a exact knowledge of how long you have to live, it affects the way that you can spend that time.  If you realize you have a longer time then you have more time to do what you want when you want with who you want.  All that this is showing is that in a way, knowing these things completely affects your level of happiness. 

HW 29 - Reading and noting basic materials

Facing Terminal Illness:

People who have the terminal illness go about it much differently then their loved one who is watching them suffer from that illness.  The person who has the disease will either want to live the rest of their remaining days care free or they will be worrying about dying and live their last few days alive with stress. The person who is watching their loved one go through this usually is stressing the situation.  In my opinion the best way to live your remaining days is in pure happiness, do what you want when you want and don't people tell you your not allowed to do it.  Although I am saying this now I will never know how I really feel about living my last days until that time actually comes around, when it does my opinion on this issue could completely change.  In the book tuesdays with morrie by Mitch Albom, Morrie choses to live his remaining days in happiness and without negative thoughts.  On page 37 Morrie says, "I know, Mitch.  You mustn't be afraid of my dying.  I've had a good life, and we all know it's going to happen".

Paying for medical care:

Paying for medical care has always been a huge problem for people living in the united states.  It has always been hard for people to get health care here but in other countries they don't worry about getting the medical care that they need.  In the movie sicko one man had to choose which finger he wanted to get put back on after he lost 2 because he couldn't afford both.  In some other countries if you lost a finger they put it back on without any questions.  The health care companies actually makes more more money if they deny people health care.  Some past presidents haven't been to happy with the medical programs either since it's costing them money.  President Richard Nixon stated, " I'm not to keen on these damn medical programs".(from the movie sicko).

Being sick:

Being sick is something that has always been dreaded by humans but it is dreaded more depending on how sick you are.  When I interviewed my family member about his illness it didn't to be as horrible to them as I thought it would be.  I guess that when your the one living with the illness it is easier to get used to.  My own experience with being sick is that I just want it to be over with as soon as possible.  Except for when I get sick on a school day, thats fine with me  and i'm sure the same could be said for a lot of other kids.  Even then though it isn't any fun because although I get to miss a day of school when everyone is out of school and hanging out I cant do that since I stayed home sick.

HW 28 - Comments 2

For Evan,

I am sorry to hear that you have two people who are close to you living with the same illness. One of your best lines in my opinion was the line where you said, "This problem she faces to day came from a lack of human knowledge on food during her life and resulted in her eating fatty food that clogged her arteries and is causing her to die". The reason i liked this line was because it shows that you had a good knowledge of this situation. Something you can work on is expanding a bit more on your thoughts. Overall good job though.


For Harry,

I was very interested through out your whole blog post and felt that you had a good understand of your family members situation. I feel like your most beautiful line was, "To recover from the situation, he embraced the fact that recovering from this stroke was a long term process, although he honestly admits that he first pushed it away". I liked this the most because it really shows that he was understanding with his situation and came to terms with the fact that he did have a stroke and had to deal with their situation. Great post overall.

-Max


I chose to use harry since my fellow group member did not do a post.

HW 27 - Visiting an unwell person

I chose to talk to my cousin who is living with the HIV virus known as AIDS.  Although I didn't to my cousin in person I talked to him over the phone and have seen him recently so I had a good idea of his physical state.  My cousin has been living with aids for about 14 years now and he seems to be doing well with dealing with his disease.  His approach to dealing with his disease might be the most amazing display of confidence I have ever seen.  He doesn't let it bring him down in any of the activities that he does and he doesn't want people to feel bad for him because of his disease.  When talking to him on the phone about this I actually felt more uncomfortable about talking about it then he did.

My cousin takes great care of himself and he is actually in better shape then most adults that don't have this disease that I know.  He works out in the gym almost everyday and he is very carful about taking his medication daily.  When I asked him if he was afraid of the outcome of his disease he said in his kind voice, "I'm not worried about it until it's actually happening, and you shouldn't be either".  It is amazing to me that he could have such a good attitude to such a horrible situation.  He was telling me that the support of his family and friends really helps him cope with his situation.  He has always done what he wanted and doesn't let others hold him back.  When I told him that if I were in his position I would be dealing with it in the way that I would be scared and not be as motivated.  This surprised him and he told me that while in these situation you have to make the best out of it or else your waisting valuable time in your life.  In my opinion truer words have never been spoken.

While talking to my cousin it reminded me of the book Tuesdays with Morrie.  This reminded me of that book because they are both living with horrible diseases but in both situations they are looking at their disease with the most positive attitude possible.  They try to live life in happiness and try to live it care free.  Both Morrie and my cousin try to give the best advice possible and try to get people to understand their situation.  They both don't want people to feel bad for them but they want people to understand their situation and be supportive.  Not feel bad and have pity on them.

HW 26 - Looking back & forward in unit

Important insights:

1.)  You don't really know how good something is until it is gone.

2.)  There are many places in the world that have much better health care than the united states that people wouldn't even expect to have such good health care.

3.)  The american health care system has more flaws then I could have imagined

4.) Americans don't really talk about illness and dying a lot.

5.) Not enough health care in the united states for everyone.



The main sources that have helped me understand this unit better had to be when we watched Michael Moore's Sicko.  This movie really helped me understand our cultures views in health care because it showed me the truths to our health care system(truths being all of its flaws).  When I saw this movie it really made me wonder why the United States government would do all of these horrible things to prevent its citizens from obtaining health insurance that covered all of their health needs.  For example in the movie he interviewed one person who got 2 fingers cut off and had to choose which finger he would get put back on because he couldn't afford both since he didn't enough money.  In other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom they have free health care and they don't have to worry about wether or not they are able to pay for their health needs.  Actually when the talk of paying about it comes  up the people who live there usually will laugh at the question of them having to pay.

I think that the most important issues that we should deal with in our last few weeks of the unit should be how people deal with their loved ones deaths.  I know that it is very hard to deal with the death of a loved one and it is a very scary thought to think about but I would be interested in what other people in the class think about that issue.  I think that the best way we can explore this topic is having a homework on peoples thoughts about how they would feel if or when they lost some very close to them.  Although it may be a very sensitive topic I do think that there will be people who will want to talk about this issue and address their feelings on this issue.