Insights & Experiences:
- Health Insurance was tough to come by since they were both Artist.
- After finding out that her Husband was diagnosed with Cancer, she didn't want to hear about how things were usually done on TV.
- Limited option is what could now be done in a normal day.
- Mobility issue.
- "When you get sick enough; Dignity goes out the window."
- Family getting together during the time of Beth's husband getting ill.
Hearing the insights and experiences Beth Bernett went through when she was with her husband made a lot more sense with the insights and experiences that I thought would happen. One of my insights were, that when one gets sick, a lot of the normal things start to end. During the time Beth's husband was suffering from cancer, gradually, the normal habits started to end because of how ill he was getting. Beth brought my insights further based on her experience because when some of the normal habits were stopped, her husband had to learn to cope with it and based on his "out-going" personality, it affected him a lot. Each individual that suffers from an overbearing illness has to learn either to cope or "heroically" want to fight it off because of this sense of dignity that they still want to hold on too. Which is another thing Beth mentioned when it came to the point where her husband had to accept loosing his dignity based on how much his illness was putting him through.
Another thing that struck me was the all to well "get together" when one family member gets ill and everyone gets much closer. When my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, everyone in the family came to her aid immediately because we wanted to show her we cared about her. Usually these get together go two ways, the individual who's ill decides whether or not they want to be around family when there dying, or completely close them off because they don't want them to be hurt. Its two very interesting choices that really depends on how that individual feels and for my aunt she chose to keep quiet, I still don't know much about her condition to this day. Beth, as well when her husband was very ill, it was more of a decision to have the family know, but keep contact with people limited only because this sense of hurting people was apparent.
During Beth's presentation to our class, I started to realize that a hospital curtains the ugly and the beauty of dying. If Beth and her husband didn't ask straight up about her husband's condition, a lot of what doctors were saying would be the "heroic" type of things that are said in movies and TV. Which is not as much of a big problem because of how sensitive illness and dying is of a topic. Usually coating the truth about something traumatic could do someone good because it might be unbearable for those who couldn't handle something like hearing they were going to die, or you have this much amount of time left in this world, etc.
Father of Christian...
ReplyDelete"Which is another thing Beth mentioned when it came to the point where her husband had to accept loosing his dignity based on how much his illness was putting him through."
I would have to agree with one losing their dignity, especially when having to do things that is private and personal and now needing assistance from someone else. Personally, I would not want someone to assist me with anything that's private as I would find it very embarrassing.
I would further say that contracting an illness that has made one dependent on others to assist them, makes one become a burden and an inconvenience to others.
Mother of Christian...
ReplyDeleteCertainly people have different ways for coping with terminal illnesses as described above. I can certainly identify with the need to maintain some sense of dignity. When my father was dying from terminal cancer, his need maintain some aspect of dignity drove him to walk to the bathroom rather than use the bed pan, even in immense pain
until the day before he died. Dignity was paramount to him.
Younger Sister of Christian...
ReplyDelete"...the individual who's ill decides whether or not they want to be around family when there dying, or completely close them off because they don't want them to be hurt."
I could relate to what you said because it's not only a choice you make when you're ill or dying. It's something you have to deal with commonly, whether or not to tell someone what you are going through. It is a really tough decision, because like you said it's based off someone's personality. I know that if I was put into a situation like Beth's husband, I would choose to share it with family because I know I would need to feel the support and comfort of my family while dealing with something as traumatic cancer.
Christian. I liked your further inquiry on the effect of dying from cancer beths husband went through, and how because Beths husband had such an "out-going" personality this effected him even more. I like how you also went on to explain why this is, how when we are dying we have certain need to fight the illness because we have too much "dignity" or "pride" when really we just don't want to accept the fact that we are dying. Your insights on death bringing family closer together were interesting as well. I've also noticed this as a common happening in our culture. As the saying goes "you never know what you have till its gone"
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
Harry