HW 23 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 2

Jamaica has grown to resent her obligation to care for her brother. She encounters a doctor who tells her that her brother's life will be extended if he has access to certain medicine. This medication is not accessible for him in Antigua. She has a doctor friend from the united states send the procreation to her. She likes that she is able to help her brother but contemplates weather it is worth it to spend that much time away from her family. Someone tells her she should take him to the United States for the appropriate medical care. She is angered and offended by this comment. She feels that everyone pays no mind to her emotions. Eventually he dies.

"My brother died. I had expected him to, sometimes it seemed as if it would be a good thing if he were to just die. And then he did die. When he was still alive I used to try although  imagine what it would be like when he was no longer alive, What the world would seem like the moment i knew he was no longer alive. but when that moment came, The moment i knew he was no longer alive, I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to feel" p.87

This feeling is often described as numbness. A friend of mine says that she felt guilty for not feeling sad automatically when she found out about her grandmothers death. My friend and Jamaica are both being faced with guilt. Guilt that is imposed when they see movies that make them think they are supposed to feel sad and fall into tears and have a break down.

"On one side, there is life, and on the other, there is death with a small patch of life attached to it. This latter is the life of AIDS; this was how i saw my brother as he lay in his bed dying." p. 96

Many people would consider this to be pacifistic and morbid. Maybe it is just a truthful way of looking at her brothers. I was so moved by this quote I shared it with my mother. She said, "This sounds like something a person who is afraid of death would." Not all people who are afraid of death would say this. Jamaica Kincaid may be afraid of death. But she just found a wise way to analyze her death.

"I said nothing about the death of my brother, which had actually occurred hours before (though really he had been dead for at least a year before the breath left his body) I had vowed to tell her nothing about and his illness and now his death"

I will be honest what initially drew me into this quote was the fact that it had the name of the unit in it "Illness and Dyeing" Besides the name of the unit the quote contains evidence of conflicting feelings. She says her brother had died a year before that but does that mean that he had died in the eyes of her family? Had he died to the doctors taking care of him? Had he died to her? Has he died to the whole world?

HW 21 - Expert #1

--Men are less likely to receive medical attention.

--Last years of marriage were the best

--“honeymoon from death”

--Acceptance instead of numbness sadness

Honeymoon from death:

The fact was brought up by our guest speaker that her husband had a honeymoon from death. This means that he felt better for a while. After a while his health plummeted. I just thought about how terrible that aspect of it must have felt. When my great grandfather was dyeing of old age, when i was about 9, I remember my grandmother calling and saying, “He is better, I think I am going to take him to see you this summer!” then all of her hope for her father rapidly withered away with in 2 days. He began to turn yellow. Then with in 12 hours he died. The emotional agony of the “honeymoon from death” can be blamed on our desire for miraculous recovery portrayed in movies. The guest speaker showed more wisdom on the topic. She was said she was never under the impression that her husband was going to live. She saved her self from the emotional trauma.

The guest speaker discussed how the last months of her marriage were the best. She said how she had never been able to spend that much time with him. That goes along with the idea “you don’t know what you have until it is gone” So to an extent she was lucky that she knew she would not have him ahead of time. When there relationship is is compared to many other grumpy old people who hate each other. Although the guest speakers family spent less time together they got to enjoy their last few months together.

HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

My Brother
by Jamaica Kincaid
The Noonday Press 1997

Precis:

Jamaica Kincaid doesn’t know why but she choose to go to Antigua to visit her brother who was dyeing of AIDS, and leave her family in the US. Her emotions on why she is there sway. The trip is demonstrating her confusing relationship with her mother.

"When I saw my brother again after a long while, he was lying in a bed in the Holberton Hospital, in the O'Reilly ward, and he was said to be dying of AIDS. He was not born in this hospital. Of my mother's four children, he was the one born at home" p.3

It is curious how people always tend to relate the end of someones life to the beginning of someones life. Often authors chose to connect the end of a story to the beginning. I suppose it leads to closure. This seems to be a dominant practice in our culture. When I went to my great grandfathers funeral the first thing that was mentioned was the date of his birth and the location of his birth. I have always wondered if this is an attempt to sum up someones life or if it is just an ice breaker.

"In that dirty room, other people before him had died of that same disease. It is where they put people who are suffering from the virus that causes AIDS. When he was first told that he had tested positive for the virus, he did not tell our mother the truth, he told her he had lung cancer, he told someone els he had bronchial asthma, but he knew my mother knew and anyone els who was interested would know that only people who tested positive for the AIDS virus were places in that room were in isolation." p.23

Jamaica Kincaid seems to be upset about how they isolated her brother. Which brings up an other question about the social norms of illness and dying, Why do hospitals have a separate ward for people  who are terminally ill, even if the percents are not infected with a contagious disease?

"He said that people who are not HIV-positive give up too soon on the people who are, but he tries to keep everybody alive, because you never know when a cure might come along. He said that-- you never knew when a cure might come along-- and i could not tell if, he was asserting native Antiguan foolishness or faith in science." p.35

Jamaica Kincaid was critiquing the way doctors have "faith in science." When someone is terminally ill, was the only reason to keep them in a hospital is to stretch whats left of their life with the hope that there will be a cure to the disease. Jamaica Kincaid seems critical of her family and all Antigenes. 

The way Jamaica Kincaid openly discusses the way it felt to observe her brother die, reminds me of how I believe my grandmother felt when she was observing the death of her brother. My grandmother felt more obligated to spend time with him then Jamaica Kincaid. But I know that it was easer for my grandmother to take care of him then it was for Jamaica Kincaid.

HW 19

When I asked my father what his mother thinks about alternative health care he said, "She is narrow minded. She only believes what Sarah Palin tells her to believe" One time my grandmother came over and had a cold. I asked her if she would like tea. She agreed. I pored her a cup of the only tea we had in the house called "Yogi breathe deep". She said, "Your mother is a which. How could she give you that hippy crap." So her view on health care is essentially that when someone is sick they should just drink an entire boodle of Night Quil and sleep for 12 hours. And if that doesn't work then go to the emergency room. So as my dad grew up he decided to appose everything he ever hurt his mother say. Which I think was, for the most part, a wise decision. 

My parents follow the recommended the allopathic health precautions. They are no ware near as afraid of homeopathic health ideas as my grandmother. My parents get acupuncture when they have health issues. There opinions on what to do when you are not terminally ill but are sick, are similar to mine.

When I asked my dad what he thinks should happen when someone is terminally ill he said, "Let them die in as much comfort as possible." I did not have the opportunity to ask him further details." I remember a few years ago I asked my mother what she thinks is the best way to deal with a terminally ill person. She replied, "to not let the family of that person bend over backwards and do what is needed to maintain there families sanity while allowing the person to live comfortably." I suppose they both are good. I think my opinions on the topic of illness and dieting will remain some ware in-between what my parents think.

I witnessed the way my great uncles illness was dealt with at the end of his life. My grandmother was stuck caring for him for about 4 years before that. I saw the stress put her when she was forced to take care of him while she was having health problems of her own. Once he had to go to a retirement home his children were only visiting him in the old persons home to get his money. So again my grandma was forced to stay in California, away from her family, just so he could have human interaction. It was amazing to see how someone was willing to neglect there sickly father, leaving my grandmother to absorb the stress. When he passed away my grandmother was able to move to Pensylvania to be closer to most of her family.

Dealing with a dyeing loved one is stressful and sad. I was told by my parents that once they need dippers to send them strait to an assisted living facility. They seem to think that would make things easer for me. I believe my parents said that they want me to send them to the retirement home just so I do not put my self what my grandmother went through with her brother. 

This goes along with the American social norm of how to deal with older people. Our cycle of life goes like this; Childhood, work all your life, 10-15 years of retirement, then your last 2-5 years are spent away from your loved ones in a retirement home. Although it sounds sick, it is convenient for the younger people who do not need to take care of there sickly parents. Maybe my grandmother was having trouble with the guilt of abandoning her brother. And that’s why she spent all of her time at the retirement home visiting him. I was told that in eastern Asia this would never happen. I met a women who said that her grandparents lived with them from the start of there retirement to the day they died. Both ways of dealing with things have specific benefits and disadvantages which I am curious to learn more about.

Hw 12

Thesis: Americans are under the false impression that the nightmarish industrial atrocities are necessary for maintaining our culture.

Claim 1Americans are in denial:

Americans are not healthy-http://newsroom.cigna.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=720

They believe they are-

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/health-care-security/overview/health-care-security-ov.htm

They are truly unhealthy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/the-true-cost-of-doubt-an_b_581514.html

CLAIM 2 Things can change:

Growth of green market-http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/29/sunday/main6816240.shtml

Other nations-

http://www.arla.com/

http://www.foodoresund.com/composite-313.htm

HW 11

As an experiment I decided to become a vegan for a week.
At first it went well. After a few days I had more energy and felt healthier. I found that the most convenient place to find vegan food was whole foods. They have a vegan desert section, a vegan veggie burger section, and a vegan version of just about everything. The people were a lot nicer and more helpful than cheaper grocery shops.
By the 4th day I was trying to find a way to stretch my money a little farther and look at the ingredients in the vegan food. I saw that most of it was made with soy. I decided to avoid soy. Saving money was a huge challenge. The restrictions almost limited my diet to just vegetables which are expensive if you are looking to get healthy ones. The goal of avoiding soy did not happen because of my budget. It was the primary meat and dairy replacement.
By the 6th day the initial feeling of more energy did not fully maintain itself, but I was still proud of what I had accomplished (except for the soy part). I found that I needed to eat more to get the same calorie intake and it was a challenge. It was becoming costly and I decided to continue for one more day.
IT WAS A FAILURE. On the last day of the experiment I went to my friend’s house for Shabbat dinner on Friday with her family. I had made the correct decision to eat dinner before I got there. I had a miss communication with the mother as she told me that I could eat the cookies she was surviving for dinner because they were completely kosher. She explained that that meant that there was no meat and no dairy products in the cookie. I ate it. I looked it up. There were no meat or dairy products. But there was an egg in the cookie.
The experiment was almost successful. Instead of an entire week with no animal products I went 6 days and 18 hours. Let’s just round it up to a whole week. I learned from some of the challenges which accrue as someone chose to abandon the American traditions and change there way of eating. I also learned that it is possible to abandon theses ways and make a change. There are affordable, healthy changes one can apply to a diet. For example, you can purchase 2 pounds of green beans for 4 dollars. The experiment taught me that people can find a balance between there traditional foods and healthy foods. Imagine an obese family who has hamburgers and french-fries every night from McDonalds. They can all split their hamburgers and get string beans and spend almost the same amount of money on that meal.