HW 32 - Thoughts following illness & dying unit

There are many things that can be said about the nightmarish practices of our culture concerning illness and dying but the most nightmarish aspect of our cultures practices around illness and dying would have to be how health insurers treat patients like a game. A game where the patient almost always looses, and is arguably the most horrific aspect of our culture's practices around illness and dying. Dominant social practices around illness and dying can be connected to dominant social practices around food in our culture because as Americans, we tend to eat unhealthy and live unhealthy but arguably because of huge corporations that brainwash us in to thinking what we are doing is right when it is actually wrong. Cheap food=large expenses in surgeries and medicines to help us live (diabetes etc..) which leads me to think, if we spend so little to get sick then why must it cost so much to get better? Has living become a luxury?

HW 31 - Comments 3

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Christian
-Your connections to your perspective on illness and dying and living with a disease to your cousins perspective + Morrie's perspective were really great. The connections brought me in to a world where i live with a life-threatening disease and made me think how i would live and take care of myself. It is clear that you attacked this idea from all angles and your insight on this topic is clear.

Great post

Dean

-The alignment with assignment was a little off here, but you still made it clear enough for me to know what your main idea was. Your chart was a good way to back up your argument although i don't think you needed to include the information from the chart in your last paragraph. Instead, you could have expanded more on other surgeries compared to the U.S and other nations. I still enjoyed your post and have gained more insight on the subject since my subject was very similar.

Great post

Max

-Your post was very insightful and gave a clear understanding of your topic. I found it interesting that the average life expectancy of a person living with aids to be 24 years. As you stated, that seems like a good amount of time to be living with what is considered a horrible disease. Your perspective on illness and dying was present throughout the post and was a good way to connect back to your initial point.

Great post

Alex

-Your approach to this post was very different and interesting. I like how you went in to depth of how the topic of suicide can be separated in to two parts: mentally and physically. Your paragraph on the before and after of the situation painted a vivid picture in my head. You went in to further detail on the possible cause of this attempted suicide before you knew the girls intentions which was insightful. Besides the post connecting more to the assignment, it was very good.

Great post

HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

For this project, i decided to explore the consequence of people being denied health insurance in America and the messed up system we have today. When watching sicko in class, the main reason this idea was put in my head was because in the beginning of the film Michael Moore conducts several interviews of Americans with health insurance and without to show how people in both situations handle it. Although a very biased continuation of interviews they all seemed to focus around the main idea that even if you have health insurance in America, as long as you have what the hospitals call a ''pre-existing condition'' your request for a life-saving surgery may most likely become denied.

A text from class that could be optionally read called Sick by Jonathan Cohn, discusses the roots of health insurance and how the system got to be the way it is today. Cohn writes: "..economics alone can't explain why the self-employed and people in small businesses (who face a similar situation) end up struggling to find affordable health insurance" (31). In class, a woman named Beth Burnette told her story of her final hours spent with her husband. She explained that it was at first a difficult task to find a doctor that would actually show special care towards her husband, but luckily found somebody to help her. She helped me gain insight on this aspect of illness and dying, that sometimes people just get lucky

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. He claims that he was flown to Stamford for extra care, and that it took a while for anyone to pay any special attention to his situation. My family friend and i discussed this idea of being lucky in a hospital, it's horrible to think that health insurers/doctors may sometimes think of your life as a gamble. They can do whatever they want, and honestly, your health is less money for them. Why should they be so concerned? the thought is kind of sickening.

In a recent new york times article called: When Insurers Put Profits Between Doctor and Patient by Pauline W. Chen, Chen recalls a story back in late 2007 of Nataline Sarkisyan who was a 17 year old girl in desperate need of a liver transplant. Doctors said that if the transplant went through, Nataline would have a 65 percent chance of living. Nataline was put on a waiting list, but even if she received the transplant her fate rested on her health insurance company: Cigna, who denied Natalines request because the treatment was "experimental". As Natalines story started to draw more attention, Cigna started to become more concerned with the look of their company. They reversed the decision, but it was too late and Natalie passed away. Wendell Potter, who has been in the buisness for about 20 years discussed with Chen how the situation was handled. Potter (who was the head of corporate communications at Cigna) explained that Cigna was concerned about Natalines situation mainly for political reasons, and made a huge effort to fight off protesters and articles claiming that Nataline would have gotten the care she needed if she lived in somewhere like Canada or France. Potter was fed up with the situation, he left corporate relations six months after Natalines death claiming that he had "sold his soul" (2).

From this project, i gained an insight on a topic i consider very essential to learn. We should all know who is handling our health, and what they are doing so we can stand up and have our own voice and not just let powerful companies (such as Cigna) get away with greed. This aspect shows that dominant social practices of illness and dying in our culture mostly revolve around money and greedy actions of CEO's and heads of companies who are only concerned for themselves, and that although people have tried to make a change in the past couple of years, nothing too significant has changed. This subject matters a great deal because it is not just a subject, our lives are obviously necessary and we should take more action to fix our current health care system.

HW 29 - Reading and noting basic materials

Facing Terminal Illness

When facing a fatal illness, pulling through the whole situation is gruesome without loosing your mind (sometimes literally). Although the dominant emotions here are fear and sadness, sometimes this can bring a relationship closer together. We see this in tuesdays with Morrie, where Mitch Albom tells of his experiences with his old college professor: Morrie. Morrie and Mitch always had a close relationship, but after college things change when Mitch becomes a hot-shot sportscaster. When randomly watching tv one day, Mitch sees Morrie doing an interview during his final months because of a terrible disease called ALS. This brings Mitch and Morrie closer through nostalgic memories and good times. Sometimes when close ones we know and love are facing a terminal illness, we often deny it. When Beth Burnette shared her story of her husbands pulling through with a terminal illness, she recalled that although her and her family knew they didn't like to "talk about it".

Paying for medical care – historically and now –

Insurance in america was once just an idea, now it is somewhat of a ponsy scheme for ceo's of rich companies that run these hospitals. When watching Sicko by Michael Moore, Moore states that the reason health care in America today is dominantly looked at as messed up, is because of a plan hatched by at the time president: Richard Nixon. John Ehrlichman (who was Nixons assistant) came to Nixon with the idea of these "HMOs" (Health Maintenance Organizations). The main purpose of these HMOs was to gain profit for the company CEOs rather than actually helping the people. Struggle for health care hasn't always been a problem, but even with the evidence it is almost unexplainable how it got in the state it is in today. In SICK by Jonathan Cohn, even Cohn states: "Still, economics alone can't explain why the self-employed and people in small businesses (who face a similar situation) end up struggling to find affordable health insurance" (31)

The process of dying

The process of dying is not always easy, but we all go through this process eventually. Birth and death are what every human being eventually experiences. The variables of the process of dying and facing a terminal illness are very similar, but the process of dying includes looking more at how the person is dying not the people affected by it. Beth Burnette explained the process was at first not horrible, just sad. Then later in the process when there were imminent signs of dying, there was a lot more attention towards Beths husband with more mobility (moving to different hospitals etc.) After searching for help Beth Burnette and her family found a doctor that was great-full enough to help them. She admits that finding the right type of help was not easy. In A Time For Dying Sharon R. Kaufman writes: "The hospital is a place of disconnection. When a death is near, it is a place of bureaucratic logic without logical purpose, a place where everyone muddles through regulated-yet-improvised, routine-yet-disquieting arrangement of medical algorithms, professional relations, and strategies for getting patients through the system" (28)

HW 28 - Comments 2

Dean
This was a very different an interesting post than others i have seen. You decided to take the perspective of someone random but well known and gave it your own twist. Although this was different and good, you could have used more insight in your writing. Why is it that he is still performing even at such an old age of 84? Doesn't this relate to a some-what denial of dying displayed in our culture? The alignment to this assignment was slightly off, but other than that i enjoyed your entry.

Good Post
-Harry

Harry,

I thought that your post was very interesting. I liked how you interviewed a person who had had a stroke because it is one of the biggest illnesses in America (after cancer). Since they are so common we can compare it to other people that we know who have also had strokes. When I read your post I started to think about Captain Phil from the TV show Deadliest Catch. I noticed some similarities and differences between them. One of the biggest differences is that Phil had multiple strokes and he died from them. I agree with you when you said that some of your questions could have been a bit more insightful. You could have explained more about the event of the stroke by saying what caused it and how it has affected his body and his life.

Great Post

Dean

Christian

Your post was very insightful. After reading this, i had a clear understanding of what disease your 13 year old relative had as well as how he went about it and felt. From the part about his behavior in school as well as outside of school really provided my thoughts a picture that was very well painted. It is clear your 13 year old relative is strong and your connections to Morries philosophy from tuesdays with Morrie are very relatable and relevant. Other than one or two grammar mistakes this was a very good post.

Harry

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Harry,
You made some very good observations regarding our good friend's recent stroke,and his reaction to his treatment. I wish that you had delved a little deeper into his subsequent recovery and his present state.
Rich

HW 27 - Visiting an unwell person

For this assignment, i visited a family friend who shall remain anonymous. This family friend recently had a stroke. When talking to him, i noticed that his approach to being unwell seemed subtle. I visited him in his home and asked him about the whole situation. He told me the stroke happened out of nowhere while he was sleeping on thanksgiving day, and the next thing he knew he woke up unable to even put his pants on. This was all happening in california for the record.

I then asked him (curious to know more about the american health care system) how the hospital treated the situation. First word: horrible. He told me that because it was the holidays they can hold him from when he got there (friday) to tuesday. Luckily, there was one doctor there in the hospital affiliated with stamford that just happened to be walking by the exam room who heard of my friends situation and flew him to stamford for extra help. Once treated, he figured the worst place to be was a hospital no matter where he was, so he left the hospital after three days of care.

To reflect on the whole incident, i asked him what he overall thought of the way the situation was handled. He told me that while although the doctors in california weren't helpful enough, at least they sent him to a place that could handle his situation. 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.

After i was done interviewing my family friend, i noticed my questions could have been a bit more insightful and my reactions to this man's story were as subtle as the way the story was told. When he told me about his experience the only thing he told me that surprised me was that somebody actually went out of their way to help my family friend.