HW33- Closing I&D Comments

My comment on Casey's HW32-

lol with the formatting, not sure what happened there :P

Excellent job connecting the unit with the "Invisible hand", a term that wasn't uttered once in the last month! And you are completely right! The conservatives (the ones who have the military preferred view you cited) have this fetish with military spending so they can pulverize other nations and act as the "tough guy" while behind their backs our OWN people are withering away.

I wish it were as easy as spending in the right places, and maybe this IS the most practical way of doing things in our current situation. But I think overall we need a reassessment of what our biggest enemy is: sickness (and not the spending fetish kind, the physical and sometimes mental (which was surprisingly hardly discussed at all this unit... parenthesis in parenthesis ftw...) kind). People are acting as if money is all what has kept us advancing in science... when it's really only ALLOWING us to continue (because money has "stuff" value)- the KNOWLEDGE has been with us all along. If it weren't for corruption and research was free to do... we probably would be much further along.

Great post to cap off an awesome blog for this unit!
Evan

My comment on Eloise's HW32-

My goodness! I almost forgot about you Eloise! Sorry xD

You have some really strong ideas here (the structures of power Andy mentioned, game of fighting evils, neutrality, etc.) but your overall post seems like it was cut short! I would have really liked to read your thoughts on certain examples or more in-depth explanations (you deal a ton of absolutes in this post, before you make such statements you should dig deep). Anywho, your ideas themselves are concrete, and the whole thing was articulated well for the short length of the post- though it left me wanting more.

I look forward to reading you blog in the next unit (for the short time that I'll actually be here...),

Evan

Casey's comment on MY HW32-

Evan,
Your post raised some interesting questions. Why do you say that "When man is dropped into a world where time is limited..he brings suffering and doom upon the weaker population out of fear, not hatred." Who embodies the weaker population? What evidence from the unit led you to this idea of fear vs. hatred? You're first paragraph contains much potential for being very meaningful to the reader, but I do not completely understand your reasoning behind your insights.
My favorite sentence was "In a sense we all contribute to how the world turns out to be each and every day" because this knowledge is not only interesting and potentially encouraging, but also an inspiration for acting in a way that will benefit the world.

Eloise's comment on MY HW32-

Mom's comment on MY HW32-

I think what you meant by your opening is that what man fears most is death, and that man has the capacity for great cruelty when he feels his existence or well-being is threatened; I quite agree. I loved the way you expounded on the way each of us affects all of us. And I particularly loved the reference to music and poetry as some of the conveyors with which we transfer our knowledge, our feelings, linking the whole of humanity through generations and time. Mom

Aaron's comment on MY HW32-

I AM SO SORRY FOR POSTING THIS SO LATE! I didn't get your text message till today! I will try my best to never let this happen. Sorry if it is too late to comment! Anyway, the quote "People are acting as if money is all what has kept us advancing in science... when it's really only ALLOWING us to continue (because money has "stuff" value)- the KNOWLEDGE has been with us all along. If it weren't for corruption and research was free to do... we probably would be much further along." stands out to me. It shows that we aren't fully using all what we have. We have the money to advance in science, but not everything needs money. I agree we could get much more research for science if it didn't have a cost.

HW 32- Thoughts following Illness & Dying Unit

After months of studying the dominant social practice(s) on illness and dying, I've come to the conclusion that no matter what approach we have to avoiding death, we are always fighting the "long defeat" (in the words of Dr. Paul Farmer), and that when man is dropped into a world where his time is limited and his brothers and sisters are falling around him, he brings suffering and doom upon the weaker population out of fear, not hatred. It is obvious that nobody wants to die, because we find much beauty and grace in the world around us. However, humans can be very clever beings, and sometimes they will reason to lead others to their demise in order to save their own skin. Why though, would they do this when they realize the irony of their situation? It is because humans are also capable of detachment, and incapable of fully understanding another's point of view.

Although we can try to make death less painful through the idea of religion and process of home hospice, it remains a nightmare because it is the essential unknown. Nobody can or ever will know the meaning or purpose or follow-up to death, and as much as us rational thinkers can try to deduce a theory or comfort ourselves with ideas such as "everything happens for a reason" or "this is only the beginning of the journey" no one person has more credibility on the subject than another. What we DO know for sure though, is that we possess the ability to make a difference beyond our time, creating a "rippling" effect by changing the lives and accompanying the journeys of our children, grandchildren, friends, acquaintances and even enemies, which in many ways CAN make us live on forever. We will live on in the songs sung by the future, the poems written beyond our time, the discoveries that wait ahead- in a sense we ALL contribute to how the world turns out to be each and every day. One day generations hundreds of years into the future will look back and say, "Thank you Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Evan, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here today."

HW 32- Culminating Comments Collection!

MY comment on Casey's HW 30:

Excellent post and survey to go with a great presentation! I thought it was really funny that guys are more afraid of death before being able to leave their mark, because it's true!! However I only think most of us (including myself) are very competitive, while there are some exceptions. The same goes for females (but reversed).

Best passage to me was,

" I learned from this project that teenaged males are probably more afraid of death than teenaged females are, and thus live in more misery. This conclusion is based on the assumption that Epicurus was right when he said that the ultimate cause of misery is the fear of death and the desire for immortality"

HOWEVER- I am not sure you are in a place to deal such an absolute about males living with more misery. You touch on this a little bit about the survey being on such a small scale but I would not go on to make this level of judgement quite yet. Also, I was somewhat disappointed at the abruptness of the ending of the post- I was looking for that one really, beautiful closer but I never got it.

Excellent work,
Evan

MY comment on Eloise's HW 30:

Eloise,

WOOOOAAHH!!!! You really went all out on this one! :)

You begin with a very heart-throbbing tale that I am sure was difficult and took much bravery to write. Then you go on to explain in detail a very interesting idea about 'how what is deemed important' and by whom, which directly challenged the dominant social practice of leaving fate and decisions in the hands of doctors.

Then the third paragraph. Or I should say the BEST paragraph! You bring an onslaught of insights and claims (which are backed up with excellent evidence) forth and the entire idea of the separation of the physical, social and emotional elements is a very interesting one. There are so many quotable parts in this paragraph, that I simply cannot choose any single one to highlight, so I will just go ahead and say pretty much EVERYTHING in that paragraph was the best.

The focus on arts and yoga in the hospital environment was very significant to me personally, having worked on art with hospice patients over many years. I wish you could've gotten to this in more detail in your presentation! Your narrative on Sandra was also engaging and kept me invested, and you conclude nicely.

If there's any room for improvement, I guess it'd just be to trim the less excellent writing from the already outstanding stuff. I can see you put a lot of effort into this, and if you perhaps kept everything a bit shorter (almost a precis of each paragraph but not quite as short), you'd have a very strong, short post that wouldn't take 30 minutes to read :)

Evan

Eloise's comment on MY HW 30:

ok I am going to start with the negative and leave on a positive note.
I don't think you answered your own question as to why we want to live to a 100, or at least did not make it clear.

"I found it particularly interesting that something as simple as a sense of purpose could be considered a virtual life-extender, especially considering just how direct the other factors are toward maintaining health (keeping active, staying stress-free, being well supplied with care, a fixed diet, etc.)."I thought that this one of the most insightful quotes because you seem to sum up what makes a optimal life. I think you could have expanded on this point and make it stronger by relating to how this could be an effect of the social practices and if this is seen in our culture.

Mom's comment on MY HW 30:

I learned a few interesting tidbits of how different cultures honor this milestone, and I am glad to hear my mother is bullish about living to be 100, to see how her grandchildren turn out. But I wish that there had been more depth to this blog entry and to the interview. I think it's nice, but not all that surprising (or interesting) to ask people if they want to live to be 100 and how they get there (good diet, spirituality, etc.). I think it would have been more interesting to ask how people at the 'midway' point of life feel knowing that they are closer to death than birth; how we view our own mortality and to what lengths we would be willing to go to stay alive (and ultimately, DNR or no DNR); if we would really want immortality if we could have it, and the ramifications both personally and as a society if there were such a thing; and more realistically, the ramifications of an ever-growing aged population due to the 'miracles' of science.

Aaron's comment on MY HW 30:

"In the end, whether it be the result of genetics or technique, men and women around the world continue to walk on the stones of years, effectively evading the least common denominator that has and will always catch us all: illness and death." This quote shows how you took a simple question about age and allowed it to connect to everyone from a elder in their 80s to a child. You show how we all must face death. From even just learning how to walk to lying down ill in a hospital, this question can relate to me, you, and anyone else. You show how we all can't be 100 yet we can all relate to it.

Casey's comment on MY HW 30...

Evan,
First of all, I laughed out loud at the two comments above :p
Second of all, I agree with Eloise about you answering your questions; your post was full of interesting ideas about perspective of death, and selflessness with age. (I especially enjoyed your metaphor in "In the end, whether it be the result of genetics or technique, men and women around the world continue to walk on the stones of years, effectively evading the least common denominator that has and will always catch us all: illness and death.") Although lovely to read and visualize, it still did not answer your question of the meaning and appeal of living to be 100.
Additionally, I recommend changing your introductory sentences; I know that you were trying to tie the reader in and be interesting, but truly, does EVERYONE want to live to be 100? is it really a dream commonly shared by ALL? Be careful with gross generalizations.

HW 30- What it means to be 100 years old

For the culminating experiential project of our illness and dying unit I decided to look at what is often referred to as dream commonly shared by all: becoming a century old. Whenever you ask someone how long they wish to live, they will nearly always tell you "at least to 100". I asked myself what was so appealing and meaningful about this milestone everybody holds at such a high standard. Was it the fact that they took care of themselves well? Or could it simply have been the work of good genes? Is there some defining difference in life success that age 99 couldn't bring? I decided to do extensive research on the insights and information of those who have lived to 100 and beyond, and what it really means for them to have reached this accomplishment. As for my experiential step, I decided to interview my grandma (currently 81) years old on the thought and meaning of dying, how she would like her dying to be handled and what it would mean to her to reach the 100 year milestone.

The first area of interest I explored was what dominant social practices and views are attributed with "centenarians". Through my research (primarily internet due to lack of time and specific resources) I found that there are many traditions that celebrate centenarians, and even super centenarians (those who live to 110+). Since 1983, NBC's Today Show has announced and wished a happy 100th birthday to anyone who reaches the milestone, and in the United States it is a tradition that new centenarians receive a letter of congratulations from the president. Similarly, in the UK the Queen addresses their achievement through a personal letter, and those who reach 100 in Japan receive a silver cup in addition to recognition. Some countries, such as Ireland, even pay those who survive long enough as a reward for reaching 100 years of age (Irish Times)! When it comes to other popular culture mentions, the Swedish birthday song wishes the person, "...may you live for a hundred years," (Scandinavius) and Judaism has the common phrase "may you live to be 120 years old." It is clear to me that this number for some reason is given the utmost significance, as if the moment we reach 100 years the clouds will part, the sun will shine, and all shall be fine. Of course it means quite the opposite, marking another year closer to a surprisingly long delay of the inevitable: illness and eventual dying.

Because everyone seems to have this goal, I next searched for trends and patterns in those who HAVE been able to stave off illness and death for a century- who better to learn from than those who have spat in the face of time? I found one particularly interesting summarization of a trend in centenarians in Okinawa, Japan (This was surmised by John Santrock in his book "A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development). Five major factors were found to be shared among Okinawan centenarians, ranging from diet to spirituality. I found it particularly interesting that something as simple as a sense of purpose could be considered a virtual life-extender, especially considering just how direct the other factors are toward maintaining health (keeping active, staying stress-free, being well supplied with care, a fixed diet, etc.).

Finally, I decided to take what I had learned from my research and class to construct a series of meaningful questions for an interview. In the hot-seat was none other than my grandma Jane, and at 81 years old she remains confident that one day she will join the fabled "100 club". My first question was if she was afraid of dying, which was followed by an immediate "yes". When I asked how she could be afraid of something like death she told me that she didn't know how to explain such fear. She is afraid of never "being" anymore, almost as if she had never existed in the first place. Later on in the interview she would extinguish this fear by realizing she had been taking part in a great ripple effect all along- her children, grandchildren and overall lineage would not be as they are today if not for her doing. To Jane, being dead means that you no longer exist in the real world as a physical being, but rather as an effect on those who continue to "be" even after one's departure. However, this doesn't necessarily make her feel better about dying, because to her reaching 100 years of age would mean she gets to see how her grandchildren's lives turn out, and continue to play a role in their "journey". She wants to continue to play this active role, and live to at least 100, maybe even more as long as she in "not in pain or have alzheimer's".

Perhaps the last question was most touchy- when the unfortunate time comes, how would she like her dying to be handled? If she were suffering and saw imminent doom ahead of her, would she resort to the hospital for one last glimmer of hope? Or would she accept what has to be accepted and make her last moments meaningful ones not only for herself but for her family? Naturally, she chose to die at home, surrounded by her family. It seemed to me that by all of her responses, nearly all of her drive to live on for the next 19+ years is not for the benefit and preservation of herself, but for the well-being and care for her family. Perhaps after 81 years of life and seeing most of your friends fall ill before you, one comes to realize that what's more important at this stage of the game is how you create a ripple effect on future generations, not how you plan on being "invincible" for the sake of avoiding the emptiness and the nothing that is death.

Maybe the greatest lesson here is that at one point in life (usually the one we are all in right now as teenagers) we all see ourselves standing on the summit of time that is 100 years of life, but for the enjoyment and sake of ourselves. However, one day (usually around Jane's age) we see our bodies begin to succumb to the toll of time, and rather than live for our own sakes, we go on for our brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren, pursuing a different kind of richness- having an effect on our continuing loved ones. In the end, whether it be the result of genetics or technique, men and women around the world continue to walk on the stones of years, effectively evading the least common denominator that has and will always catch us all: illness and death.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centenarian

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/0328/breaking61.htm

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.scandinavius.com/sweden/sesongs.html&ei=I38yTcOQC4O78gb0iYnVCA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dswedish%2Bbirthday%2Bsong%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26prmd%3Divns

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T38-40NMTCR-B&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F15%2F2000&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b700f6df21d3b04197a013d03eaa1279&searchtype=a

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2194078/Blood-tests-could-be-used-to-predict-lifespan.html

HW 29- Reading and Noting Basic Materials

For this homework I have decided to structure my three "domains" by the triforce. For those of you who do not know what the triforce is, it is made up of the three elements of Power, Wisdom and Courage.

POWER:

When it comes to illness and dying (in mainstream U.S. and/or western civilization in general) the power is really in the hands of those who decide who gets medical care and who does not. As seen in Michael Moore's "Sicko", several (roughly 50) million people in the United States do not have medical coverage. Of those millions a vast majority suffer from not being able to receive proper care when it is needed most. There are examples of those who have sustained serious injury, developed advanced disease and still they are denied the treatment and care they require to continue to function. The main interest here is money. Insurance companies want to profit over the illnesses and deaths of patients, and doctors expect to be paid well for their treatment of said patients. Doctors pay a lot to be expertly trained with the highest tech equipment, and after the Great Depression medical bills started to become higher than a month's salary. (Sick, 6)

On the other hand, my father didn't have to pay AT ALL for his treatment during the time he was terminally ill. But in retrospect, making us pay would've added insult to injury. We were lied to and lost in the shuffle because of the insurance company's errors, and by the time they had "come to his rescue" it was FAR little WAY too late. In the end, insurance companies possess this power to deny sick people coverage, continually playing puppet master to the doctors and agents who are paid and professed to save lives, not a quick buck.

WISDOM:

When one becomes sick without the breath of death in their face, they have quite a few options. It takes the wisdom and judgement to be able to determine an individual's situation and immediate needs, which can be instrumental in one's fate. For example, when my brother stepped on a toothpick that got lodged up his foot a couple of months ago, it was clear he needed serious medical attention, so he and his friend traveled to the emergency room. If he were able to pull the entire toothpick out, however, he might have dealt with the situation differently. This is a clear example of turning to the allopathic side of the treatment spectrum. Can he completely trust the doctors? Maybe not, given that there's a possibility of serious repercussions (nerve damage) as a result of the doctors slicing his foot open. Now he somewhat regrets going directly to the emergency room, which in the end let him out no better than he started.

In MY case with my trip to the emergency room, wisdom might have saved my life- that is if I DID have appendicitis. When my lower abdominal area felt like it had been struck by a truck, I turned to homeopathic and holistic methods of making the pain disappear first. I tried to eat, drink tea, go to the bathroom, massage my belly and sleep. When none of this worked and I felt like vomiting my brains out I decided it was time to put my fate into the hands of the allopathic system. The irony of it all of course, was that not only did I NOT have a serious problem- but not even the acclaimed doctors and specialists could determine what struck me that fateful day. Everyone in the hospital had the utmost confidence in my having appendicitis, and they were all proven wrong. If I DID have it though, they said I would have been in grave danger judging by my pain and crohn's disease. When I interviewed my mom for an earlier HW, she said she thought the spirit and methods of holistic treatment were wonderful and sometimes even triumphant- but it would be foolish to shun allopathic ways completely. She must be right, because out of the three personal accounts of illness mentioned above, my father was the only one whose illness defeated them, and he was the only one who refused to see a doctor.

COURAGE:

Knowing that you have a terminal illness and are going to die is probably the hardest truth one can come to accept. It takes the utmost bravery to say to yourself, "this is it, I am going to die", and even moreso to continue to fight your mortal enemy: cancer. My father never acknowledged the fact or even possibility that he would die... out loud at least. He never collapsed or got depressed by his predicament, and continued to work on his art and support my brother and me as his sons. To the patient, this feeling must be head-spinning and crushing at the same time. One must ask themselves, "how will it feel to die? what does it mean to be dead?" For the family it is even more painful, watching your loved one, the one who cared for you since your very first waking moment to crumble before your eyes and to have no control over it.

My father was treated much differently in his time of illness, and he treated people differently as well. Much of the tension that had built up between my dad and my mom's side of the family had dissipated, and my family treated him with the greatest of respects for his level of courage and without any of the stigma that usually comes with illness. He continued to try and play tennis with us, and even placed 3rd in our annual mini-golf family tournament (out of us 20 other players!). When WE as a family decided that there was absolutely no chance of his recovery (in this case he had SO much courage he would never outwardly come to this conclusion), we decided to take him home for the last time and allow him to let go when the time came, surrounded by his artwork and the environment he flourished in. It wasn't as apparent to me at the time, but I now realize a lot of people do home hospice (to a lesser extent however, we never had doctors or any outsides come out save the buddhist monk). (...And a Time For Dying)

HW28 Comments!!!

From Aaron on HW27:

Sorry for commenting a little late! I forgot my password and had to enter a new one.
The quote "This has been a crushing blow to him. For someone who is extremely active, beyond the drum kit to the tennis courts and ping pong tables and swimming pools etc., to even think about the possibility of never having full use of you foot is astronomically depressing." stands out to me because it shows how hard life is for you and your family. It showed how your brother must have been strong facing against his disability. It also shows how much you care about your family and how you can even feel their pain. For you and your family to face this really shows how strong and close you guys are.

From Casey on HW27:

Evan,
I hope a solution is found for your brother's predicament! What a horrible situation...It's heart wrenching and horrifying how once humorous issues can quickly turn into future-hindering conflicts. I enjoyed your line, "Bangs on cans with conviction." The lyricism and alliteration made it stand out, and showed your brother's can-banging in a positive light.

From Eloise on HW27:

I believe this is great insight to an odd predicament. The harsh reality that health care is not the only solution, and many times with even all our medical knowladge simple maladies cause great harm. It is sad to hear this but he should be greatful that he at least has the opertunity to have someone tell him they don't know what to do verus... we dont know how to help you without you giving up some cash. I wish you would have exmplified with more lucidity and strength what the dominant social practices seen here are ? My favorite line was "t is extremely upsetting to him and everyone around him that the medical system has yet again continued to fail our family (in addition to the fact that they couldn't even identify MY problem when I went to the ER a short time ago)." I think it got to the center of the issues of how someones injury affected you and all around you. This could have been improved by expanding on a wider scale as aforementioned..

From Mom on HW27:

Well, having been a participant in the aftermath of this freak accident, spending the last couple of weeks accompanying Josh to specialists and through a battery of tests, I have seen, first-hand, the pluses and minuses of our medical system once again. However, I think you were a bit harsh in saying that it failed us again. Medicine is an art as well as a science and it is not always possible to correctly diagnose or treat our complex body systems. In fact, I felt that everyone bent over backwards to try to help.

I think the best part of your blog posting was your sympathy for your brother, your understanding of just what is at stake for his career and for him as an active person: "For someone who is extremely active, beyond the drum kit to the tennis courts and ping pong tables and swimming pools etc., to even think about the possibility of never having full use of your foot is astronomically depressing." I also thought it was a good connection (and sweet) that you thought to acknowledge that his relationship with dad was even closer than yours: "Keep in mind that he went through almost everything I did with my father, even moreso being that he was my brother's best friend and closest companion." That is a very honest and generous observation.

In the end, I am optimistic as you are that Josh will beat this, and I love how you showed him making proverbial lemonade out of lemons: "he... continues to write some kickass music in the meantime!" Happily, he has begun to tentatively walk in the last couple of days, powered by sheer will. In this determined way, you two are very much brothers, and very much the sons of your father (and mother).

Comment on Casey's HW27:

Casey,

Awesome post here. I see many parallels between your uncle and my father! They both thought they were invincible, did the most to avoid being in the hands of doctors and suffered for it. You are absolutely right about this 'invincibility complex' that we all share, and as for the best line, I have to agree with Eloise with

"I realized that such an attitude can be found in most people, whether revealed by an 11 year old boy jay walking, a high school freshman smoking cigarettes, a college student forgoing a condom, an obese middle aged woman watching television all day instead of going to the gym, or a diabetic man having a field day at Kentucky Fried Chicken."

Pretty much summed it all up there. We take death for granted and even laugh in its face often multiple times a day, little do we realize we will never truly obtain the "last laugh". Wonderful.

Keep it up!

Evan

p.s. I found one little typo you might want to edit... at least I think it's a typo? "Infects his life" at the end of the first P?

Comment on Eloise's HW27:

Eloise,

My goodness what a visual and grueling post to read! I am not sure if you meant to write it this way but being a filmmaker I could really, REALLY visualize your tale and even hear your tone in narration. One of the greatest lines to me was

"The melody to her environment is the constant beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep beeeep beeeeep of the thermometer. When she can sleep she seems the most content, but the parallel world it sends her to seems quite unappealing as well. It's as if all the energy that usually pours outward upon others is battling within her trying to kill the bacteria."

To be honest if I were writing a screenplay it would go something exactly like this! Lines like this actually drove me to think about how I would frame such an image to do it justice. As always I would do a quick read through (especially for such a long post) to look for simple spelling and grammar errors. However in this case I found such grammar errors delightful because it made me hear the narrating voice so much better!

Evan

HW27- Visiting an Unwell Person

My visit to an "unwell person" was more of their visit to me. I am talking about my brother of course, a drummer who bangs on cans with conviction. However, he hasn't played drums for some weeks now, after he stepped on a toothpick, lodging it up the ball of his foot! At the time, he was up in his dorm room in Boston, hours away from us. After the fateful step, he attempted to pull out said toothpick. Unfortunately, while he got about half of it out, the other half snapped off inside his foot, making it virtually unreachable to bare hands. A friend of his escorted him to the Mass General (very good hospital btw) emergency room (keep in mind this was about 3 weeks before my own predicament in the ER) to have the toothpick removed. To him, this situation was painful and extremely unpleasant, yet at the same time hilarious (think of the sheer physics!!).

No doctor at Mass General could successfully remove the toothpick. They told him they could cut further, but they risk serious nerve damage. He told them not to (wouldn't want serious nerve damage to the foot of a drummer!), and they let him go with bandages, crutches, and most delicious of all, powerful antibiotics. This tasty combination made his life very unpleasant for some time, and after a short while he could no longer take the antibiotics. The doctors told him that there was simply nothing they could do about the toothpick, and because he seemed to avoid infection, was free to keep it encased in his foot (provided it didn't cause unnecessary pain and problems)

Well what do you know! Weeks later he could still feel the pain in his foot (so much that he could not so much as brush his foot on any surface), and this puzzled the doctors greatly. To fast-forward this for you, many tests were conducted and the riddle still has not been solved. Some specialists point to RSD, a nervous system disorder known to cause chronic burning of the affected nerve area. For privacy reasons I'm not going to go further than that, but if you don't know about RSD, look it up, and you will find that it is nothing to sneeze at. Other people have said that while he shows the signs of RSD, he is more likely to have the "psuedo" RSD, a fool's gold version of the real thing. As of this date (1/1/11) and countless tests, it is still unknown what that little piece of wood has done.

This has been a crushing blow to him. For someone who is extremely active, beyond the drum kit to the tennis courts and ping pong tables and swimming pools etc., to even think about the possibility of never having full use of you foot is astronomically depressing. Keep in mind that he went through almost everything I did with my father, even moreso being that he was my brother's best friend and closest companion. Right about now he feels pretty fed up with doctors, hospitals, and just about everything that has to do with illness and dying. He finds it particularly frustrating that so many well-educated specialists cannot solve a mystery solely caused by a tiny, obscure toothpick, and that this same small splinter of wood can single-handedly handicap him for the rest of his life. It is extremely upsetting to him and everyone around him that the medical system has yet again continued to fail our family (in addition to the fact that they couldn't even identify MY problem when I went to the ER a short time ago). Obviously my mom (the guest speaker) applies to the situation and continues to be my brother's best advocate, in a situation that is grimly familiar to that of my father's.

As for my brother's current attitude, he continues to be positive and fight with determination to beat whatever might be lurking against him. He has been making good progress in rehabilitating his footwork and continues to write some kickass music in the meantime! He knows his father would fight to the end against his enemy, and in those spirits he seems to be doing well!