HW 28- Comments 2

Ben H said...

The part about this post that I enjoyed the most was the way you were able to connect the insights you made from visiting Gloria to the insights you had previously came up with while reading Mountains Beyond Mountains and while listening to Beth. For instance, when you said, "Both of them wanted to give their family member the most dignified dying experience possible. Both also had a lot of pictures in the room to give visitors of sense of the person and also to make the dying person have good memories," you did a great job of connecting to specific things that Beth said when thinking of your own experience in the hospital. I also really liked the way your writing had a very personal touch to it.   Ben H said...

My favorite aspect about this post was how you were able to draw so many insights from a time that you visited the hospital where the patient's life was not exactly at risk. You were able to look at an experience that many people did not choose that is, in a way, more challenging, and still observe many things. For instance, you said, "She didn't want to be "babied" or given special treatment from anyone, she basically wanted us to treat her as if nothing had happened." Even though she was going to be fine, you were still able to observe changes in behavior.

 

TIM said...

I think you did a very good job on this post. I especially liked the part where you wrote how Jim was feeling about the way he was being treated by the nurses. Like when you said, "and although in this particular situation their job required them to make sure the patients stay was as comfortable as possible, it was clear that they were making an extra effort and actually felt for Jim. However, apparently there were others who were not nearly as considerate as they could have been." This really showed how even though the patient was not able to move or speak at all, he was still able to communicate the way he felt about what was going on, and it is very good that you were able to observe that.

 

Jim Harker said...

"More than anything, he was curious as to what was going on in our lives.... Jim would be smiling at times as well, because I'm sure he was happy to see us. However, we knew perfectly well that the only reason he was choosing to be kept alive was because he wanted to see his daughter grow." Very interesting observation. Jim seems to have kept trying to hold onto the good, 'normal' things as an anchor in the face of such a terrible, debilitating disease. Even when he was so incapacitated, he knew his daughter could give him joy, and (I think) that he could be a positive presence/memory for his daughter.