HW 31 Comments

Evan-
I really liked your idea Evan. It was very well thought out and interesting to hear about somebody who deals with illness everyday's point of view. I think that the way the doctor is portrayed is all depending on the point of view. Of course a doctor wont think that they give false hope but somebody who criticizes doctors might. Theres usual bias behind everything. In a way I noticed that she doesn't lie or give false hope but doesn't exactly tell the whole truth which i found interesting.
Max-
I really enjoyed reading your piece. It's joyful to hear that you cousin is still living his life even with this horrible disease. I had no idea that the life expectancy was as short as it was. I agree with when you said "When you get a exact knowledge of how long you have to live, it affects the way that you can spend that time." This is very true in my opinion and reminds me of that question, if you had a day to live what would you do.
Harry-
Your topic related perfectly back to the unit. Also while I was reading it I learned some new things that interested me. Particularly about the girl who didn't get the liver transplant. I've had numbers of discussions and arguments about this with some friends and I agree that this is wrong. If that man who denied her health care sold his soul then, I'm sure he has done it hundreds of thousands of times more.
Matt B.-
I thought that this was a very nice story you told. "Life is a series of moments flashing bye but before you know it those memories fade and stories come to a close." I have thought that over so many times and it scares me a little every time I think about it. It kind of actually gives me a bit of relief to know somebody thinks the same way. I can relate to this post a lot and I really enjoyed reading it.

HW 30

I have been struggling on a topic to choose for project until the other day when I was on my way home from New Jersey. I was in the car on the way to this store to drop somebody off and we saw this girl who was running without a coat on. I thought this was a bit weird but didn't think twice about it. When I got to the train station I saw the girl again. She was tall very young asian girl; definitely still in high school. I once again didn't think why this girl may have been without a jacket. So I waited for the train and I look down the track. My eyes aren't the best so I couldn't get the best view but I saw something go into the tracks. I figured it was nothing and went on walking until i saw the train stop midway. I still didn't think twice and just thought it was stopping earlier. Then there was a scream. At that point I figured out what was going on. The girl in just the t-shirt had walked into the train as it was coming in the station. I went closer to check out what happened and I saw her laid out under the train but she was still breathing. Somebody called 911 but I noticed it took a while for an ambulance to get to the station. Nobody really knew what to do. They told all of the people waiting to go to there cars but thats why we were waiting for the train. I talked to this woman who had seen the girl up close and said the girl was crying and slowly walked into the train. Her body was pushed and then over run by the train; no blood, but it was still a gruesome site. I later found out that this girl was a sophomore in high school, and that she got in a fight with her step dad about what she wanted to do in life. It shows how such small things can cause such a big thing to happen. This moment has influenced me to write about problem that isn't easy to deal with which is suicide.
I've never seen or encountered death as close as I did that day and it scared me. To see something I can connect with better then anything else, which is another human, dying like that makes my stomach turn. It is not something I want to see again. If there was blood I probably would have been traumatized. But this made me think back to what we have been learning and left me with a question. Is suicide an illness? How can the mental part of you want to die but the physical part of you want to keep going? I know that the girls body wanted to live because she was still breathing after she was hit by the train. But what was going through her head? Could she have been relieved or realized the worst mistake she could make. Well with some research, I found no evidence that states that suicide is a mental illness but I did find out that 90% of people who kill themselves have some sort of mental disorder. Also if an illness is something that hurts the body doesn't that make suicidal intentions and suicide an illness considering it hurts the mind and at a point the body. Most people see suicide as a person who just hates life. A person who has been pushed to far to a point where it destroys them from the inside out. To the most part that isn't wrong. I thought the same way and I still have the same ideas but now since I've seen it up close I feel differently about it.
This site has very interesting facts about suicide that will be included in my presentation.
http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/suicide/suicide-facts-suicide-statistics/menu-id-68/
I've put a lot of thought into it and I have realized that there is no cure for suicide and you can't really stop it. You can only look out for the symptoms and try to help the person out before its too late. Putting a suicidal person in a hospital is not going to work because it will only make them hate the world and life more. More expensive bills to pay, death all around you, that distinct hospital smell. Nobody wants to be in a hospital, especially if they are thinking of taking there life. A better idea would be to suggest a suicide hotline or a psychiatrist. But in the end it is all up to the person.
http://www.stopasuicide.org/suicide.aspx

HW 27 Comments

Evan- I think that a great sentence was, "My father and I get her grocery every week because she is scared she will forget where she is going and have no one to help her get home. She is somewhat almost not able to go out side unless a family member of hers comes and walks with her." I think that this is a great thing that you and your father do for this woman. I can't even think about the possibility of being scared to leave my apartment. Try to work on making your sentences more beautiful.
Max- I think that the most beautiful sentence in your post was, "This surprised him and he told me that while in these situation you have to make the best out of it or else your waisting valuable time in your life." I think that this is a great way to look at this situation. It is very brave and hard to deal with and I would have responded the exact same way as you Max. Time is probably the most valuable thing that we have so it should never be wasted. 

HW 25 Response to Sicko

In class we have been watching the Michael Moore documentary Sicko which is about the U.S. health care system. It shows how our health care system is just another way for big corporations to get bigger and bigger. Another way for the rich to become richer. The truth is the HMO's are not here to help the citizens in the U.S. In a way there here to steal from us. They do this by having everybody get health care because nobody wants to be in a situation where they need health care and don't have it. So the people pay these companies money so that in the case a person needs medical attention they can have it without worrying about there money. But what the people don't know is that the HMO's try their hardest to turn down every claim they can. So the HMO's make excuses to not give you money and some of them may be the most ridiculous reasons. In one case a girl crashed her car and insurance didn't cover her ambulance ride because she didn't call ahead of time to let the the health insurance company know that she was going to take the ambulance. President Nixon and a man named Edgar Kaiser met to discuss the creation of HMO's. Nixon passed the HMO's and tried to make it seem like an amazing thing. When in reality things got really bad. Years later Hilary Clinton tried to get a bill passed that would change the health care system into socialist healthcare. Now of course right wing politicians would do anything in there power to stop this and they did. All of this has led to the untrustworthy, and basically evil system that we call health care.
Something that I found particularly disturbing is that one of the directors at one of the HMO's who stamps if the claim is denied doesn't even read the claims. When he was asked if he read them he didn't know what to say until he finally said no. I think that shows perfectly that these people really don't care about us. It shows that not helping people is no problem to them as long as they get to keep those people's money. Another good example is some of Hilary Clintons political career. She tried with all of her power to get her health insurance bill to pass and it was widely supported. But the HMO's stepped in and took her down. She went from passing bills to reading to kindergartners. Not only that but she was bought out by the HMO's. She supported them in one of her campaigns. This shows that the HMO's have a dominant power in the U.S. Weather people know it or not they are making politicians their puppets with money.

HW 22

Tuesdays With Morrie
by, Mitch Albom
Published by Doubleday in September of 1997
The Chapter, The second tuesday we talk about feeling sorry for yourself, is a very strong chapter about Morrie's views on a situation that most people go through when they know they are going to die. As of right now in the story Mitch finds visiting Morrie more as an act of kindness then learning what may be his important lesson, and it also may be his only chance to learn this. Most would expect somebody dying slowly and painfully to always be feeling sorry for themselves but Morrie is different. Of course there is some self grieving but not that much. He claims that he only feels it in the morning but then he thinks of all the good things in his life and then gets on with his day. In a way he thinks he's lucky that he gets so much time to say his final good byes.
"Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can make strangers shed a tear for one another."pg. 51
This is a very interesting claim. I think that it makes a lot of sense because it is one thing that connects us to everybody and everything living. Everything that lives dies. If you feel and know that kind of pain and fear you may be a lot more sympathetic to people who are unfairly suffering miles away.
"I want someone to hear my story. Will you?" pg. 63
This quote reminded me of some thoughts that I've had. I think that everybody wants to let there story out but it isn't truly appreciated until somebody is dying but that is also when one would want to tell there story the most.
"Ted, we've had thirty-five years of friendship. You don't need speech or hearing to feel that."pg. 71
I Think that this is a beautifully written sentence and I completely agree with it. If you have such a strong relationship with somebody there's a point where just the presents of one another is what strengthens your relationship. Just to know a person is truly there for you is an amazing thing.
This book is really sharpening my views on death and illness for the best. I'm not going to apply all of my thoughts on death on this book but before I read this I had no idea about what happens to people when they die and how they go about doing it. All I knew is I had plenty of reasons to hate death. There is a lot of ambivalence in this book. It shows from what I have heard the happiest dying story and in a way it makes it even more sad. The happier it gets the sadder it gets. This shows that in society death is viewed as a sad thing. Especially to people who do good and don't deserve it. Being sick for most people holds them back but Morrie does something different. He uses dying as a chance to educate and learn. Thats not a very popular way to look at dying. Most would use their time dying to self mourn and pity themselves.

HW 21 Post Comments

Max- I'm sorry to hear about your fathers best friends wife. I can't really relate because I never met my relatives that died of cancer. If you know her story, is your dads best friends wife's story and Beth's story similar? Also I agree with your claim that it shouldn't matter if you have money to get health care. But thinking from another point of view the medicine is really expensive so how can something that is expensive to make be free? Who would supply it?


Evan-I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother and your friend dying. I have always thought what would it be like if one of my friends killed themselves. I've never heard of it happening to anybody I know but I keep hearing how its such a problem. For my own interest how do you think of that person now? I find it interesting that when you were little you had dreams of immortality. I think we all share that when were little but we just don't know better. We can't really understand it. So we all share that dream in a way.

HW 21 - Expert #1

List:
-There may not be any symptoms to a sickness until it spreads.
-What happens to the people with these sicknesses is not let out to the whole public.
-Denial is a big stage in dying.
-There are treatments that may slow the process but won't eliminate of the problem.
-As a person continues to die they become more helpless.
-Eric was diagnosed the day before thanksgiving, a day we are supose to be thankful for what we have.
      When Beth was telling us about how her Husband got sick she mentioned that there were not really any serious symptoms. There was only one that could connect to kidney cancer but it wasn't something to worry about. This just shows how somebody can be completely healthy one day to having a fatale disease the next. They then start to slowly die away. You will look like a completely normal person and then slowly there will be symptoms and it will spread and sooner or later the body will be too weak to survive.
        In many stories about death that I have heard, almost all of them, the person who is dying is in denial at least once during the time they have left. But it seems to fade away as time goes on. Beth was saying how Eric was in denial in the beginning. The word death was not even used around him because it would be upsetting. I think that everybody is scared to die and it has always been like that. Especially in this modern era where theres so many different ideas about it. With science also taking over religion, nobody can know what happens which is the scary part. People find comfort in their lives by knowing they are safe and the ones they care about are safe. Since it's most likely impossible to talk to the dead you can not know what happens when you die which is frightening. Also since your dead you won't be able to look over your loved ones and you'll have no idea how they will survive