HW 30

   For my project I wanted to explore how my best friend dealt with his father surviving a stroke, and how did that affect his father and his family. The main reason why I wanted to do research on my friends fathers stroke is because I found it interesting on how I use to hang out at my friends house so much and his father and mother knew me so well, but after the stroke his father didn't know me or my name. So I wondered how that lost of memory affected the house hold he lived in. Even though lost of memory is only one side affect of having a stroke i asked my friend what were some other things that caused his father to have a stroke and what changed in his house hold.
   My friend told me that his father had a hard time even remembering his own kids, and for almost 2 months him and his family had to help his father remember all of his loved ones and others he knew. One of the main things that my friend said that changed about his father was his ability to move around and get from point A to point B. He constantly had to be around his father to make sure he was okay and because his father always needed assistance. He also told me that his fathers whole diet had to change because of the stroke he had to start eating extremely healthy, and due to that his father began to lose a lot of weight. What I found interesting was how he went into depth to explain his fathers emotions and how he was always depressed and never seemed to be happy, and when he told me this I knew that the stroke had to have an affect on him. Because through out my childhood he was like my second father and he was always filled with energy and ready to play sports and hang out so when he told me that i was really surprised. After speaking to my friend I did some research and everything he told me I found on the internet while doing research for side effects of having a stroke.
  While doing research one of the main things I found out was how having stroke can affect your perception, emotions, and swallowing and chewing. Stroke victims constantly have mood swings because the part of their brain that produce emotions are injured, and this is called emotional lability. This causes uncontrollable depression, laughter, etc.
    When my friend explained how is father lost weight because of his lack of eating, I figured out that is normal with stroke victims because the stroke disables the muscles in their mouth that allow them to chew and swallow so they just don't end up eating because it is too much of a hassle. This disorder is called dysphagia.
   I did enjoy doing this project but it did also made me realize how going through something like that can affect your family so much. While discussing the matter with my friend he explained to me that his father will never be the same and when he told me that I finally understood what he was going through and how he dealt with it i did did not understand because if that ever happen to my mother or father I don't think I could deal with it.
  I learn that illness and dying is apart of our daily lives and we are going to have to deal with it sooner or later. We will never know when it will happen to us or our loves ones but when it comes we have to be able to deal with it and over come it no matter how devastating it is.
What this shows about the dominant social practices of illness and dying in our culture is that no matter how much help and assistance we get from hospitals and doctors there's nothing they can do about the side affects that tear family's and friends apart. i feel that it is great that mt best friends father is better and back on his feet but he will never be the same and there's nothing that any hospital or doctor can do about that.
  The reason this whole project matters is because you are able to get insight into a concept that has so much depth and different perspectives. So when your able to actually focus on one aspect you get to see what illness and dying is all about and how it affects the lives of others and how our cultures goes about dealing with it.
   SOURCES:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4761

http://www.livestrong.com/article/78950-effects-having-stroke/

http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/UnderstandingRisk/Understanding-Risk_UCM_308539_SubHomePage.jsp
 
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/stroke/page3_em.htm#Stroke%20Symptoms


    
       

hw 29

Facing terminal illness- The idea of you knowing that you or someone else you know is going to pass away has to be one of the most scariest and sad things that you will experience in your life. With some people it's easier to grasp the idea that someone besides yourself is going to die. There is a time in everyone s life where you clearly understand that you are going to die and after a while it isn't that terrifying anymore. A great example is from Tuesdays with Morrie (pg 36) "You know how i'm going to die? he said . I raised my eyebrows. I'm going to suffocate. yes. My lungs, because of my asthma, can't handle the disease. It's moving up my body, this ALS. It's already got my legs. Pretty soon it'll get my arms and hands. SAnd when it hits my lungs..." This shows that Morrie has come a conclusion that his life is almost over and he barely has any time left.

Process of Dying- I honestly believe that the process of dying has to be one of the worst things ever, for the person thats dying and the family members and friends that have to watch and go through the process as well. When the guess speaker came in and explain that her husband had cancer and the process she and her kids had to go through to take care of him and be there for him, it made me realize how hard that most be. One insight she said was that her husband never believed that he was going to die he though that maybe a miracle would happen or then would cure him and things would be better. Even though he knew deep inside things were not changing for the better he still stuck with that plan. It was also so interesting how his process of dying brought the family together but also teared them apart. When she explain that the older son never really got to visit his father when he was sick, that shows that the death of someone can really be hard on the people that know they are going to spend the rest of their lives without he/she being there. Throughout that whole speech you feel extremely sorry for the family's lost but you also get some insight on what it is like to deal with the death of someone that is very close.

Being sick- Even though I don't remember ever being sick to the point where I had to go to the hospital. My mother told me when i was a baby I almost died because one of my kidneys failed and i had to have surgery so they could get rid of it. While my mother told me this story the only thing i could thing about was what if the surgery wasn't successful and I did die How would that affect my love ones?and How would their lives be different? Before this topic came up in class there was never a time where i would talk to my parents about illness or dying because i never wanted to talk about it because I feared it.