Extra Credit

I decided to spend a few days with my biological mother since she is ill. I dont know the medical term for her illness but she has to use oxygen to breathe correctly for the rest of her life. Instead of analyzing how she lived I asked her a few questions on her daily life.

How did you feel?
- I'm alright, I just took my pills so I wont be so sore

How many pills do you take a day  ?
- I have about 7 prescriptions, but I dont like to take them all. I just take my pain killers whenever my body aches

Have you ever tried going a full day without pills?
- Yeah but I ended up in the hospital , my body needs the pills now

Do you pay for them?
- No health insurance does thank god or else I'd probably be dead by now

How do you feel when you walk around in public with an oxygen tank?
- I'm use to it now but I use to feel ashamed because people would stare dont you remember?

MY INSIGHTS
My mother has been sick for pretty much my entire life shes always needed an oxygen tank.I remember setting out her pills and getting her glasses of water to take them, I'd give her her shots and get her new oxygen tanks before I turned 10. Whenever lincare delivered new tanks I'd sign the forms. I had a lot of responsibilities at a young age to help her get through her sickness. Which isn't a normal dominant social practice the "grown ups" usually take care of the sick and dont involve the children but my brother and I were fully involved. We knew her doctor appointments when she needed her pills re filled and how many shes allowed to take. I never asked why my brother and I were given the responsibility to take care of her or why we were allowed to know so much. In the African culture its the child's duty to pay dues to their parents, make their beds clean their rooms laundry dishes etc to show they're appreciation towards their parents. My brother and I involvement in her sickness can be considered a dominant social practice but it depends on your cultural background, from the perspective of someone who's involved in African culture we were doing the right thing but someone who isn't involved in African culture might think we were to involved. When in introduced my mom to the terms "holistic" and "allopathic" she identified herself as a holistic , I told her that didn't make sense because she took medicine she replied "with out these pills I would get worse" I wonder why doctors provide medicine that the body becomes dependent on. This doesn't allow them to live well it just allows them to feel better for a certain period of time. Just like when they're trying to revive a patient, yeah they have a chance to survive but they're ribs are broken, if someone was diagnosed with aids or HIV they can survive but they have to take pills for the rest of their lives. There is always a "but" when it comes to social dominant practices. Being around my mother showed me that death can be cheated although she depends on an oxygen tank to help her breathe and medicines to stop her aches and pains shes still living.

HW 32

What's most nightmarish about our culture's practices around illness & dying?

Its almost as if once a person gets old they're no good, its normal to put them into a nursing home or leave them in the hospital. I feel like old people are considered a nuisance, they cant do much for them self and need help getting around almost like a new born baby. Instead of being appreciated and have they're lives celebrated most have to deal with taking numerous amount of pills constantly being at the hospital and pity.

What might you do or address differently as a result of what you've learned this unit, individually and with your family?
I'm curious to know how some of my family members want to be buried or if they want to be cremated and also how they want they're funeral to be. These type of decisions are made after the person dies because no one wants to plan their own funeral, but I want to be able to provide the things they want at they're funeral.  Also I would like to know if they were ever in a vegetable state would they want the plug pulled, this happened with my aunt and it create a huge ordeal with the family because no one could agree on whether or not to pull the plug. Death is something you cant escape from and we cant avoid it yet most of us try. Its something that should be discussed because we never know when were gunna bit the dust.

How do dominant social practices (DSP) around illness & dying connect to DSP around food in our culture?
 Its ignored we know that most foods are processed ,and the animals aren't being treated well and most of the meat is tainted but we ignore it. Death is inevitable its going to happen to all of us one day but we ignore it. The DSP is to ignore it and remain happy citizens we dont have to deal with it until its put in front of us. These units made me understand the saying "ignorance is bliss" I never understood why having lack of knowledge would be a good this but the less you know the less you worry. The less people know about the disgusting food they eat the less they worry. The less people know about what happens to they're sick and dying loved ones and where they actually "go" when they die the less they worry.

HW 30

• What aspect of the dominant social practices around illness & dying did you decide to explore? 

Nursing homes and how they deal with the old and dying.

• What resource(s) or insight(s) from the unit (if any) connect to this aspect?

"Tuesdays With Morrie" how death is viewed by someone who is old and/or dying

• What information did you gather from the internet related to this aspect? Please cite sources.

Not many people want to take care of the old, there are less and less nurses being able to provide care. Sometimes the workers are unhappy with they're job and start to mistreat the elderly.  Theres many nursing homes all over but I dont think anyone really cares about a nursing home until they or someone they care about is being sent there.
(http://www.efmoody.com/longterm/nursingstatistics.html)
(http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20020922nursinghomes0922p1.asp)

• How did you explore? What did you do in the real world? Did you enjoy it, contribute to another, see something new? Give us some flavor, show don't tell.

Went to a nursing home on 72nd and york. The lobby was really nice but once you traveled up  few floors yuck. It smelled but all the nurses were pretty friendly(who were mostly minorities). They had the medication just sitting to the side in a bunch of little cups. A lot of the patients were sitting down in either chairs or wheel chairs. It really quite, I expected them to have activities for the patients like they do in movies but that was definitely not the case.

• What did you learn? 

Getting old sucks and unfortunately the old is mistreated. when people dont want to deal with the sick and old and dying they give the responsibility to someone else. Sometimes they mistreat they're patients and dont pay much attention to them.  The more money the patient has I'm guessing the better they're treated and the nicer the facility. Money makes the world go round.

• What does this show about dominant social practices of illness & dying in our culture?

People dont like to deal with it and want to keep it out of mind, illness and dying is never a positive thing so when it does occur in someones life its depressing. There isn't much control over illness and dying which people strive to change , but if they dont have to deal with it then its not they're immediate problem. If grandma is suffering and dying slowly and living in your house its depressing overwhelming and sad but if shes suffering and dying slowly in a nursing home shes receiving all the care she can get.

HW 29

Facing Terminal Illness - When someone is facing a terminal illness a social dominant is to take as much medication to slow down the process, or to terminate the sickness. Usually the doctors tip toe around the subject of death and make the person feel completely. Comfortable  grieve  for the person who is ill. They pray for the sick and give them their undivided attention when they're with them. They like to focus on the positive and not dwell on the negative. 


Isolation -  When your old sick or dying the usually answer is to go to the hospital to get "the best treatment" or to go to a senior citizen home where your provided "hands on care". The main focus is getting the unwell person better, no one is worried about the mental and emotional and even the physical aftermath of it all. Being constantly injected with medicine, left alone in a dark hospital room being served crappy hospital food, the main focus is to make the unwell person health again. For example when a doctor or nurse is reviving someone, there's a high risk of breaking their ribs even though the person may be brought back to life their ribs are broken. Main focus is to make them better. 


Being sick - Most pop pills when they're sick have a headache? Take a Tylenol a little congestion take some NyQuil. The answer is always medicine. Some people that choose the holistic route by using acupuncture or by not taking medicine. Drinking tea and simply eating healthy and exercising taking medicine isn't always the answer to every problem.

HW 28

To Rossi-  "Doctors fear that they will not be paid appropriately. This was proven to be untrue, since the Canadian doctors make just as much money as the Americans. In short, the United States health insurance system is corrupt, cheap, and not nearly as affective as it could, and should, be. " Cheap is the perfect word to use, the whole issue with health insurance is because people are worried that they won't "get paid" When a question is asked about the health insurance issue there is never a straight forward and direct answer. The reasons never really add up. Im completely agree with what you stated in your post and I think that this is and issue that will go unresolved until someone who has a very high ranking in the government takes a stand.