1) In the end we turn to religion to comfort us with the idea that the person we love is going to die. When Beth believed that her husband was near his time, she went to a Buddhist monk and he told her all the signs to expect before he died. (Beth’s presentation)
2) Death is a topic that is avoided because people don’t really want to think about death. People do believe that when death comes it will come but until it comes you should live your life. (Personal Insights/ Relationship)
3) There is unequal access to healthcare because there are certain requirements for healthcare and if you don’t fit within those requirements you are rejected. Rejecting people for the smallest illnesses makes it much easier to maximize profits for health insurance. (Sicko)
4) The issue of consent can be a problem when it comes to death because doctors must be the ones who have to decide what is right for the patient. If a patient is being given drugs for their pain, they will not be clear minded and able to make a decision for the patient, doctors must do the right thing. Some people believe that doctors don’t do all they can to help the patient but they must because they took an oath. In the documentary near death, the doctors always have a conversation about the best thing to do with the patient and think of a backup plan in case the first plan doesn’t work out. (Near Death)
So far we have used different texts to understand illness & dying from different perspectives, we have watched films that have focused on different aspects of death such as the healthcare system, and finally we have spoken to people that have illnesses and we have seen how they have been treated within the healthcare system. In the movie sicko, Michael Moore explored health care insurance and the atrocities that exist within this system. In the movie Michael Moore wanted to show the viewers that even with health insurance we still can’t afford proper healthcare. Workers for healthcare insurance looked for any pre-existing conditions and used that as ammunition to refuse people healthcare. There were several instances where patients were refused treatment and they died because they were denied health care insurance. Then Michael Moore took us to France, Britain, and Canada, where the health care insurance in those places are very different from the U.S. For example in Britain there is a new system where you get paid based in the health of your patients, and the saying a banana a day keeps the doctor away is true in that case. This movie helped mw to understand some of the absurdities about the health care system but at time I felt it was biased and I’m sure there are some alternatives within the health care system that are not bad.
For the past couple of weeks we have been hearing from patients, doctors, but I would also like to hear from politicians about their perspectives on healthcare and what should be done to maintain control of the health care system. A question I have is what would be an ideal system of healthcare? Another question I have is what does it mean to live your life? If you know that death is drawing near why do so many people choose to do all the things they have wanted to do rather than doing all those things now while they are still living. In a movie the character once said, “Are you living or are you existing?” What does this mean? Since the unit is coming to an end I believe it would be best to think about what we need to do to live our lives according to our will and purpose. I think life is all about finding meaning and this is essential to living. We could explore these topics by looking at people who have had more positive outlooks on death.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
HW 25 - Response to Sicko
Précis:
Even if you have insurance we still can't afford proper healthcare. In the United States health care industries before considering a candidate for healthcare insurance, workers look for any pre-existing conditions so they can be denied health care insurance. These requirements are set when considering a candidate for healthcare insurance because denying people healthcare will maximize profits. When people traveled to other countries such as: France, Canada, or Britain, they found the health care industry to have some major changes than healthcare insurance in the United States. These drastic changes can be made equal if the United States decided to work together to create a new system of healthcare insurance.
Evidence:
1. While Bill Clinton was president, Hilary Clinton worked to create equal healthcare for everyone. As Hilary Clinton tried to expand this bill, more politicians began to go against it because there argument was that you don't want to have a bureacrat telling you how to treat your body. More people began to become fearful of this idea of socialized medicine so they spent over $100 million trying to defeat Hilary's healthcare plan. They succeeded in defeating the plan and Hilary wasn't allowed to talk about it for the rest of Bill Clinton's presidency. The issue of healthcare remained unimportant.
2.
a. The healthcare system in Britain is very different from the system in the United States. As studies have shown," Even the poorest people in Britain are healthier than the richest people in the U.S." Based on this quote one can conclude that there are significantly higher rates among people from Britain and the people in the U.S. The healthcare system in Britain is very accessible and affordable for for everyone, and that's because it's free. According to a medical doctor, there is a new system in Britain where doctors are paid more based on how healthy their patients are. The money does come out of their taxes but they don't really have to pay out of pocket expenses for anything.
b. These pieces of evidence are important for supporting the thesis because it provides evidence to respond to some of the arguments Michael Moore developed throughout the film.
c. Read..
d. Britain's healthcare plan was always to create a healthcare system that is affordable for everyone. According to the New York Times article this new system would change $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers. The goal of this company is to reduce administrative costs by 45%. This new system would put more power in the hands of practitioners because they would have the right to choose who they want to associate with and such.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html
3. I found this movie very interesting because I never thought about the dark side of the healthcare system. There are groups of people that are ignored because they had health conditions that were made larger by health care workers, that were not important. This movie has shaped my perspective on illness & dying in our culture because most of the people who died in the movie had a possibility to be saved, they were just ignored by doctors and health care insurance people that didn't think it was that serious.
Even if you have insurance we still can't afford proper healthcare. In the United States health care industries before considering a candidate for healthcare insurance, workers look for any pre-existing conditions so they can be denied health care insurance. These requirements are set when considering a candidate for healthcare insurance because denying people healthcare will maximize profits. When people traveled to other countries such as: France, Canada, or Britain, they found the health care industry to have some major changes than healthcare insurance in the United States. These drastic changes can be made equal if the United States decided to work together to create a new system of healthcare insurance.
Evidence:
1. While Bill Clinton was president, Hilary Clinton worked to create equal healthcare for everyone. As Hilary Clinton tried to expand this bill, more politicians began to go against it because there argument was that you don't want to have a bureacrat telling you how to treat your body. More people began to become fearful of this idea of socialized medicine so they spent over $100 million trying to defeat Hilary's healthcare plan. They succeeded in defeating the plan and Hilary wasn't allowed to talk about it for the rest of Bill Clinton's presidency. The issue of healthcare remained unimportant.
2.
a. The healthcare system in Britain is very different from the system in the United States. As studies have shown," Even the poorest people in Britain are healthier than the richest people in the U.S." Based on this quote one can conclude that there are significantly higher rates among people from Britain and the people in the U.S. The healthcare system in Britain is very accessible and affordable for for everyone, and that's because it's free. According to a medical doctor, there is a new system in Britain where doctors are paid more based on how healthy their patients are. The money does come out of their taxes but they don't really have to pay out of pocket expenses for anything.
b. These pieces of evidence are important for supporting the thesis because it provides evidence to respond to some of the arguments Michael Moore developed throughout the film.
c. Read..
d. Britain's healthcare plan was always to create a healthcare system that is affordable for everyone. According to the New York Times article this new system would change $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers. The goal of this company is to reduce administrative costs by 45%. This new system would put more power in the hands of practitioners because they would have the right to choose who they want to associate with and such.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html
3. I found this movie very interesting because I never thought about the dark side of the healthcare system. There are groups of people that are ignored because they had health conditions that were made larger by health care workers, that were not important. This movie has shaped my perspective on illness & dying in our culture because most of the people who died in the movie had a possibility to be saved, they were just ignored by doctors and health care insurance people that didn't think it was that serious.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
HW 23 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 2
(Jamaica Kincaid, My Brother, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997)
Precis:
Everyone dies, even the people that we can bear to be seperated from. There is no point in being depressed about someone's death because there is always someone else who had died before that person, and someone who will soon die. Death is a touchy subject but it needs to be discussed because people never mention the fact that when we die we may go to heaven, or hell but it all depends on what you believe. Everyone is going to die one day.
1. "...I did not love my brother, I did not like my brother, I was only so sorry that he had died.. (Pg. 106).
Jamaica wanted her brother to die because she felt like he didn't learn anything from this experience.
2. "I did not feel strong, I felt anger, my anger was everything to me, and in my anger lay many things, mostly made up of feelings I could not understand, feelings I might not ever understand, feeelings that everyone who knows me understands with an understanding that I will never know, or that someone who has never met me at all would understand as if they had made up my feelings themselves" (Pg. 108-109).
This sentence reminds me of Jamaica perfectly because throughout the whole book I could never understand her true feelings. She came back to Antigua because of her brother's death and in the process she began to develop a relationship with many people she had given up on from the day she left Antigua.
3. "...these are my thought on his dying and on his life- and that is one of the reasons to outlive all the people who can have anything to say about you, not letting them have the last word) that I understood him again.." (Pg. 111).
Jamaica is saying that the only way to live your life meaningfully is to prove those people wrong that doubted you and show that you are worth more than they imagine.
This book is very interesting because I can never really understand the true meaning behind Jamaica. Sometimes it seems that she wants to improve the relationship with her mother or brothers but other times she just accepts the fact that nothing is going to change. The point of her leaving Antigua was to find another life, a better one, in the States. I do believe that she has found a better life but sometimes I don't understand why can't she treat her mom or brothers the same way she treats her husband and children. I do understand that death has a big impact on your life whether you want it to or not but I am still confused about the impact Devon's death had on her.
Precis:
Everyone dies, even the people that we can bear to be seperated from. There is no point in being depressed about someone's death because there is always someone else who had died before that person, and someone who will soon die. Death is a touchy subject but it needs to be discussed because people never mention the fact that when we die we may go to heaven, or hell but it all depends on what you believe. Everyone is going to die one day.
1. "...I did not love my brother, I did not like my brother, I was only so sorry that he had died.. (Pg. 106).
Jamaica wanted her brother to die because she felt like he didn't learn anything from this experience.
2. "I did not feel strong, I felt anger, my anger was everything to me, and in my anger lay many things, mostly made up of feelings I could not understand, feelings I might not ever understand, feeelings that everyone who knows me understands with an understanding that I will never know, or that someone who has never met me at all would understand as if they had made up my feelings themselves" (Pg. 108-109).
This sentence reminds me of Jamaica perfectly because throughout the whole book I could never understand her true feelings. She came back to Antigua because of her brother's death and in the process she began to develop a relationship with many people she had given up on from the day she left Antigua.
3. "...these are my thought on his dying and on his life- and that is one of the reasons to outlive all the people who can have anything to say about you, not letting them have the last word) that I understood him again.." (Pg. 111).
Jamaica is saying that the only way to live your life meaningfully is to prove those people wrong that doubted you and show that you are worth more than they imagine.
This book is very interesting because I can never really understand the true meaning behind Jamaica. Sometimes it seems that she wants to improve the relationship with her mother or brothers but other times she just accepts the fact that nothing is going to change. The point of her leaving Antigua was to find another life, a better one, in the States. I do believe that she has found a better life but sometimes I don't understand why can't she treat her mom or brothers the same way she treats her husband and children. I do understand that death has a big impact on your life whether you want it to or not but I am still confused about the impact Devon's death had on her.
HW 21b - Comments
T/W Groups
Team Name: Sparkles
For Michelle, "I enjoyed reading your response. Something that stuck out to me that you mentioned was "are there some common things we all do before we die?". I am also interested in finding out what people do when they are faced with death. I noticed some of the same things you noticed during the presentation, such as, the fact that Beth went to a Buddhist monk for advice on what to expect before her husband's death, and she began to spend as much time as possible with her husband and those were the best days of her life. I also agree that everyone wants/needs to leave some kind of imprint before we depart from the earth. I do believe that we take things for granted because there are many people that don't have what we have. Some people waste their lives doing meaningless things but we should be looking at everyday as a gift. We are being given a new opportunity to start over each day and it is important to take advantage of it before our time comes."
For Leah, "I enjoyed reading your blog because I felt like you expanded on one perspective Beth developed during the presentation, which was the fact that men are more resistant to medicine. I feel like it has something to do with their independence because men want to feel like they have power and that they can do everything themselves but that's not the case. We all need some kind of treatment and sometimes its the only kind the doctor/pharmacy can provide. I also like how you mentioned that Beth stayed with her husband through this ordeal and it was very inspiring because instead of deserting him because she didn't know what to do, she guided Erik through the process while trying to stay positive that everything was going to work out okay. I also agree that death is ignored by people because we don't even want to consider the possibility of what things will be like when we pass away."
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Older Reader (Friend in College)
Berenise said, "I love the blog and how you cared to share 8 points. This gives us an insight of the situation. Beth was a strong lady and wife. She was still with her husband as he was facing something so hard as cancer. She became his rock. When you spoke about when God doesn't answer ur prayers you don't loose faith, which is great sometimes God doesn't give us what we pray for because he is guiding us and giving us what we need. If he says NO to our prayer is because he has his best interest at heart for us. You expressing your thoughts shows your ready to speak about death and not because your over it but because You have peace within you. And you are so right about sharing our experiences good and bad. what we go through can help another person. I love this ....can't wait to read more."
Younger Reader (Sister of a friend)
Angela said,"Angela Flores said...
This is an interesting take on life. This sounds like the kind of person who refused to let the situation get the worst of her. I also agree that religion is that one thing people turn to when they need it the most, because it's a thing that won't ever change unless you change your views."
Team Name: Sparkles
For Michelle, "I enjoyed reading your response. Something that stuck out to me that you mentioned was "are there some common things we all do before we die?". I am also interested in finding out what people do when they are faced with death. I noticed some of the same things you noticed during the presentation, such as, the fact that Beth went to a Buddhist monk for advice on what to expect before her husband's death, and she began to spend as much time as possible with her husband and those were the best days of her life. I also agree that everyone wants/needs to leave some kind of imprint before we depart from the earth. I do believe that we take things for granted because there are many people that don't have what we have. Some people waste their lives doing meaningless things but we should be looking at everyday as a gift. We are being given a new opportunity to start over each day and it is important to take advantage of it before our time comes."
For Leah, "I enjoyed reading your blog because I felt like you expanded on one perspective Beth developed during the presentation, which was the fact that men are more resistant to medicine. I feel like it has something to do with their independence because men want to feel like they have power and that they can do everything themselves but that's not the case. We all need some kind of treatment and sometimes its the only kind the doctor/pharmacy can provide. I also like how you mentioned that Beth stayed with her husband through this ordeal and it was very inspiring because instead of deserting him because she didn't know what to do, she guided Erik through the process while trying to stay positive that everything was going to work out okay. I also agree that death is ignored by people because we don't even want to consider the possibility of what things will be like when we pass away."
----------------------------------------------
Older Reader (Friend in College)
Berenise said, "I love the blog and how you cared to share 8 points. This gives us an insight of the situation. Beth was a strong lady and wife. She was still with her husband as he was facing something so hard as cancer. She became his rock. When you spoke about when God doesn't answer ur prayers you don't loose faith, which is great sometimes God doesn't give us what we pray for because he is guiding us and giving us what we need. If he says NO to our prayer is because he has his best interest at heart for us. You expressing your thoughts shows your ready to speak about death and not because your over it but because You have peace within you. And you are so right about sharing our experiences good and bad. what we go through can help another person. I love this ....can't wait to read more."
Younger Reader (Sister of a friend)
Angela said,"Angela Flores said...
This is an interesting take on life. This sounds like the kind of person who refused to let the situation get the worst of her. I also agree that religion is that one thing people turn to when they need it the most, because it's a thing that won't ever change unless you change your views."
Saturday, December 11, 2010
HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid
Part 1
Précis:
Jamaica returned to her homeland, Antigua, because she found out her brother was sick. She was never very close to her family but in a way his disease was something that brought everyone together again. Jamaica’s relationship with her mother was strange because they couldn’t get along most of the time and Jamaica had always felt like her mother did things sometimes that were unnecessary; however her mother believed that she made no mistakes. Jamaica felt ambivalence towards her brother because she loved him but at the same time she wanted him to die because he was suffering from AIDS. Sometimes Jamaica felt like she loved him but she had never said those exact words. Watching her brother suffer from AIDS was interesting because he was isolated and his friends no longer talked to him, and you would think that since he had AIDS he would stop having sex but he continued. He even gave a woman AIDS because they had unprotected sex and he didn’t tell her about his disease. People’s reactions to hi illness were also interesting and sort of expected because once he told people he had AIDS they shunned him, but he was cool until they found out about it.
Quotes:
1. “I now only understand why it is that people lie about their past, why they say they are one thing other than the thing they really are, why they invent a self that bears no resemblance to who they really are, why anyone would want to feel as if he or she belongs to nothing, comes from no one, just fell out the sky, whole” (Pg. 13).
Sometimes the background we come from doesn’t make us want to tell people about our lives. We want to move past the things we’ve known all our lives because we think there’s something better. There is no point in being ashamed of where you come from because it shapes the person we’ve become today. There are some experiences we can share with other people that may help them through their situations.
2. “When I heard that my brother was sick and dying, the usual deliberation I allow myself whenever my family’s needs come up- should I let this affect me or not?-vanished. I felt like I was falling into a deep hole, but I did not try to stop myself from falling” (Pg. 20).
Jamaica didn’t want to feel anything for her sick brother because they weren’t that close but she was surprised that she actually felt something, sadness. She was feeling sad that this disease was affecting him, her little brother, and the one she used to change diapers for, before she went off to the U.S.
3. “Everyone I told that my brother had just died said how sorry they were, they would say this, “I’m sorry,” and those two words became so interesting to hear: everyone tried to say them with an emphasis that they hoped would convey the sincerity of their feelings; they were really sorry that this person they did not know was dead, that this person they would not have liked at all (I knew this, for they would have found him charming,)… (Pg. 105).
This quote made me question common practices in our society like why we say sorry for someone else’s death. I guess to some people that may be offensive because they never knew the person, so why apologize for their death.
This book does support my feelings about illness & dying because Jamaica’s mom tried to do everything she could to keep her son safe, and the rest of her children, but he still contracted the disease. At first it seemed like Jamaica felt that death was inevitable and it was something you could not avoid but as she spent more time with her brother she wanted to do everything to save him. She made sure he was able to spend extra time even though he was going to die by purchasing his medicine and doing everything she could so he could stay alive. I don’t know what I would do if someone in my family had contracted AIDS. I do believe I would want to know why they didn’t protect themselves and I would also spend as much time with them as I could. This book also helped me to realize that life is too short for holding grudges, Jamaica felt angry towards her mom but her mom believed that in order to be a good mom your children must hate you half the time, because before you know it that person can be gone.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
HW 21 - Expert #1
- When Beth and her family found out that Erik was diagnosed with kidney cancer they couldn’t believe it because they wondered how this could happen to such a great guy.
- While Erik was going through various treatments, and as his condition worsened, still their family refused to talk about death.
- Beth’s family members helped Beth around the house so she wouldn’t have to work, or do laundry. She was able to spend more time with Erik and those days were the happiest moments of her life.
- While Erik was in the hospital she didn’t want other people caring for her husband and looking at him as another cancer patient. Beth wanted to treat him like a human begin not a cancer patient because he was still the same but he was suffering from an illness.
- Beth turned to a Buddhist monk on advice on what to look for when Erik’s last days would be. The Buddhist told her that first he would stop talking, then he would have hallucinations, and finally he would stop eating altogether.
- When Erik died there was stillness in the room and in his body and she called Evan to come and see his father. She knew that he was going to die and she didn’t want to sleep because she didn’t want to miss “it”.
- Erik fought death with everything he had. He refused to give up on life he went to many different doctors and took a lot of medication to reduce the illness.
- Beth mentioned that we should never pass up the opportunity to tell someone you love them because you never know when any day is going to be your last.
Something that I found interesting was that she mentioned that while in distress she turned to a Buddhist monk for guidance on what she should do. Although I am not a Buddhist I do understand that we turn to religion because we need something to hold onto and figure out if what’s happening is part of the plan for our lives. Many times I pray for a miracle but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. It doesn’t mean I lose faith in God, it just makes me happy that I have some guidance in my life because if not I would be a lost soul. I have never personally experienced death at my age but I experienced two deaths in my childhood, my great-grandmother and my brother, but as I get older I am thankful for the opportunities I have to meet new people and give them advice and have them do the same for me. In our lives as we grow it is important to share our experiences with people because we may be facing the same struggles someone else has faced before and we may take heed to their advice before we end up going down a path of destruction.
It is important to develop relationships with people because we never know when any day might be our last. Beth talked about the importance of giving someone a compliment because for some people it is really difficult to compliment others. The smallest gestures may brighten someone’s day. Another important idea is that life is too short to hold onto grudges and dislike we may have for other people. I move past the mistakes I’ve made and I allow those mistakes to shape me.
Beth’s presentation sparked more interest in people’s experiences with death. While Beth was speaking I was surprised that she didn’t become emotional because her husband’s death took place only three years ago. I thought that referring to old wounds would open up old feelings and that would trigger feelings Beth felt when she was with her husband before he passed. I am also interested in what different religions believe should be done with the actual care of the dead bodies.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
HW 19 - Family Perspectives on Illness & Dying
Illness & Dying is a very hard topic for everyone because we never want to lose people’s existence in our lives. I believe that when we die we go to a better place, which is heaven. I have never had any experiences with death besides when my grandmother and baby brother died but I believe I was too young to comprehend the extent of each situation. I am not as afraid of death as I was when I was younger, because now I have come to realize that everyone has the chance to live their lives, whether they use that time to fulfill a purpose or not, everyone has one life to live. Some people die young and some people die old but everyone is going to die one day, the most important thing is how we live our lives. Maybe even how we find happiness.
When I asked my mother about her experiences with Illness & Dying I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it. My mother expressed that she went through a traumatic time when her grandmother (my great-grandmother) died from lung cancer. She smoked a lot and as her difficulties worsened my mother had hoped things would get better. The death of her grandmother was a difficult situation to face, but she managed to get through it. A couple of years after that my baby brother was born on the couch at my grandmother’s house. We were devastated when we found out that my brother had died because he developed an infection. After all the deaths that my mom has faced she would rather not talk too much about them because it makes her sad. She also believes that when we die, we leave our earthly bodies and our souls depart for heaven.
Everyone handles death in different ways; we may approach death knowing that everyone has to die but the fear of when death will come leaves us questioning our existence. I do not believe that the fear of death should make people want to fulfill their lives and do everything they set out to do, but I believe that we are living in the now and we need to live our lives for the present.
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