January 22, 2011
Hw # 32
In America its citizens have to pay to survive, and pay to die. I have been dying the second I was born. Since I was little I was exposed to a lot of deaths of people I loved around me, I believe this has subconsciously (until it surfaced where the death was directly connected to me) made me aware of the logistics of the life circle. There is no point in fighting the inevitable. I was fully aware of this before we started this unit, but I believe this unit open my eyes to realizing the horrendous part of death is not the death itself rather the industrial atrocities that manipulated it in our society. In the perspective death is even a release from the cruelties of our structures of power, perhaps this is why the moments before death are usually horrendous experiences because it enables the life to let go? This unit has helped me come to terms with reality, that there is injustice and cruelty in the world since the beginning of our time until the end, though it manifest indefinitely. Our history seems to be a constant game of fighting the evils, to encounter the next, "beyond mountains there are more mountains". The question is which infinite (during a lifetime) game do you want to play? We have focused a lot upon the fact that time is finite and is constantly dying and what it would be like to be in "heaven" or a certain moment of eternity? I think we neglected the fact that even though many things are constantly changing ultimately we deal with the same predicament and rules forever, until we die and reach neutrality, another formation of particles, or the whirlwind of universal energy or the thing none of us have ever thought of.
January 18, 2011
hw #32 - comments
casey:
Eloise,
I'm so very impressed! This post is fantastic. It addresses important relevant problems within the realm of illness and dying, such as the never ending intentions of oncologists and other medical personnel to keep the bodies alive, the lack of homeopathic remedies in the hospital (like art, laughter, proper diet, yoga), the lack of simple comforts such as fresh air, windows, and privacy, etc. My favorite part is the description of your uncle dying in the first paragraph (perhaps because it depicted something I've never seen?) Your ideas and explorations are all over the place - from your uncle to oncologists to art in hospitals to Tracy Kidder to various interviews. I love your obvious passion for finding information, although it is a little overwhelming to read. Perhaps in the future you could choose the point of each paragraph, and stick with it concisely. Your interview with Lorelei was a nice touch; it made the idea of doctors more than just a white coat and stilted agenda. well done!
evan:
Eloise,
WOOOOAAHH!!!! You really went all out on this one! :)
You begin with a very heart-throbbing tale that I am sure was difficult and took much bravery to write. Then you go on to explain in detail a very interesting idea about 'how what is deemed important' and by whom, which directly challenged the dominant social practice of leaving fate and decisions in the hands of doctors.
Then the third paragraph. Or I should say the BEST paragraph! You bring an onslaught of insights and claims (which are backed up with excellent evidence) forth and the entire idea of the separation of the physical, social and emotional elements is a very interesting one. There are so many quotable parts in this paragraph, that I simply cannot choose any single one to highlight, so I will just go ahead and say pretty much EVERYTHING in that paragraph was the best.
The focus on arts and yoga in the hospital environment was very significant to me personally, having worked on art with hospice patients over many years. I wish you could've gotten to this in more detail in your presentation! Your narrative on Sandra was also engaging and kept me invested, and you conclude nicely.
If there's any room for improvement, I guess it'd just be to trim the less excellent writing from the already outstanding stuff. I can see you put a lot of effort into this, and if you perhaps kept everything a bit shorter (almost a precis of each paragraph but not quite as short), you'd have a very strong, short post that wouldn't take 30 minutes to read :)
Evan
__________________________________________________________________________
to casey:
"in order to feel that they have purpose and meaning, teenaged males need to feel that they are making a lasting difference, whether in someone’s life, or via a monumental accomplishment." I thought that this was the quote that withsheld the deepest amount of insight because you are clearly analyzing the results of your data. To make this point stronger you could have elaborated upon what other reasons may cause this, and why you believe in the theories of Epicurs and then stated your evidence. I also think you could have made this point stronger by analyzing your counter evidence (females) and why you believe they had the results they did.
to evan:
ok I am going to start with the negative and leave on a positive note.
I don't think you answered your own question as to why we want to live to a 100, or at least did not make it clear.
"I found it particularly interesting that something as simple as a sense of purpose could be considered a virtual life-extender, especially considering just how direct the other factors are toward maintaining health (keeping active, staying stress-free, being well supplied with care, a fixed diet, etc.)."I thought that this one of the most insightful quotes because you seem to sum up what makes a optimal life. I think you could have expanded on this point and make it stronger by relating to how this could be an effect of the social practices and if this is seen in our culture.
Eloise,
I'm so very impressed! This post is fantastic. It addresses important relevant problems within the realm of illness and dying, such as the never ending intentions of oncologists and other medical personnel to keep the bodies alive, the lack of homeopathic remedies in the hospital (like art, laughter, proper diet, yoga), the lack of simple comforts such as fresh air, windows, and privacy, etc. My favorite part is the description of your uncle dying in the first paragraph (perhaps because it depicted something I've never seen?) Your ideas and explorations are all over the place - from your uncle to oncologists to art in hospitals to Tracy Kidder to various interviews. I love your obvious passion for finding information, although it is a little overwhelming to read. Perhaps in the future you could choose the point of each paragraph, and stick with it concisely. Your interview with Lorelei was a nice touch; it made the idea of doctors more than just a white coat and stilted agenda. well done!
evan:
Eloise,
WOOOOAAHH!!!! You really went all out on this one! :)
You begin with a very heart-throbbing tale that I am sure was difficult and took much bravery to write. Then you go on to explain in detail a very interesting idea about 'how what is deemed important' and by whom, which directly challenged the dominant social practice of leaving fate and decisions in the hands of doctors.
Then the third paragraph. Or I should say the BEST paragraph! You bring an onslaught of insights and claims (which are backed up with excellent evidence) forth and the entire idea of the separation of the physical, social and emotional elements is a very interesting one. There are so many quotable parts in this paragraph, that I simply cannot choose any single one to highlight, so I will just go ahead and say pretty much EVERYTHING in that paragraph was the best.
The focus on arts and yoga in the hospital environment was very significant to me personally, having worked on art with hospice patients over many years. I wish you could've gotten to this in more detail in your presentation! Your narrative on Sandra was also engaging and kept me invested, and you conclude nicely.
If there's any room for improvement, I guess it'd just be to trim the less excellent writing from the already outstanding stuff. I can see you put a lot of effort into this, and if you perhaps kept everything a bit shorter (almost a precis of each paragraph but not quite as short), you'd have a very strong, short post that wouldn't take 30 minutes to read :)
Evan
__________________________________________________________________________
to casey:
"in order to feel that they have purpose and meaning, teenaged males need to feel that they are making a lasting difference, whether in someone’s life, or via a monumental accomplishment." I thought that this was the quote that withsheld the deepest amount of insight because you are clearly analyzing the results of your data. To make this point stronger you could have elaborated upon what other reasons may cause this, and why you believe in the theories of Epicurs and then stated your evidence. I also think you could have made this point stronger by analyzing your counter evidence (females) and why you believe they had the results they did.
to evan:
ok I am going to start with the negative and leave on a positive note.
I don't think you answered your own question as to why we want to live to a 100, or at least did not make it clear.
"I found it particularly interesting that something as simple as a sense of purpose could be considered a virtual life-extender, especially considering just how direct the other factors are toward maintaining health (keeping active, staying stress-free, being well supplied with care, a fixed diet, etc.)."I thought that this one of the most insightful quotes because you seem to sum up what makes a optimal life. I think you could have expanded on this point and make it stronger by relating to how this could be an effect of the social practices and if this is seen in our culture.
January 17, 2011
Hw 30
My project was based on wanting to hear what my homo-sapient brothers and sisters had to say about their hospitalizations, what effected their decisions, how they felt about their stay, and what could be improved about the quality of their stay. It is preposterous that our American people have the resources and knowledge on our land to provide exceptional care to many, but are ultimately held back by MONEY AND POWER. There are countries around the world that don’t even have a sufficient amount of water and food to fill their stomachs. “She noted a distinctive smell inside the crowded huts. “Not smelly socks stinky, but the close smell of people in poverty. Many hungry people breathing.”” I recently had the experience of having my uncle hospitalized for multiple kinds of cancer and aids, My close friend Lorelei stated “Garry was a sinking ship with more holes than there were people to help bail him out.” he died in the hospital determined to fight to the end. This was at his great fear of dying, and un-willingness to let go. His body was shutting down and his brain was the last to follow. He died in a white sterile room over powered by the energy of the ones he loved surrounding him. His experience was one of a kind, in the last 2 days his spirit was there but his body was to involved with shutting down so their were solely spurts of slight speech and eye contact slowly reducing as time went on. He heard phone calls on end of people telling him their goodbyes, and last expressions of love. These communications continued as he slowly drifted away from our reality into the unknown. This introduced me to the dominant social practice of dying in the hospital, and brought me to the questioning of what is a patients right in the hospital, and how does the provider of the care infringe it?
In America doctors are of high prestige, they have been through years of college and have the highest degree possible to attain. In their years of education they are pumped with the importance of analysis of data and body. They are enthralled with their scientific capability, and honor given by the people to save lives. The question is what do we qualify as life, and who answers this in a hospital? It seems, our definition of life is conciseness when we can interact with one another and be aware of the earth’s surroundings. I believe this is a false judgment because it is solely based upon what we can perceive and when we can no longer figure what the person is thinking or feeling we question their life. We have delved upon this impossible determination because of our customs with western medicine. In Garry’s case he had an oncologist who at the end kept pushing for curative treatment without being more honest about his prognosis and simply help him attain more quality of life. Again dependant on what the patient and doctor determine as quality of life, obliviously in Garry & his Oncologist’s opinion it was fighting for survival. In hospitals doctors are too concerned with the goal of saving lives that they’re oblivious to the desire of the patient. They do not provide them with the options available until them deem it of importance. This of course should be expected because in all the academia they receive they never get “bed side manners”. This in itself is a contradictory request to want respect of emotion from doctors because when it comes down to it what is more important a doctor that respects ones desires, or knows how to cure your maladies? I interviewed Lorelei who is a clinical oncology social worker, whose position is to help patients hear all the different options and give them their rights. In the interview Lorelei stated (please click link interview qoute) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM3INqgmN2A. Doctors are not good at throwing in the towel. According to a study conducted at Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City “overall cost savings generated by its complex care management program—as well as the extremely high rates of acceptance, patient satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the program to others and positive contributions to quality of life. All are at an 80 percent level or above.” Palliative care saves money (the big plus for the elite money guzzler) and extends the lives of patients, but doctors are not about it. In America doctors have a god-like sense to them they are worshipped in our society of advancement and knowledge, they are given high paying salaries they are head of their department, people rely on them with their lives, and they get special license plates.
When one is admitted to a hospital one is being placed in a bubble from the resources of communication and knowledge one can receive normally, it becomes fed to the patient from a singular source. I believe we separate the physical, the social and emotional in the process of illness and dying and this is strongly exemplified in the hospital setting, and western medicine. In hospital intuitions’ patients are provided with allopathic treatment, aid in being washed, breathing, defecating, urinating, cleaning surroundings, cooking and so forth. This is it. Hospitals do not provide patients with different forms of physical interactions, meditation, walks, yoga, socialization with other patients. “There are many studies conducted on the role of Yoga on the cancer patients, which show that Yoga not only helps to reduce psychological stress, anxiety, depression but it also improves mood of the patient, enhances the immunity, helps to heal the wound of the surgery faster and also to reduce the complications of chemo/radiotherapy.” There is no mental stimulation available, a library, a game room; there are only Televisions to let the patients lay in their beds as they struggle for survival let their brains become mush. All of these possibilities are obliviously within the limitations of the patients well being but when sick there are always moments of well being and chance of mobility and interactions. There is no place for patients to go outside and get in touch with nature, breath fresh air. There is no place for patients to be creative, make art, play an instrument, laugh (according to Lorelei her favorite medicine is laughter). According to the Society for Arts in Health Care “the arts create safer, more supportive, and more functional environments in healthcare facilities. From architectural design to art on the walls, from access to natural lighting to the inclusion of nature through landscaping and healing gardens, the physical environment has a significant impact on relieving patient and caregiver stress, improving health outcomes, enhancing patient safety and overall quality of care, and reducing costs. The physical environment also plays an important role in improving the health and safety of staff, reducing errors in providing care while increasing effectiveness and job satisfaction.” There is not even color or art in patient rooms. Most shockingly no healthy food is provided for patients. All that is given is frozen TV dinners consisting of the worst mass-produced food. How is ones body suppose to become healthy if the particles constantly being replaced throughout ones body are not of rich elements. Hospitals also makes it very hard for family to surround their loved ones and provide them with the support they need, there are not many facilities for the family, not even reclining chairs or simple things as such. Garry use to complain that the one communal room for the patients, with again only a television would be hogged up by family and STAFF members.
This is the amount of arts in hospitals:
This is the effect of art in hospitals:
Sandra L. has been a practicing nurse for the last 34 years and of the last 14 has been a visiting home nurse. According to Sandra L. Not all health insures cover for all health providers so when rushed to the hospital for an emergency one does not know if they will cover your insurance or not. When you are rushed into the emergency room they make you sign a document stating that you will be responsible for all bills you receive during your stay. This is a trap because anyone who comes in the emergency room is signing this contract out of distress. So when your in your room and your taken for diagnostic after diagnostic the doctors just assume that your insurance covers the test and does not inform you of the price and ask for your approval. Next thing you know all these bills are coming in. A right that is dismissed when one is in the hospital is ones PRIVACY, anyone can come up to your room to visit if they attain a pass, no one calls to confirm with the patient, doctors, nurses, house keeping, meal, transport, and blood draw rarely does anyone ever knock on the door or announce their arrival.
Irma is an 89-year-old woman who just survived a heart attack and was discharged from the hospital and placed in a nursing home until the paper works of providing her with a home aid are sorted out. Throughout the interview she just kept saying she wanted to go home, to go outside. No one in the nursing home would listen to her and help her out they all dismissed her. She was in the half of the room with no window she felt trapped; they would not even let her keep the door open. She just wants to go home. Anne a woman who was hospitalized for open-heart surgery just wanted fresh air. Diana was admitted to the hospital and was in critical care for 14 days she stated “really hard, really tough I felt like in jail, being stuck down their, feeling so isolated”
How are patients supposed to get better if they are emotionally distraught? I have not addressed the case of mental institutions in my project (which I wish would have been my focus) but those patients are basically incarcerated and are not free to leave, held their based on our social standards we cast them away and forget them. In the book Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder is writing about a doctor, Farmer’s ideas “Of all the worlds errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hidings away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people cannot care, erase, and not remember.””
Another major issue for patients seems to be the lack of attention they are given, no one seems to listen to the help they need and they lie their helpless if they are not lucky to have family to advocate for them. After all they are paying their lives away. The following links are to media quote (excerpts from my interviews):
Sandy (nurse of 34 years) also recently hospitalized for heart problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TRUcjMfdMo
Sam(I am) hospitalized for a hernia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHtU5HlWKa8
Anne hospitalized for cardiac arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKUtOjMCj0M
Bobby hospitalized for cancer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURcNTLU2TA
"Arts in healthcare can benefit communities by engaging people in arts programs aimed at promoting prevention and wellness activities and communicating health information to improve knowledge. For students in medical and other healthcare fields, the arts can enhance skills and improve observational, diagnostic, and empathic abilities. Through art, medical professionals can understand patients in a different way-and connect with them on a more humanizing level.”
In Haiti they do not have the privilege of hospitals, thus many of the people rely on their religion to cure them. This leads them to distrust allopathic medicine’s capability of curing them. Leading them to having to overcome their doubts when given the opportunity to receive care. In the United States we see health as simply taking medicine and eradicating the problem within. We don’t seem to take the approach of changing ones diet, getting physiological help, improving physical activity, or changing our surroundings. Instead we go to a building and receive the care, which in our society is logical because it is the only resource that provides aid in emergencies. So whether one has disbelief in allopathic medicine, or one vows by it, what is the happy medium?
My project matters and I enjoyed it because I gave people the opportunity to express their thoughts in a manner that would be shared with others. It is continuing the process of speaking with our fellow people about our discontent and voicing it so that we can slowly strive for change. I feel pride from hearing people sharing their experiences and getting to analysis the depth of the problems going on everyday. Irma the poor 89 year old confined in a nursing home daunting the day she will breathe fresh air. Was once an advocate for the elderly and was part of an organization Single Point of Entry to help sow their rights, and now here she is helpless. At the end of the interview she was very concerned as to what I was doing with this information, where it would be going, was it going to make a change? So I just hope that this information is a cry of outrage for these people, especially Irma whom is still confined, and does her justice. Multiple voices are louder than one voice.
Bibliography
"State-of-the-Art in Palliative Care Management."Promoting Excellence. Promoting Excellence, n.d. Web. 17 Jan 2011..
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains.1st.United Sates of America: Random House Publishing Group,2004.Print
"Nature cure and yoga for cancer." Natural Health Cure.Natural Health Cure, Web. 17 Jan 2011..
Arts in Healthcare." Society for the Arts in Health Care.Society for the Arts in Health Care, n.d. Web. 17 Jan 2011..
In America doctors are of high prestige, they have been through years of college and have the highest degree possible to attain. In their years of education they are pumped with the importance of analysis of data and body. They are enthralled with their scientific capability, and honor given by the people to save lives. The question is what do we qualify as life, and who answers this in a hospital? It seems, our definition of life is conciseness when we can interact with one another and be aware of the earth’s surroundings. I believe this is a false judgment because it is solely based upon what we can perceive and when we can no longer figure what the person is thinking or feeling we question their life. We have delved upon this impossible determination because of our customs with western medicine. In Garry’s case he had an oncologist who at the end kept pushing for curative treatment without being more honest about his prognosis and simply help him attain more quality of life. Again dependant on what the patient and doctor determine as quality of life, obliviously in Garry & his Oncologist’s opinion it was fighting for survival. In hospitals doctors are too concerned with the goal of saving lives that they’re oblivious to the desire of the patient. They do not provide them with the options available until them deem it of importance. This of course should be expected because in all the academia they receive they never get “bed side manners”. This in itself is a contradictory request to want respect of emotion from doctors because when it comes down to it what is more important a doctor that respects ones desires, or knows how to cure your maladies? I interviewed Lorelei who is a clinical oncology social worker, whose position is to help patients hear all the different options and give them their rights. In the interview Lorelei stated (please click link interview qoute) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM3INqgmN2A. Doctors are not good at throwing in the towel. According to a study conducted at Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City “overall cost savings generated by its complex care management program—as well as the extremely high rates of acceptance, patient satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the program to others and positive contributions to quality of life. All are at an 80 percent level or above.” Palliative care saves money (the big plus for the elite money guzzler) and extends the lives of patients, but doctors are not about it. In America doctors have a god-like sense to them they are worshipped in our society of advancement and knowledge, they are given high paying salaries they are head of their department, people rely on them with their lives, and they get special license plates.
When one is admitted to a hospital one is being placed in a bubble from the resources of communication and knowledge one can receive normally, it becomes fed to the patient from a singular source. I believe we separate the physical, the social and emotional in the process of illness and dying and this is strongly exemplified in the hospital setting, and western medicine. In hospital intuitions’ patients are provided with allopathic treatment, aid in being washed, breathing, defecating, urinating, cleaning surroundings, cooking and so forth. This is it. Hospitals do not provide patients with different forms of physical interactions, meditation, walks, yoga, socialization with other patients. “There are many studies conducted on the role of Yoga on the cancer patients, which show that Yoga not only helps to reduce psychological stress, anxiety, depression but it also improves mood of the patient, enhances the immunity, helps to heal the wound of the surgery faster and also to reduce the complications of chemo/radiotherapy.” There is no mental stimulation available, a library, a game room; there are only Televisions to let the patients lay in their beds as they struggle for survival let their brains become mush. All of these possibilities are obliviously within the limitations of the patients well being but when sick there are always moments of well being and chance of mobility and interactions. There is no place for patients to go outside and get in touch with nature, breath fresh air. There is no place for patients to be creative, make art, play an instrument, laugh (according to Lorelei her favorite medicine is laughter). According to the Society for Arts in Health Care “the arts create safer, more supportive, and more functional environments in healthcare facilities. From architectural design to art on the walls, from access to natural lighting to the inclusion of nature through landscaping and healing gardens, the physical environment has a significant impact on relieving patient and caregiver stress, improving health outcomes, enhancing patient safety and overall quality of care, and reducing costs. The physical environment also plays an important role in improving the health and safety of staff, reducing errors in providing care while increasing effectiveness and job satisfaction.” There is not even color or art in patient rooms. Most shockingly no healthy food is provided for patients. All that is given is frozen TV dinners consisting of the worst mass-produced food. How is ones body suppose to become healthy if the particles constantly being replaced throughout ones body are not of rich elements. Hospitals also makes it very hard for family to surround their loved ones and provide them with the support they need, there are not many facilities for the family, not even reclining chairs or simple things as such. Garry use to complain that the one communal room for the patients, with again only a television would be hogged up by family and STAFF members.
This is the amount of arts in hospitals:
This is the effect of art in hospitals:
Sandra L. has been a practicing nurse for the last 34 years and of the last 14 has been a visiting home nurse. According to Sandra L. Not all health insures cover for all health providers so when rushed to the hospital for an emergency one does not know if they will cover your insurance or not. When you are rushed into the emergency room they make you sign a document stating that you will be responsible for all bills you receive during your stay. This is a trap because anyone who comes in the emergency room is signing this contract out of distress. So when your in your room and your taken for diagnostic after diagnostic the doctors just assume that your insurance covers the test and does not inform you of the price and ask for your approval. Next thing you know all these bills are coming in. A right that is dismissed when one is in the hospital is ones PRIVACY, anyone can come up to your room to visit if they attain a pass, no one calls to confirm with the patient, doctors, nurses, house keeping, meal, transport, and blood draw rarely does anyone ever knock on the door or announce their arrival.
Irma is an 89-year-old woman who just survived a heart attack and was discharged from the hospital and placed in a nursing home until the paper works of providing her with a home aid are sorted out. Throughout the interview she just kept saying she wanted to go home, to go outside. No one in the nursing home would listen to her and help her out they all dismissed her. She was in the half of the room with no window she felt trapped; they would not even let her keep the door open. She just wants to go home. Anne a woman who was hospitalized for open-heart surgery just wanted fresh air. Diana was admitted to the hospital and was in critical care for 14 days she stated “really hard, really tough I felt like in jail, being stuck down their, feeling so isolated”
How are patients supposed to get better if they are emotionally distraught? I have not addressed the case of mental institutions in my project (which I wish would have been my focus) but those patients are basically incarcerated and are not free to leave, held their based on our social standards we cast them away and forget them. In the book Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder is writing about a doctor, Farmer’s ideas “Of all the worlds errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hidings away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people cannot care, erase, and not remember.””
Another major issue for patients seems to be the lack of attention they are given, no one seems to listen to the help they need and they lie their helpless if they are not lucky to have family to advocate for them. After all they are paying their lives away. The following links are to media quote (excerpts from my interviews):
Sandy (nurse of 34 years) also recently hospitalized for heart problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TRUcjMfdMo
Sam(I am) hospitalized for a hernia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHtU5HlWKa8
Anne hospitalized for cardiac arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKUtOjMCj0M
Bobby hospitalized for cancer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURcNTLU2TA
"Arts in healthcare can benefit communities by engaging people in arts programs aimed at promoting prevention and wellness activities and communicating health information to improve knowledge. For students in medical and other healthcare fields, the arts can enhance skills and improve observational, diagnostic, and empathic abilities. Through art, medical professionals can understand patients in a different way-and connect with them on a more humanizing level.”
In Haiti they do not have the privilege of hospitals, thus many of the people rely on their religion to cure them. This leads them to distrust allopathic medicine’s capability of curing them. Leading them to having to overcome their doubts when given the opportunity to receive care. In the United States we see health as simply taking medicine and eradicating the problem within. We don’t seem to take the approach of changing ones diet, getting physiological help, improving physical activity, or changing our surroundings. Instead we go to a building and receive the care, which in our society is logical because it is the only resource that provides aid in emergencies. So whether one has disbelief in allopathic medicine, or one vows by it, what is the happy medium?
My project matters and I enjoyed it because I gave people the opportunity to express their thoughts in a manner that would be shared with others. It is continuing the process of speaking with our fellow people about our discontent and voicing it so that we can slowly strive for change. I feel pride from hearing people sharing their experiences and getting to analysis the depth of the problems going on everyday. Irma the poor 89 year old confined in a nursing home daunting the day she will breathe fresh air. Was once an advocate for the elderly and was part of an organization Single Point of Entry to help sow their rights, and now here she is helpless. At the end of the interview she was very concerned as to what I was doing with this information, where it would be going, was it going to make a change? So I just hope that this information is a cry of outrage for these people, especially Irma whom is still confined, and does her justice. Multiple voices are louder than one voice.
Bibliography
"State-of-the-Art in Palliative Care Management."Promoting Excellence. Promoting Excellence, n.d. Web. 17 Jan 2011.
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains.1st.United Sates of America: Random House Publishing Group,2004.Print
"Nature cure and yoga for cancer." Natural Health Cure.Natural Health Cure, Web. 17 Jan 2011.
Arts in Healthcare." Society for the Arts in Health Care.Society for the Arts in Health Care, n.d. Web. 17 Jan 2011.
January 11, 2011
HW 29 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Domains: process of illness and dying in America
• DISCONNECTION OF EXPERIENCE
o Natural vs. medical
o Incoherence
o Isolation (hospital)
o 4 wall limitation
o Fear of disintegration & the discomfort felt
o (National geographic moment before death)
o (Medical) DRUGS – movie Kauffman personal experience
o “If we did not shit we couldn’t eat”
o bad food in hospitals (wood blog)
o No color mentor- personal experience
o Of restoration gone 2 extreme we have forgotten that we are the planet and we need submersion for restoration
• CARE HAS BEEN INDUSTRILIZED
o Hospitals
o Our only location for treatment has becoming breeding of diseases (class notes)
o Machines (mountains)
o Drug industry (beyond mount)
o $15,000 for drug plan in 2 cover MDR in Peru
o Drug: capreomycin cost 29.90$ in Boston… $8.80 in pqris
o Payment of doctors not based on patient health (Michael Moore)
o “Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.” “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale.” “It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation” VIRCHOW “ if disease is an expression of individual life under unfavorable conditions, the epidemics must be indicative of mass disturbances of mass life.”
o Fast treatment (Kauffman)
• SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST, suppression by the government
Survival of the Richest: In our world health depends upon economical class, “Countries with the steepest grades of inequality and the greatest poverty have the biggest aids problems ”.
o Poverty leads to sickness. World wide (mountains beyond)
o Government approved Health insurance ranking and prices (Obama & history)
o Pricing of the body (Michael Moore)
o 36,000 middle 16,000 ring finger
o Cost-effectiveness analysis (mountains)
o Hospital cost (mountains)
“To Farmer, the distinction between prevention and treatment was artificial, created, he felt, as an excuse for inaction”
“Of all the world’s errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hiding away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people can not care, erase not remember”
“We are talking about wealth that we’ve never seen before. And the only time that I hear talk of shrinking resources among people like us, among academics, is when we talk about things that have to do with poor people.” – JIM Kim
“spent between $150 and $200 to cure an uncomplicated case. The same cure in the United States, where most TB patienys were hospitalized, unsually cost between $15,000 and $20,000. My local hospital in Massachusetts was treating about 175,000 patients a yeat an an annual operating budget of $60 million. In 1999 zanmi lasante had treated roughly the same number of people, at the medical comlex and out in communities and had spent about $1.5 million, half of that in the form of donated drugs.”
• DISCONNECTION OF EXPERIENCE
o Natural vs. medical
o Incoherence
o Isolation (hospital)
o 4 wall limitation
o Fear of disintegration & the discomfort felt
o (National geographic moment before death)
o (Medical) DRUGS – movie Kauffman personal experience
o “If we did not shit we couldn’t eat”
o bad food in hospitals (wood blog)
o No color mentor- personal experience
o Of restoration gone 2 extreme we have forgotten that we are the planet and we need submersion for restoration
• CARE HAS BEEN INDUSTRILIZED
o Hospitals
o Our only location for treatment has becoming breeding of diseases (class notes)
o Machines (mountains)
o Drug industry (beyond mount)
o $15,000 for drug plan in 2 cover MDR in Peru
o Drug: capreomycin cost 29.90$ in Boston… $8.80 in pqris
o Payment of doctors not based on patient health (Michael Moore)
o “Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.” “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale.” “It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation” VIRCHOW “ if disease is an expression of individual life under unfavorable conditions, the epidemics must be indicative of mass disturbances of mass life.”
o Fast treatment (Kauffman)
• SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST, suppression by the government
Survival of the Richest: In our world health depends upon economical class, “Countries with the steepest grades of inequality and the greatest poverty have the biggest aids problems ”.
o Poverty leads to sickness. World wide (mountains beyond)
o Government approved Health insurance ranking and prices (Obama & history)
o Pricing of the body (Michael Moore)
o 36,000 middle 16,000 ring finger
o Cost-effectiveness analysis (mountains)
o Hospital cost (mountains)
“To Farmer, the distinction between prevention and treatment was artificial, created, he felt, as an excuse for inaction”
“Of all the world’s errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hiding away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people can not care, erase not remember”
“We are talking about wealth that we’ve never seen before. And the only time that I hear talk of shrinking resources among people like us, among academics, is when we talk about things that have to do with poor people.” – JIM Kim
“spent between $150 and $200 to cure an uncomplicated case. The same cure in the United States, where most TB patienys were hospitalized, unsually cost between $15,000 and $20,000. My local hospital in Massachusetts was treating about 175,000 patients a yeat an an annual operating budget of $60 million. In 1999 zanmi lasante had treated roughly the same number of people, at the medical comlex and out in communities and had spent about $1.5 million, half of that in the form of donated drugs.”
21B
Comment to Evan:
I AM SO UPSET I MISSED THIS !!! HONESTLY THIS IS THE ONLY CLASS I WISH I COULD GOT TO SCHOOL FOR !!! GRRRRRR !!! you stated "search the deepest, most painful realms of my thoughts" I have been doing this alone recentley and I feel it has been helping me but it is hard, what were some of the questions asked? I do think that you could have strengthened the point your were making by expanding upon how this made you more acceptant and stronger in the situation. Overall great job !
Comment to Casey:
"She grieved, but accepted that he died. I think that there is something almost sweet about pain, because even though pain is an effect of loss, something was there before it was lost. We cannot grieve the loss of something that never was, unless we experienced that something in the first place, or have some inkling of what is missing."
I think this is so beautifully written, and so true. Their is a certain bliss in pain, but only when embraced and excepted not when fought. I also think if we don't feel these losses we can never value having.
The only suggestion I could provide is tying this back to the dominant social practice and thinking of what in all of this normality is weird ?
I also would like to commened you on the fact that I now have a good sense of what Beth's visit was like even though I was absent!
I AM SO UPSET I MISSED THIS !!! HONESTLY THIS IS THE ONLY CLASS I WISH I COULD GOT TO SCHOOL FOR !!! GRRRRRR !!! you stated "search the deepest, most painful realms of my thoughts" I have been doing this alone recentley and I feel it has been helping me but it is hard, what were some of the questions asked? I do think that you could have strengthened the point your were making by expanding upon how this made you more acceptant and stronger in the situation. Overall great job !
Comment to Casey:
"She grieved, but accepted that he died. I think that there is something almost sweet about pain, because even though pain is an effect of loss, something was there before it was lost. We cannot grieve the loss of something that never was, unless we experienced that something in the first place, or have some inkling of what is missing."
I think this is so beautifully written, and so true. Their is a certain bliss in pain, but only when embraced and excepted not when fought. I also think if we don't feel these losses we can never value having.
The only suggestion I could provide is tying this back to the dominant social practice and thinking of what in all of this normality is weird ?
I also would like to commened you on the fact that I now have a good sense of what Beth's visit was like even though I was absent!
January 04, 2011
hw 28 !
FOR CASEY:
YO ! I think this was a really great post, as always the writing style flowed nicley. I think that your greatest strength shown in this post is your ablity to incorporate your thoughts on illness in dying with all aspects explored in the class so far. I belive the best line was " Even so, I wondered how he could have thought that he was invincible. I realized that such an attitude can be found in most people, whether revealed by an 11 year old boy jay walking, a high school freshman smoking cigarettes, a college student forgoing a condom, an obese middle aged woman watching television all day instead of going to the gym, or a diabetic man having a field day at Kentucky Fried Chicken. No one wants to think that they are susceptible to sickness, to mortality, to falling into a vulnerable hospitalized circumstance, to death." It was funny because you stated so many true cases, even though many sound like a sterotypes and relatead it to what sounded to be a dominant american population.. but I think you got slightly distracted by why many people don't get health insurance because I am sure your uncle as invincable as he felt if insurance was free he would gladly accept. So I think this highlighted the sad fact that one cannot be optomistic rather feel pesemistic and get insurance because it is not simply provided it is a choice determined based on economic position.
OVERALL GOOD JOB ! :)
FOR EVAN:
I believe this is great insight to an odd predicament. The harsh reality that health care is not the only solution, and many times with even all our medical knowladge simple maladies cause great harm. It is sad to hear this but he should be greatful that he at least has the opertunity to have someone tell him they don't know what to do verus... we dont know how to help you without you giving up some cash. I wish you would have exmplified with more lucidity and strength what the dominant social practices seen here are ? My favorite line was "t is extremely upsetting to him and everyone around him that the medical system has yet again continued to fail our family (in addition to the fact that they couldn't even identify MY problem when I went to the ER a short time ago)." I think it got to the center of the issues of how someones injury affected you and all around you. This could have been improved by expanding on a wider scale as aforementioned..
good job... sorry for the troubles !
________________________________________________________________________________________________
FROM CASEY:
Eloise,
This is gorgeous writing! How creative and appropriate to make narrative poem. Your writing accentuates the gravity of the situation you witnessed on you visit. I think when you said "She says she feels there pain but doesn't urn for their intensity" you meant to say "She says she feels their pain but doesn't yearn for their intensity"...but I might be mistaken. I would have liked to read a bit about the context of this visit; who was this female you were visiting? Did you know her prior to your visit? Did she like being interviewed?
FROM EVAN:
Eloise,
My goodness what a visual and grueling post to read! I am not sure if you meant to write it this way but being a filmmaker I could really, REALLY visualize your tale and even hear your tone in narration. One of the greatest lines to me was
"The melody to her environment is the constant beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep beeeep beeeeep of the thermometer. When she can sleep she seems the most content, but the parallel world it sends her to seems quite unappealing as well. It's as if all the energy that usually pours outward upon others is battling within her trying to kill the bacteria."
To be honest if I were writing a screenplay it would go something exactly like this! Lines like this actually drove me to think about how I would frame such an image to do it justice. As always I would do a quick read through (especially for such a long post) to look for simple spelling and grammar errors. However in this case I found such grammar errors delightful because it made me hear the narrating voice so much better!
Evan
FROM MENTOR/LORILEI:
It is an interesting thing, Eloise, how illness affects both the patient and those who love them. Illness creates a unique dynamic that reveals much of the core of relationships--brings out the best and/or worst in people and we don't know until it happens. It is both an internal and external process, and one that cannot be anticipated--we cannot prepare for what it is to see a loved one suffer, or to lose our health when we are healthy. You never know how good it is to be healthy until you are not. health is something we very much take for granted, until it is gone...like so many things, I guess. The frustrations inherent in receiving adequate healthcare are well expressed here. Would love some context, it's true--would inform how it is read and interpreted.
FROM YOUTH/LIAM:
i feel that your ideas of health are correct. i can feel tha sadness and the soulfulness coming from the pain the girl is feeling. she is obviously ind discomfort. i could also feel the embarassment when she went to the ER. A large part of Health is the mind. if you what you belive will happen because your deeds and mood will drasticaly change your actions and state of being. That's why a placebo is an adequite test for new medicines. your belif in a medicine or a procedure or anything greatly increases it's ability for sucess. health = wealth and belif = health, so belif = wealth
from Liam
YO ! I think this was a really great post, as always the writing style flowed nicley. I think that your greatest strength shown in this post is your ablity to incorporate your thoughts on illness in dying with all aspects explored in the class so far. I belive the best line was " Even so, I wondered how he could have thought that he was invincible. I realized that such an attitude can be found in most people, whether revealed by an 11 year old boy jay walking, a high school freshman smoking cigarettes, a college student forgoing a condom, an obese middle aged woman watching television all day instead of going to the gym, or a diabetic man having a field day at Kentucky Fried Chicken. No one wants to think that they are susceptible to sickness, to mortality, to falling into a vulnerable hospitalized circumstance, to death." It was funny because you stated so many true cases, even though many sound like a sterotypes and relatead it to what sounded to be a dominant american population.. but I think you got slightly distracted by why many people don't get health insurance because I am sure your uncle as invincable as he felt if insurance was free he would gladly accept. So I think this highlighted the sad fact that one cannot be optomistic rather feel pesemistic and get insurance because it is not simply provided it is a choice determined based on economic position.
OVERALL GOOD JOB ! :)
FOR EVAN:
I believe this is great insight to an odd predicament. The harsh reality that health care is not the only solution, and many times with even all our medical knowladge simple maladies cause great harm. It is sad to hear this but he should be greatful that he at least has the opertunity to have someone tell him they don't know what to do verus... we dont know how to help you without you giving up some cash. I wish you would have exmplified with more lucidity and strength what the dominant social practices seen here are ? My favorite line was "t is extremely upsetting to him and everyone around him that the medical system has yet again continued to fail our family (in addition to the fact that they couldn't even identify MY problem when I went to the ER a short time ago)." I think it got to the center of the issues of how someones injury affected you and all around you. This could have been improved by expanding on a wider scale as aforementioned..
good job... sorry for the troubles !
________________________________________________________________________________________________
FROM CASEY:
Eloise,
This is gorgeous writing! How creative and appropriate to make narrative poem. Your writing accentuates the gravity of the situation you witnessed on you visit. I think when you said "She says she feels there pain but doesn't urn for their intensity" you meant to say "She says she feels their pain but doesn't yearn for their intensity"...but I might be mistaken. I would have liked to read a bit about the context of this visit; who was this female you were visiting? Did you know her prior to your visit? Did she like being interviewed?
FROM EVAN:
Eloise,
My goodness what a visual and grueling post to read! I am not sure if you meant to write it this way but being a filmmaker I could really, REALLY visualize your tale and even hear your tone in narration. One of the greatest lines to me was
"The melody to her environment is the constant beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep beeeep beeeeep of the thermometer. When she can sleep she seems the most content, but the parallel world it sends her to seems quite unappealing as well. It's as if all the energy that usually pours outward upon others is battling within her trying to kill the bacteria."
To be honest if I were writing a screenplay it would go something exactly like this! Lines like this actually drove me to think about how I would frame such an image to do it justice. As always I would do a quick read through (especially for such a long post) to look for simple spelling and grammar errors. However in this case I found such grammar errors delightful because it made me hear the narrating voice so much better!
Evan
FROM MENTOR/LORILEI:
It is an interesting thing, Eloise, how illness affects both the patient and those who love them. Illness creates a unique dynamic that reveals much of the core of relationships--brings out the best and/or worst in people and we don't know until it happens. It is both an internal and external process, and one that cannot be anticipated--we cannot prepare for what it is to see a loved one suffer, or to lose our health when we are healthy. You never know how good it is to be healthy until you are not. health is something we very much take for granted, until it is gone...like so many things, I guess. The frustrations inherent in receiving adequate healthcare are well expressed here. Would love some context, it's true--would inform how it is read and interpreted.
FROM YOUTH/LIAM:
i feel that your ideas of health are correct. i can feel tha sadness and the soulfulness coming from the pain the girl is feeling. she is obviously ind discomfort. i could also feel the embarassment when she went to the ER. A large part of Health is the mind. if you what you belive will happen because your deeds and mood will drasticaly change your actions and state of being. That's why a placebo is an adequite test for new medicines. your belif in a medicine or a procedure or anything greatly increases it's ability for sucess. health = wealth and belif = health, so belif = wealth
from Liam
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