Living is a Cure for Dying
As I Live and Breath by Jamie Weisman and "A Sudden Illness," by Laura Hillenbrand are two people that live with diseases that threaten their lives of every second of everyday. Throughout their illness, they have learned to love the things that they could accomplish in life instead of thinking about when their illness will take its deadly toll. Hillenbrand and Weisman understood and accepted their illnesses as a part of their lives and not as the most important thing in their lives. They persevered because they did not spend their time dwelling on their illnesses; they spent their time thinking about having children, medical school, and everyday concerns that a person who was not chronically had to worry about. In both stories, the authors reveal that by living each day to the fullest they are able to create a sense of normalcy in their lives without focusing too much on the daily challenges that come about because of their illnesses.
In Jamie Weisman's As I live and Breath, she developed a sense of normalcy through family because they gave her all the love and support and treated her the same way they would if she was not ill. Her mother and father are her main support and motivation to be all that she is able to be regardless of her illness. Weisman has a form of congenital immune deficiency that causes her immune system to have a hard time fighting of bacteria and other viral infections as
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well as a healthy immune system. She has been through surgeries and many infections and she always had to give herself hope by being ambitious. "I am filling out medical school applications while I recuperate from my first parotid surgery..." (Weisman 191). She continued to live life as normally as possible in order to counteract the fear of dying; she did that by keeping her hope of being a doctor alive. Another aspect of her ability to overcome the fear dying was the love and support from family. They motivated her and encouraged her to live as normally as possible by allowing her to the same treatment as her other siblings. Her father was one of her most important reasons to want to live. He fought for her health since the very first day that she became sick with shingles. She always saw him as her protector and always felt protected by him, when he was by her side she forgot about the death her illness could bring to her and the lives that it could affect because she believed he would protect her from all of that.
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
Hospice focuses on end of life care. When patients are facing terminal illness and have an expected life sentence of days to six months or less of life. Care can take place in different milieu including at home, hospice care center, hospital, and skilled nursing facility. Hospice provides patients and family the tool and resources of how to come to the acceptance of death. The goal of care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort, and dignity. A team of health care providers and volunteers are responsible for providing care. A primary care doctor and a hospice doctor or medical director will patients care. The patient is allowed to decide who their primary doctor will be while receiving hospice care. It may be a primary care physician or a hospice physician. Nurses provide care at home by vising patient at home or in a hospital setting facility. Nurses are responsible for coordination of the hospice care team. Home health aides provide support for daily and routine care ( dressing, bathing, eating and etc). Spiritual counselors, Chaplains, priests, lay ministers or other spiritual counselors can provide spiritual care and guidance for the entire family. Social workers provide counseling and support. They can also provide referrals to other support systems. Pharmacists provide medication oversight and suggestions regarding the most effective
3. The relation between the chronically ill patient and the body is of intertwined subjectivity, of one human dignity and human strength. This is made manifest through the patient’s continued struggle for life despite awareness of dwindling quality of health and diminishing quality of life.
Folklore speculation states that the hymn “Rock of Ages” was allegedly written following a sudden and severe thunderstorm, that the author, Augustus Montague Toplady witnessed while being forced to take shelter under a rocky cliff. Although this composition was completed in 1776, it remains to be a source of inspiration for a multitude of people today. Salvation is the prime ingredient to this poetically constructed song, Toplady systematically captures biblical translations that masterfully support his concepts. The message he artistically conveys is simple, without God, more importantly, without the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the human soul cannot be salvaged. Therefore, only by the grace of God can we enter freely
Though illness is an important step in the development of the world society tends to react, oddly to illness. Whether said illness is physical, mental, or a mix of the two, people just don't know how to react to the issue of sickness. This is present in both class books in multiple ways. In The Art Of Racing On The Rain by Garth Stein one of the main characters is diagnosed with brain cancer, as a result the protagonist Denny has to deal with this in lots of ways, and it doesn't help much that when people are told of his struggle they awkwardly remove themselves from the situation. When Denny waits for the bus with Enzo and Zoë to go to school another father befriends him, but it finally gets to the point when the man asks about Denny's wife, he replies, ‘“She's recovering from brain cancer.” The man dipped his head sadly upon hearing the situation. After that day, whenever we went to the bus stop, the man made himself busy talking to other people or checking his phone,” (Stein 131). In Still Alice by Lisa Genova, the main character Alice has to resign as a researcher and professor of Harvard as she is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's. As a result all the people she worked with previously had found out and one person in particular said, “Are you sure? You don't look any different.” (Genova 184). People always tend to believe illness entails that a person will somehow look different, obviously not always true, especially with mental illness. People always expect something to be different or something else to happen and that's not always true. Another part in The Art Of Racing In The Rain Eve finally comes home from being in the hospital and Enzo interprets it as, “I didn't like any of this, all the new furniture, Eve looking limp and sad, people standing around like Christmas without presents.” (Stein 118). All these
who were depressed were 4 to 5 times more likely to have made serious inquiries about
There are many ways to categorize illness and disease; one of the most common is chronic illness. Many chronic illnesses have been related to altered health maintenance hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are associated with diet and stress, deficient in exercise, tobacco use, and obesity (Craven 2009). Some researchers define the chronic illness as diseases which have long duration and generally slow development (WHO 2013); it usually takes 6 month or longer than 6 month, and often for the person's life. It has a sluggish onset and eras of reduction for vanishing the symptoms and exacerbation for reappear the symptoms. Some of chronic illness can be directly life-threatening. Others remain over time and need intensive management, such as diabetes, so chronic illness affects physical, emotional, logical, occupational, social, or spiritual functioning. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, all of these diseases are the cause of mortality in the world, representing 63% of all deaths. So a chronic illness can be stressful and may change the way a person l...
The uncertain nature of chronic illness takes many forms, but all are long-term and cannot be cured. The nature of chronic illness raises hesitation. It can disturb anyone, irrespective of demographics or traditions. It fluctuates lives and generates various inquiries for the patient. Chronic illness few clear features involve: long-lasting; can be managed but not cured; impacts quality of life; and contribute to stress. Chronic illnesses can be enigmatic. They often take considerable time to identify, they are imperceptible and often carry a stigma because there is little sympathetic or social support. Many patients receive inconsistent diagnoses at first and treatments deviate on an individual level. Nevertheless, some circumstances require
The purpose of this essay is to analyse various theories on ageing, death, dying, and end of life issues from different perspectives such as: biophysiological theories, psychosocial theories; and taking in consideration the cultural, historical, and religious implications around the aforementioned life stages. One will also discuss important issues relevant to social work practice such as dignity, autonomy, and their relationship with the concept of a successful ageing and a good death. One considers these areas important since they upheld anti-discriminatory practice and may perhaps promote the development of personalised care pathways, as well as fair and justifiable social policies.
Death alone is a scary thought to most individuals. People who live their life in fear of death don’t really get the most out of life. Someone who is terminally ill would be in a similar situation. There are two ways to live life after being diagnosed terminally ill. One way would be to get the most out of what remains of the person’s life. This would be considered the positive outcome. In the story “Letter from a Sick Person” the narrator recently has been informed he is terminal. Instead of panicking or being upset he embraces it. He accepts that his death is unavoidable and it gives him a brand new meaning in his life. He states, “In journeys, the greatest grief is hidden”. This life explains while he is not exactly happy he has discovered a way to cope with his illness. He feels as if it was his time stating, “I tell you I wanted death to come like a captain and carry me off”. Even in his death he knew that it wasn’t him who would be forced to overcome his death but the people left
The subject of death and dying can cause many controversies for health care providers. Not only can it cause legal issues for them, but it also brings about many ethical issues as well. Nearly every health care professional has experienced a situation dealing with death or dying. This tends to be a tough topic for many people, so health care professionals should take caution when handling these matters. Healthcare professionals not only deal with patient issues but also those of the family. Some of the controversies of death and dying many include; stages of death and dying, quality of life issues, use of medications and advanced directives.
Death is the one great certainty in life. Some of us will die in ways out of our control, and most of us will be unaware of the moment of death itself. Still, death and dying well can be approached in a healthy way. Understanding that people differ in how they think about death and dying, and respecting those differences, can promote a peaceful death and a healthy manner of dying.
Afterlife is (in some religions) life after death. Those who feel that death is a positive factor in someone life may argue that there is an afterlife waiting for people, animals and all other living things in the world that are destined to become deceased. While others against death may argue that death is the final chapter in a person’s life and there is nothing awaiting them afterwards. However, I believe that death is not the end of the road. There is exploratory confirmation to recommend that life can proceed after death, according to the biggest medical study carried out on the subject. A group located in the UK has done a lot of investigating in the last four years heart failure patients to found out what kind of life-after-death encounters
Death is something that causes fear in many peoples lives. People will typically try to avoid the conversation of death at all cost. The word itself tends to freak people out. The thought of death is far beyond any living person’s grasp. When people that are living think about the concept of death, their minds go to many different places. Death is a thing that causes pain in peoples lives, but can also be a blessing.
I was very excited to take Death and Dying as a college level course. Firstly, because I have always had a huge interest in death, but it coincides with a fear surrounding it. I love the opportunity to write this paper because I can delve into my own experiences and beliefs around death and dying and perhaps really establish a clear personal perspective and how I can relate to others in a professional setting.