HW 17 - First Thoughts on the Illness & Dying Unit

I personally haven't experienced a lot of illness and dying in my life. I have only lost one immediate family member that I was close to. The illnesses that have occurred I haven't taken seriously. when I was little my aunt had breast cancer but I wasn't exposed to the reality of her condition all I knew is that she didn't have any hair and was tired a lot. Most recently my mother had anemia and was getting multiple blood transfusions and that affected me but I don't ever remember being scared that her anemia would get worse or it would make her permanently sick. It’s safe to say I haven't experienced a lot of loss; the most traumatic experience would be when I received calls that my grandparents were in the hospital, I wasn't given much information and therefore assumed the worst scenarios. My grandfather is obese and is unhealthy he has been for a long time and it will probably affect his life span but I am not sincerely worried for some reason.

My parents and I don’t really talk about illness or dying they don’t give any profound advice. We will only talk about it when it’s reliant to our lives (if a loved one is ill). They have encouraged me talk to something if I have any questions or problems concerning dying or illness though. I remember in 9th grade I was really emotional because one of my friends who was in college was drinking a lot and I was concerned that he was going to drink himself to death and my mom talked to me about it and told me everything was going to be alright, I can’t remember if that actually helped or if my worry eventually went away over time.

Some possible unusual perspectives I have about sickness and death are that whatever happens things will be okay. In all my experiences of having to deal with sickness or death I had been shocked, and then the problem resolved itself before I could have any further emotions. Due to my lack of exposure to dying and sickness I don't know how I would handle having to accept that someone close to me was in tremendous pain and I couldn't help them. The thought of not being able to say good bye to a loved one before they die frightens me, because they won’t know how much I really care about them. But I also believe that death only affects those it leaves behind, where as illness affects the patient and the ones surrounding the patient. I'm curious to find out how the reaction to the news of fatal illness, illness and death are different from each other in different people and what makes their reactions different.