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)