HW#19: Family Perspectives on Illness and Dying

Honestly, this unit makes me feel a bit uncomfortable because it's a topic that I think isn't needed to be spoken aloud about. Even if my mom brings up about certain aspects of it, I end up looking away because its a topic that is completely out of my comfort level. When it comes to illness and dying, I see my mother as a stronger figure than I am because she is able to voice her opinion while I tend to turn my back to it.

But, when it comes to how my mother perceives death and illness, it is similar to my views as well. There's only one life to live, and while this is a cliche I take it very seriously at times. While it is true that I use many of my time on electronic use, I don't see it as a negative thing necessarily. I use my phone and go on facebook because I like to keep connected with friends even if they're not with me in person all the time. Even besides electronic use, I take my time helping out with family chores and taking several extra-curricular activities.

For my mom, illness and dying is just something that happens in life. No matter what, death comes to every individual and that is something we all have to accept as we go on in life. As death comes nearer, we become more conscious about our existence and try harder to make our lives more worthwhile. My mother belives that while holistic medicine can make a person more healthier and recommends me to use it for prevention methods, but it isn't effective when a person becomes truly ill. Holistic methods only work only up to the point until the individual becomes really sick. While Allopathis medicine does not always work, my mo turns to that dominant method because it can cure. Even through a friend's friend who turned down surgery because she didn't believe in it, ended up unneccessarily sick. We have to turn to allopathic medicine in times of illness and that is how she (and I) think its the best way to face illness.

My grandma also is more on the allopathic side as well. She is sent to hospitals and goes see doctors because she does think that doctors and hospitals help her. She was a dancer when she was young, so she was originally in good shape which I think is still holistic. My grandpa on the other side is strongly holistic. Even though lately he's body isn't as strong as he wants it to be, every summer I went to Japan I took long tiring walks with him every night. Even in the mornings, I would see him walk out the house before 6AM to take walks. I think because of his strong holistic views, he looks a lot younger than his true age and is able to care for my grandma.

From my understanding of dominant culture perspectives, there were mostly overlaps of ideas from my mother's viewpoint and the culture's viewpoint. The dominant perspective is the allopathic medicine as the solution for illness and dealing with dying. My mother, as already mentioned, agrees with the dominant viewpoint and is only slightly agreeing with the minor holistic methods.

HW#18: Health and Illness Feasting

For Thanksgiving, usually my mother and I would go to a friend's dinner party to celebrate it. But, because I wasn't feeling too well I decided not to go this time. I instead went to a dinner party on friday my manager from work invited me to. In this dinner party, (like any Thanksgiving feast), the factor of food-pleasure supplement was the main focus of the event. Everyone simply just wanted to eat as much as they can and enjoy their time. This is one main aspect of being 'anti-body' because I doubt anybody (inclusing myself) were too self-conscious about how much we were eating.

There were also other aspects of 'anti-body' when thinking (though I sat with non-drinkers) many of my older co-workers were drinking a lot. I doubt they thought about the after affect of what would happen the next day because it was simply a day to relax and have a good time. This dinner party was also partially anti-body because we were eating at a restaurant and sat on hard chairs.(Even though this didn't bother me at all). We also didn't move around that much, so that aspect was also 'anti-body.' I didn't even think about the chairs or about my body during that time, because the focus was just on eating the food that was being passed around the table and to have a great time with everyone.

It was already 11PM when we decided to leave the restaurant. Ofcourse, I went home but some members were willing to still drink elsewhere. I thought this after-drinking factor was huge when thinking about the illness and dying unit. I don't think over-drinking or over-eating to celebrate a holiday or on one day would necessarily cause illness or dying, but I thought it was something to think about. I guess celebrations/holidays like Thanksgiving goes hand in hand with negative affects to the body and our health, but I still don't think its that much of a big deal.

HW#17: First Thoughts on Illness and Dying Unit

Illness and dying is always a sensitive topic to me (and most likey for others as well), and is always a topic of discussion that I like to avoid. I see nothing positive in it, and all the emotions involved with these two words is pain and sorrow. I had to deal with the death of my grandfather on my father's side and currently I am worried about the condition of my grandma on my mother's side, and the depression my aunt deals with. It is especially worrisome when most of my family is in Japan, and keeping in touch is not really easy. I think this unit might trigger some of the fears I have surrounding these topics, because I really do not like the idea of loosing people who really mean a lot to me.

I really love my grandparents on my mother's side. My grandma would whine about not wanting to go to the hospital and complain about food. She even ran away and came back home during a period of hospitalization. Someimes I really question if she really values her life. My grandma has a walking stick and a disabled arm. My grandpa would always help put her clothes on and help take her medications. It's surprising how much she acts strong when she is really ill. It's also worrisome. When I heard about the illness and dying unit, I thought about my grandma. My mother had told me that she always told her how scared she is of dying. She basically can't do anything on her own, and I know the doctors would not be very surprised if she died anytime soon. I don't like that idea.

I do not like the idea of being ill and having the idea of dying in the back of people's minds. Is there really nothing I can do for my grandma? Is there nothing people can do to help those who are really ill? What is the point in living a life of consistent pain and the fear of death right by you? I want my grandma to live a really long life, but at the same time I feel as though if I was in the same position as her I would feel really differently. There's only one life: and I want to be able to live it to the fullest. I would not want to live a life of hospitals, medicines, and the sadness of unable to do anything on my own. I want to be a healthy person throughout my life and be able to do a lot of things.