HW 31 - Comments Three

From Megumi: I can tell from reading this whole post that you really put the effort in this project, and I enjoyed reading it a lot! Before reading the post, I only knew that alzheimer was an illness of 'forgetting everything'-but after reading your post I had a better understanding of the disease. I laughed a little when I read the little tips to prevent alzheimer and found that good to know. One line I found particularly insightful was, "however, if death is what our final destination is than are we really living or just dying? Society seems to make living out to be as normal and dying is completely not normal. Dying is completely normal, so why do we put such a strain on the step?" You brought up a good question here, and its a question up for discussion. When thinking and really analyzing death and living, we find the weirdness among what the general public just categorizes as 'normal.'

From Steph: 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.

From Rebecca (Younger): This post was very engaging and exposed me to a deeper understanding of Alzheimer's. The line that I liked the most was, "It makes me wonder though if my grandfather was in two universes at once. If maybe Alzheimer’s is a point where you are merely stuck in time and although your body keeps moving forward your mind is still." Maybe having this disease allows you to literally be in the afterlife and the real world at the same time. Good Job. -Rebecca

From Carol (Older): This is an interesting blog because you are researching and explaining a disease but you are mostly talking about living life to its fullest and hopefully having a "good death" - meaning not one filled with pain and confusion. The line you wrote: "It makes me wonder though if my grandfather was in two universes at once." struck me because with all the modern technology we are all living in more than one universe at a time. We are where we are physically but we can also be somewhere else mentally and not really present. I think meditation could help fight many diseases too by calming the mind and body and bringing them together. Great presentation! Mom

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

To Steph: 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!

To Megumi: Megumi - I found your choice of topic very interesting. I would of never considered depression to fall under the category of illness and dying, however after reading your post I see why it does. The line that stood out to me the most was, "The illness and dying unit made me uncomfortable most of the time, but helped me confront the things I have been avoiding." Being able to admit you feel uncomfortable is actually very mature, and shows that you accept your emotions and are willing to work with them. I think by exploring a topic that has affected you personally you continue to go up mountains that are unknown at first. The tone of your voice in this post was very clear and well written. Great Job! :)

To Jay: Jay - I found your approach on this homework to be a bit different but I think you did a good job with making your point. I think by examining how technology relates to illness and dying we saw it from a different perspective, the cures, the hope we find in this confusing world. The line that stood out to me was, "With diseases like, the one we focused on, AIDS, technology plays a huge role in the advancement of medicine. New drugs that are released further the fight against monsterous diseases such as HIV/AIDS." When I think of fighting a disease I normally resort to medication as the first step however in order to reach that step technology is needed. It would be interesting though to explore how diseases were cured before the dominant use of technology. Using natural resources instead of manmade. However, overall I think this was well done!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Jessica - Great Job with your presentation I could tell you were very passionate about this topic and that it was personal. Your blog post was very informative about the details of your experience. I liked that you included a video to further explain what exactly open heart surgery is. If you were to edit this it would be interesting to hear your perspective on this surgery especially since you were alive in 2007. Overall though good job with this project!

Michelle - I really enjoyed your presentation and use of prop in school and so I decided to come check out your blog. My favorite line from your writing was, " So these elders are sent off to nursing home, where they are taken care of by a complete strangers. This is when abuse and neglect can transpire." It poses an interesting point, we are so worried about always being around people we are familiar with but once we don't have a choice we are shipped off to strangers. We don't consider the sick or elderly to have ideas and presume this is what they would want, when in reality if we were put in their shoes I doubt any of us would agree to this lifestyle change...Good Job with the post and the presentation! :)