Friday, January 21, 2011
HW 32
I would say the most nightmarish aspect of our culture's practices around illness and dying would be to be denied care when you're dying. Another would be to die hooked up to a machine in this isolated place alone. Alternative practices would be to have a home death and hospice care. Another alternative for the government is to have incentive for the people to stay healthy. If people have more of a motive to eat better and stay more healthy they might actually do it and feel like they're getting something out of it. Many deadly diseases are caused from people's lifestyles. Something I could do personally is change the way I live so I can lower the odds of getting any kinds of lifestyle caused diseases and I can share what I know with the people around me so they can change the way they live to help themselves. There is a direct correlation between the illness and dying unit to the food unit. The way we eat is very unhealthy and this can lead obesity and also lead to diseases such as heart disease and diabetes which are the cause for many deaths. If we can eat better and live better we can have less health problems.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
HW 31
My comments on other's blogs:
Chris:
Chrissssssssss,
I thought your post was very good. I like how you asked a lot of relevant questions to our unit but related it to your mother's situation. I also like how you put links in parts of the post that way the reader can look further into the topics being mentioned. I think you should've put some of you're own thoughts in the post though. Overall niiiice post!
Elizabeth:
I like your post because it was an original idea to go back to the first meanings of the words. I thought it was interesting how the word illness meant evil. I think you should have gone into why you think they had these definitions and how it connects a little more.
Sophia:
This was one of my favorites. I thought this topic was related to our unit and brought up a lot in Tuesday's with Morrie. I found the answers very interesting. My favorite part was : "After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true." I completely agree with this, I also noticed this in the book. I think maybe on a day to day basis all people may value is material things but if you ask people to look at their life as a whole they can see things that actually matter more.. Niiiiice post
John:
I thought your project was really interesting. I knew that this false view of death was shown in movies like how you mention the cheesy scene where the grandparent says their last words and peacefully dies, but I thought paintings and things like that have more real feelings and views. My favorite part was when you said: "his view is not only distorted but keeps us ignorant, for the few things we can know with certainty about life is that it will come to an end, so rather if we should embrace that these articles of nature will die." I completely agree with this, instead of being shown as something it's not, I think death should be shown as it actually is so it can be embraced and not just pushed away from our society.
Evan:
Evan,
Niiiice post. I like the idea of living to be 100 I think it gives people a reason to do what they can to keep going and stay healthy. My favorite part is when you said: " Maybe the greatest lesson here is that at one point in life (usually the one we are all in right now as teenagers) we all see ourselves standing on the summit of time that is 100 years of life, but for the enjoyment and sake of ourselves. However, one day (usually around Jane's age) we see our bodies begin to succumb to the toll of time, and rather than live for our own sakes, we go on for our brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren, pursuing a different kind of richness- having an effect on our continuing loved ones." I thought this was a very insightful idea and I agree with it. I wonder though wouldn't it be hard to keep going if you can't do all the stuff you used to be able to do and you're living for other people?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments on my blog post:
Sophia:
I really liked your post. Your research was very thorough, and you explained your reactions to it clearly. I also liked how you explained how your research led you to doing the interview (your account of the interview was good too). All in all, it was really good.
Elizabeth:
I think you chose a very thought provoking subject, and had an extremely good "experimental" example with the old man, but I also felt that part of your post came out of nowhere.
While it was relevant to the topic, you go from "went bankrupt paying for their own medical care," to "I was with Kevin"... I understood what you were going to talk about because of your elevator speech from earlier, but if I had no idea what you had said in class, I would have been like "cool...he was with Kevin".
You have the ideas and the arguments, I think that maybe a little bit of organization is in need, overall, good job!
Chris:
I think that you choose a good topic because it was something that you and Kevin both seem to have some type of passion about. There aren't many voices or leaders for people who are disabled. The way that you used the interview to connect back to Sicko was also a very good idea because you connected something that you did on your own to something that we have been working together to do in class and figure out some of the atrocities and some of the dominant social practices. I think your best line was "This brought up the question in my head is it even possible to be sure that this wouldn't happen to you?" Because it seemed like a good way to wrap up the idea that you were aiming toward throughout your writing.
Kevin:
Knowing that we were doing the same project, I thought I'd read yours. I think that we took different angles and focused on different aspects of it, but overall it was a good post. You did solid research and recapped well. Good work Burt.
Mom:
This is really interesting. I'm impressed by the fact that most bankruptcies are caused by medical problems I didn't know this before. I'm also surprised that someone with health insurance can be denied care after an accident, I think that is very scary. You guys got great information from interviewing a real person with a real problem. I'm wondering will Obama's healthcare plan cover things like this where people are denied care even with health insurance? Because this is so unfair..
Chris:
Chrissssssssss,
I thought your post was very good. I like how you asked a lot of relevant questions to our unit but related it to your mother's situation. I also like how you put links in parts of the post that way the reader can look further into the topics being mentioned. I think you should've put some of you're own thoughts in the post though. Overall niiiice post!
Elizabeth:
I like your post because it was an original idea to go back to the first meanings of the words. I thought it was interesting how the word illness meant evil. I think you should have gone into why you think they had these definitions and how it connects a little more.
Sophia:
This was one of my favorites. I thought this topic was related to our unit and brought up a lot in Tuesday's with Morrie. I found the answers very interesting. My favorite part was : "After reading Tuesdays With Morrie, I formed the opinion that people are motivated by possessions more then anything. However, after doing the survey and reading the dozens of answers that talked about family and friends, I realized that this isn't necessarily true." I completely agree with this, I also noticed this in the book. I think maybe on a day to day basis all people may value is material things but if you ask people to look at their life as a whole they can see things that actually matter more.. Niiiiice post
John:
I thought your project was really interesting. I knew that this false view of death was shown in movies like how you mention the cheesy scene where the grandparent says their last words and peacefully dies, but I thought paintings and things like that have more real feelings and views. My favorite part was when you said: "his view is not only distorted but keeps us ignorant, for the few things we can know with certainty about life is that it will come to an end, so rather if we should embrace that these articles of nature will die." I completely agree with this, instead of being shown as something it's not, I think death should be shown as it actually is so it can be embraced and not just pushed away from our society.
Evan:
Evan,
Niiiice post. I like the idea of living to be 100 I think it gives people a reason to do what they can to keep going and stay healthy. My favorite part is when you said: " Maybe the greatest lesson here is that at one point in life (usually the one we are all in right now as teenagers) we all see ourselves standing on the summit of time that is 100 years of life, but for the enjoyment and sake of ourselves. However, one day (usually around Jane's age) we see our bodies begin to succumb to the toll of time, and rather than live for our own sakes, we go on for our brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren, pursuing a different kind of richness- having an effect on our continuing loved ones." I thought this was a very insightful idea and I agree with it. I wonder though wouldn't it be hard to keep going if you can't do all the stuff you used to be able to do and you're living for other people?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments on my blog post:
Sophia:
I really liked your post. Your research was very thorough, and you explained your reactions to it clearly. I also liked how you explained how your research led you to doing the interview (your account of the interview was good too). All in all, it was really good.
Elizabeth:
I think you chose a very thought provoking subject, and had an extremely good "experimental" example with the old man, but I also felt that part of your post came out of nowhere.
While it was relevant to the topic, you go from "went bankrupt paying for their own medical care," to "I was with Kevin"... I understood what you were going to talk about because of your elevator speech from earlier, but if I had no idea what you had said in class, I would have been like "cool...he was with Kevin".
You have the ideas and the arguments, I think that maybe a little bit of organization is in need, overall, good job!
Chris:
I think that you choose a good topic because it was something that you and Kevin both seem to have some type of passion about. There aren't many voices or leaders for people who are disabled. The way that you used the interview to connect back to Sicko was also a very good idea because you connected something that you did on your own to something that we have been working together to do in class and figure out some of the atrocities and some of the dominant social practices. I think your best line was "This brought up the question in my head is it even possible to be sure that this wouldn't happen to you?" Because it seemed like a good way to wrap up the idea that you were aiming toward throughout your writing.
Kevin:
Knowing that we were doing the same project, I thought I'd read yours. I think that we took different angles and focused on different aspects of it, but overall it was a good post. You did solid research and recapped well. Good work Burt.
Mom:
This is really interesting. I'm impressed by the fact that most bankruptcies are caused by medical problems I didn't know this before. I'm also surprised that someone with health insurance can be denied care after an accident, I think that is very scary. You guys got great information from interviewing a real person with a real problem. I'm wondering will Obama's healthcare plan cover things like this where people are denied care even with health insurance? Because this is so unfair..
Sunday, January 16, 2011
HW 30
I wasn't sure what I wanted to look into for the project. I ended up exploring this aspect of illness and dying that was focused on in the movie Sicko. How people that HAVE health insurance can be denied care, or deny to pay for some treatments.
This can even be deadly. For example in the movie Sicko Michael Moore talks to a woman who's daughter got a very high fever. The woman thought the fever was too high so she had to rush her daughter to the nearest emergency room. When she arrived at the emergency room the hospital told her that the insurance company had denied treatment for her daughter at this hospital. The mother begged for approval but was still denied. So they tried to transport her daughter to another hospital but it was too late her daughter died on the way. This caught my attention because I couldn't believe that they would deny someone care if they were about to die. The reason for this is that the main reason HMO's were created not to help people in need of care but to maximize profit. Therefore the healthcare companies will do whatever they can to find a reason to deny care for someone because they don't lose money if they don't pay to get someone care.
Another part that stood out to me in the movie Sicko was the parents that both had to move in with their children because they went bankrupt paying medical bills. This rung a bell in my head and reminded me that I had heard in school that the number one cause for bankruptcy in the U.S. was medical care bills. So I decided to look into this. I found that medical care expenses are the number one reason for bankruptcy in the U.S. "In 2007, medical problems contributed to 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by about 50 percent", (Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/medical-bills-cause-most-bankruptcies/). 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical problems. This data was astonishing to me I didn't think it would be the reason for more than half of ALL bankruptcies. The study that gathered this information also stated that most of those people were well educated middle class people and 3/4 of them had health insurance. All of this information almost related exactly to Sicko and I found it sad that these people had jobs with health insurance and an education but yet they went bankrupt paying for their own medical care.
I was with Kevin when he found a homeless man and we interviewed him. It was a man who didn't seem like an average homeless person. Instantly the first thing we saw was that he had no legs. So we figured maybe we could ask him about it. Approaching a stranger about a personal topic like that was weird but we didn't want to pass on the chance. Surprisingly didn't mind telling his story. He got into a car accident the front of the car was pushed up and it crushed both of his legs. At the hospital had to have both of his legs amputated, which costed $80,000 per leg because he did have health insurance but his health insurance did not cover the surgeries. He had to do months of rehab. During this time he lost his job. When he recovered he didn't have a job and he was bankrupt.
This showed me that anyone could have medical problems and not have enough money to pay for it. This was no way this guys fault. It was an accident and he had a job that provided health insurance. So you would have thought that he was safe but everything went wrong and he is now bankrupt. This brought up the question in my head is it even possible to be sure that this wouldn't happen to you? I think that we should have universal healthcare in the U.S. so things like this can't happen to a good person that doesn't deserve this.
This can even be deadly. For example in the movie Sicko Michael Moore talks to a woman who's daughter got a very high fever. The woman thought the fever was too high so she had to rush her daughter to the nearest emergency room. When she arrived at the emergency room the hospital told her that the insurance company had denied treatment for her daughter at this hospital. The mother begged for approval but was still denied. So they tried to transport her daughter to another hospital but it was too late her daughter died on the way. This caught my attention because I couldn't believe that they would deny someone care if they were about to die. The reason for this is that the main reason HMO's were created not to help people in need of care but to maximize profit. Therefore the healthcare companies will do whatever they can to find a reason to deny care for someone because they don't lose money if they don't pay to get someone care.
Another part that stood out to me in the movie Sicko was the parents that both had to move in with their children because they went bankrupt paying medical bills. This rung a bell in my head and reminded me that I had heard in school that the number one cause for bankruptcy in the U.S. was medical care bills. So I decided to look into this. I found that medical care expenses are the number one reason for bankruptcy in the U.S. "In 2007, medical problems contributed to 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by about 50 percent", (Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/medical-bills-cause-most-bankruptcies/). 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical problems. This data was astonishing to me I didn't think it would be the reason for more than half of ALL bankruptcies. The study that gathered this information also stated that most of those people were well educated middle class people and 3/4 of them had health insurance. All of this information almost related exactly to Sicko and I found it sad that these people had jobs with health insurance and an education but yet they went bankrupt paying for their own medical care.
I was with Kevin when he found a homeless man and we interviewed him. It was a man who didn't seem like an average homeless person. Instantly the first thing we saw was that he had no legs. So we figured maybe we could ask him about it. Approaching a stranger about a personal topic like that was weird but we didn't want to pass on the chance. Surprisingly didn't mind telling his story. He got into a car accident the front of the car was pushed up and it crushed both of his legs. At the hospital had to have both of his legs amputated, which costed $80,000 per leg because he did have health insurance but his health insurance did not cover the surgeries. He had to do months of rehab. During this time he lost his job. When he recovered he didn't have a job and he was bankrupt.
This showed me that anyone could have medical problems and not have enough money to pay for it. This was no way this guys fault. It was an accident and he had a job that provided health insurance. So you would have thought that he was safe but everything went wrong and he is now bankrupt. This brought up the question in my head is it even possible to be sure that this wouldn't happen to you? I think that we should have universal healthcare in the U.S. so things like this can't happen to a good person that doesn't deserve this.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
HW 29
Facing Terminal Illness
Facing terminal illness is tough and can drastically change a person's life because they know they are going to die soon. This was discussed by our guest speaker Beth who's husband died from cancer. It was also discussed in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. With Beth's experience her husband didn't let the terminal illness change how he lived. He stayed strong and tried to be positive and stay alive for long as possible. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie embraced his terminal illness and understood what it meant. He made himself try to enjoy letting other's take care of him. "I'm an independent person, so my inclination was to fight all of this-being helped from the car, having someone else dress me. I felt a little ashamed, because our culture tells us we should be ashamed if we can't wipe our own behind",(page 116). He knew he was going to die but still tried to enjoy life even as he got worse and worse. He learned to enjoy his dependency on others as he got worse because it seemed familiar to him and reminded him of being a baby. So everyone is going to die eventually you just have to learn to enjoy the time you have left.
The process of dying
The process of dying can be very different depending on how and where the person is dying. It can become very complicated if the person is dying in a hospital which was shown in the documentary Near-Death. The doctors have to decide if they should try to keep the patient alive and whether or not it's worth it to keep them alive. On top of that they have to keep into consideration what the family of the patient wants, and what the patient said they want. So it can be very complicated and hard to decide when they want to let the patient die. In our guest speaker's experience she brought her husband home he died at home with his wife and son taking care of him. This process seemed much more peaceful then at an isolated hospital with doctors all around you while you're dying.
Paying for medical care
Paying for medical care is the number one cause for debt in America. It is very expensive and makes it very hard for people to get care and it is nearly impossible to afford medical care if you don't have health insurance. This is shown in the movie Sicko by Michael Moore. It is like putting a price on being healthy. In fact in Sicko it shows this man who got into an accident and cut off two of his fingers so he went to the hospital and they told him that he could reattach his middle finger for $60,000 or reattach his ring finger for $12,000. So he could only afford to reattach his ring finger because it was too expensive to pay for both. The U.S. refuses to switch to universal healthcare which has proved to be successful in countries such as France and England. The U.S. healthcare system is ranked 37th (http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html).
Facing terminal illness is tough and can drastically change a person's life because they know they are going to die soon. This was discussed by our guest speaker Beth who's husband died from cancer. It was also discussed in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. With Beth's experience her husband didn't let the terminal illness change how he lived. He stayed strong and tried to be positive and stay alive for long as possible. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie embraced his terminal illness and understood what it meant. He made himself try to enjoy letting other's take care of him. "I'm an independent person, so my inclination was to fight all of this-being helped from the car, having someone else dress me. I felt a little ashamed, because our culture tells us we should be ashamed if we can't wipe our own behind",(page 116). He knew he was going to die but still tried to enjoy life even as he got worse and worse. He learned to enjoy his dependency on others as he got worse because it seemed familiar to him and reminded him of being a baby. So everyone is going to die eventually you just have to learn to enjoy the time you have left.
The process of dying
The process of dying can be very different depending on how and where the person is dying. It can become very complicated if the person is dying in a hospital which was shown in the documentary Near-Death. The doctors have to decide if they should try to keep the patient alive and whether or not it's worth it to keep them alive. On top of that they have to keep into consideration what the family of the patient wants, and what the patient said they want. So it can be very complicated and hard to decide when they want to let the patient die. In our guest speaker's experience she brought her husband home he died at home with his wife and son taking care of him. This process seemed much more peaceful then at an isolated hospital with doctors all around you while you're dying.
Paying for medical care
Paying for medical care is the number one cause for debt in America. It is very expensive and makes it very hard for people to get care and it is nearly impossible to afford medical care if you don't have health insurance. This is shown in the movie Sicko by Michael Moore. It is like putting a price on being healthy. In fact in Sicko it shows this man who got into an accident and cut off two of his fingers so he went to the hospital and they told him that he could reattach his middle finger for $60,000 or reattach his ring finger for $12,000. So he could only afford to reattach his ring finger because it was too expensive to pay for both. The U.S. refuses to switch to universal healthcare which has proved to be successful in countries such as France and England. The U.S. healthcare system is ranked 37th (http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html).
Monday, January 3, 2011
HW 28
For Elizabeth,
The part I liked best from your post was: "I could have been sledding, building a snowman, or going for a walk in the snow. I thought about what she could have been doing at that moment. She could have been reading her newspaper...oh wait but that wasn't delivered due to the snow. Well she could have been watching the news...oh wait, she did that already today. Well she could go through old items in the storage room; oh wait, that's downstairs." By comparing the endless possibilities of things you could do, to the options that she had really was very powerful to me. It was powerful because it shows the drastic difference and made me think that people probably get very sad with a lack of activities as they get older and it gets harder to move around.
For Chris,
I thought the best part of your post was: "It could probably be the worse place that anyone would want to visit and have to see someone they love. A nursing home reminds me of a hospital but a couple times worse because when people go to the hospital the idea is people in the hospital get better. When people go to nursing homes the idea is that they have some kind of sickness where they can’t take care of themselves and usually they are elderly so they are close to death anyway." I think this was the best part because it brought up the point of hope and you have hope that people will get out of the hospital and go home, but at a nursing home this is where they're going to stay. Even though people die in hospitals you see a hospital as a place where people are treated and can leave. Opposed to a nursing home which is the place they are at waiting to die at. There's no getting better and leaving this place.
Sophia did not post HW 27
The part I liked best from your post was: "I could have been sledding, building a snowman, or going for a walk in the snow. I thought about what she could have been doing at that moment. She could have been reading her newspaper...oh wait but that wasn't delivered due to the snow. Well she could have been watching the news...oh wait, she did that already today. Well she could go through old items in the storage room; oh wait, that's downstairs." By comparing the endless possibilities of things you could do, to the options that she had really was very powerful to me. It was powerful because it shows the drastic difference and made me think that people probably get very sad with a lack of activities as they get older and it gets harder to move around.
For Chris,
I thought the best part of your post was: "It could probably be the worse place that anyone would want to visit and have to see someone they love. A nursing home reminds me of a hospital but a couple times worse because when people go to the hospital the idea is people in the hospital get better. When people go to nursing homes the idea is that they have some kind of sickness where they can’t take care of themselves and usually they are elderly so they are close to death anyway." I think this was the best part because it brought up the point of hope and you have hope that people will get out of the hospital and go home, but at a nursing home this is where they're going to stay. Even though people die in hospitals you see a hospital as a place where people are treated and can leave. Opposed to a nursing home which is the place they are at waiting to die at. There's no getting better and leaving this place.
Sophia did not post HW 27
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