Hw 32 comments on Partners

Megumi

I was very impressed by this post, I sensed growth and a new level of maturity while reading through your final post about the unit. Just like you I am afraid what the future holds but I'm sure of one thing, I will not be dying in a nursing home or hospital. Your final thoughts were really strong and I enjoyed reading all your post about dying and illness. Keep up the great work!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found your post very insightful and I agree on your ideas-our society is indeed greedy and its silly how we do not have free health care. Its actually not that difficult because a lot of other countries as you mentioned-have universal free health care. A line in particular I liked was,"Overall America should be more opened minded about how they plan on helping American medical patients in the future." I found this very deep-and I do agree that by being more accepting we can have a better system for the ill and dying.

Sarah

Your post started off very interesting, I was automatically pulled in an connected immediately. I found it interesting how both you and Megumi stated that death is unavoidable and how you just have to live in the moment. I feel like your post really explained everything you gained from this unit and you showed that by explaining how you have to live more in the moment. Great post and continue with the great work!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay

Your post was not like many I've read, you seemed kind of upset which intrigued me. You explained other aspects of the unit which I didn't really think of, such as capitalism and the so called atrocities. This post was very insightful and I hope to read more post like this. Great job.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aside from a few grammatical and spelling errors, your post was very interesting. I especially liked this part; "After this unit I am going to take a lot better care of my body because as I get older I don't want to worry about what is going to happen god forbid I need to go to the hospital for something I could have prevented." I congratulate you on making a decision like that. I really hope you follow through and this decision makes your quality of life better.

Hw 32

I find our society to be very selfish, it's scary to think that if I need intense medical attention I may be rejected because one I don't have health care or two if I do have health care it might not cover everything I need. What's so difficult about giving out free health care or plans that benefit the patients not the greedy government? After this unit I am going to take a lot better care of my body because as I get older I don't want to worry about what is going to happen god forbid I need to go to the hospital for something I could have prevented.

After hearing about many student's illness and death projects I found something very peculiar, in other countries (although they might night be as wealthy as us Americans) give if not free a balanced price for medical attention, such as China and Canada. If America did this I believe they might gain more income and many patients will be a lot more satisfied. Also certain statistics could be raised or lowered depending on the statistic. Overall America should be more opened minded about how they plan on helping American medical patients in the future.

HW 31 comment 3

Brandon

Your elevator speech in class made me very interested in your topic. Reading your blog post about visiting the nursing home touched me and I was very impressed by your writing skills. Just like you I used to take visits to a nursing home with my mom when I was younger because I had many elderly family members in them, I totally agree with how you feel towards nursing homes. You should consider sharing your ideas in class more often, great post!

Jessica

Your speech was amazing and really grabbed my attention. The way you got into the topic and really explained certain aspects kind of terrified me but in a good way. Its obvious that you spent a lot of time on this topic and your post and speech show for it. After watching the video on your blog I got a full visual of what you were trying to portray in your speech, great job and I hope to read more of your post.

Hw 30 partner comments

Looking over my comments I noticed many of my commenters said I have to reread over my work and check for grammar mistakes, so i have to continue to take my time and reread at least twice to make sure I catch all of my mistakes.

Jay

I really liked how you talked about technology and hooked it to specific aspects of illness and dying and backed up your ideas. Your post was very engaging and I actually learned something from it. "Technology has helped to increase life expectancy and has helped decrease the threat of death in cancer, heart disease, and stroke patients." I found this sentence to be very powerful, I don't connect things like technology to other aspects of life, and hearing this made me realize technology can have a good affect on us as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Megumi

Your first paragraph pulled me right in, I agree that if an illness doesn't affect someone first hand they tend not to pay to much attention to it. "The seriousness of depression and the statistics for it matters because it shows in the numbers. If depression is treated more often, suicide rates will decrease greatly." I found this statement to be very powerful because if people/ doctors help themselves/patients more often then the outcome would be tremendous and benefit a lot of people. Thank you for giving such great detail with you r research and ideas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steph- I enjoyed reading your post, and found it very descriptive. It helped me get a better understanding of what a nursing home is like. I found it ironic that people think its for the best to send ill patients to a nursing home without really putting ourselves in their shoes. I honestly don't even think the nurses care about their patients-they just do their 'job.' A line I liked specifically was, "This experience helped me realize I rather just take care of my parents when they need help instead of sending them to a nursing home, because I feel like its hard for the nurses and doctors to keep track of all the patients." I completely agree with you, and I personally don't like the idea of nursing homes-it makes me question if its really 'homelike. Sarah First sentence was amazing, "As much as we have a choice on the person we want or would like to be our bodies have a mind of their own." This is compeltly true and many of us haven't accepted that yet. The 8 things you listed to prevent Altimezer's are there statistics that prove those 8 things will actually help? I really enjoyed reading your post and it really opened my mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steph - Your post and your experience in the nursing home reminded me a lot of when I went to a nursing home. The description in your opening paragraph immediatly embraces the reader. The line that stood out to me the most was, "In our culture it is very common for families to send there ill family members to a nursing home because it is an easy way out and they don't have to take responsibility for another human being." I agree with you, at a certain point people loose patience and the ability to stay sane, they resort to the "professionals" and loose the constant contact. It would be interesting for you to visit another nursing home and see if they are similar or different. Overall I thought this was very thoughtful and liked the way you described it while presenting to the class!

HW 30

My friends and I decided to go visit a nursing home named Mary Manning Walsh located on 72nd street and York avenue. Two of my elderly aunts lived there until they both passed away a couple of years ago. The weird or maybe unique thing about this nursing home is depending on what floor your on it is like an apartment building and nurses just walk around just in case someone needs assistance, but once you go to floor 6 for example everything changes.

On the 6Th floor you no longer smell the fragrances from the beautiful lobby (which is amazing and looks better then most lobbies) you soon smell odd odors of pee, medicines and body sprays that never smell good. Many of the patients were in wheel chairs in the hallways talking to strangers because there were so lonely or just mumbling to themselves. Many of the nurses were minorities and they didn't really pay any attention to the patients. On the walls of the hallway there were pictures of patients smiling in costumes, dancing, bowling, do all kinds of activities. Seeing these pictures confused me because when looking at the lifeless patients I couldn't picture them doing all of these activities.

This experience helped me realize I rather just take care of my parents when they need help instead of sending them to a nursing home, because I feel like its hard for the nurses and doctors to keep track of all the patients and actually spend quality time with each and every patient, and I believe once your sent to a nursing home you feel alone and want as much company as possible.

In our culture it is very common for families to send there ill family members to a nursing home because it is an easy way out and they don't have to take responsibility for another human being. This is important because once someone because unable to take care of themselves people feel like they are a burden and usually try to get rid of them or take the ill person to a place were they know they can be taken care physically but not always mentally and emotionally. When looking into nursing homes I believe people should look at all aspects such as activities the community, the nurses, the food, lay in the beds for 10 minuets, take a shower, anything to make sure the living conditions are suitable.

HW 28

I really liked how my mentor gave me feed back about what I did good but then also gave me constructive criticism which I tried to apply to my recent post Hw 27.

I was really impressed by the comment my "younger" person left me, it was very precise and the constructive criticism given was the same as my mentors. So for post 27 I reread over my work multiple times to check for grammatical errors.

Sarah's comment:

While reading your story I felt as if I was right there with you in the nursing home, you even explained the nurses in such great detail I had visuals. Your best line was "We walked passed another room where yet more people in wheelchairs were dressed up and wearing hats saying ‘Happy New Year." I pictured a scene from a movie and it expressed a sense of comfort. Although people were in wheel chairs they still had holiday spirit and were festive.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah's comment to me:

Steph - I really enjoyed reading this blog post. It showed equally your perspective and the woman in the story. It seems as though through her experience you have been able to open up to your own ideas on life. The line that stood out to me was, "As I was leaving her house she stated that she never wants to go back to a hospital and if she's going to die she wants to die in the comfort of her own home... Hearing her say this wasn't too surprising because if I was in her situation I would want to do the same." This seems like a common trend we are noticing throughout this unit. People would rather be surrounded by the ones they love the most verses the strangers who are paid to keep them alive. I think you have a good start to this story and I would like to hear more!

Megumi's comment:

While reading your post two sentences really popped out to me. The first being "Right now, I see her as a strong independent figure that continues to teach me the importance of living." I was impressed by this sentence because it is very strong and powerful and I personally would feel great hearing this from a loved one it would give me the courage to keep fighting. The second sentence that popped out to me was "I was shocked but I knew I had to stay strong so I could reassure her that everything will be okay" This popped out to me because although your sad you know you have to stay strong for your loved one because the struggle is a lot harder for her. Your post was very inspirational and drew me in great job.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Megumi's comment to me:

I found your post very moving and explicitly showed your reactions and emotions toward this figure. A line I found very insightful was, "It is possible that she doesn't want to feel like she is relying on medicine to keep her alive and she wants to die "naturally" and if it's her time to go she wants to just go." I also found it ironic that this figure was the complete oppostite as my grandmother who relies on medicine because she's afraid of death. The post made me question how we should use medicine.

Mentors comment:Steph- I really enjoyed this post because you stated your opinions on the situation and also the opinion of what the family member might believe. You didn't necessarily agree with what she believes, but that is what makes this post so interesting. It also shows how passionate you are about the subject. My favorite quote in this post was, "She is always falling and getting cuts and bruises but we all think of her as a warrior." In your familys case, her illness is not making her a weak person, but more of a fighter or "warrior". I find this very interesting because society would label her as the weaker link, but instead, you take a different approach. Beautiful! *Submitted by mentor