What Thanksgiving Is Really About

Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks.  We gather our family at the table to stuff our faces, to watch our uncle spill everything he touches, and to hear our grandma tell the stories of which only she knows what she is talking about.  Before we know it, we are getting dressed, filling up our cars with gas, and ready to celebrate Thanksgiving the right way; by finding the best deals on pointless items to buy for ourselves.  Next thing we know, we are at the mall pushing our way through the wild crowd fending for ourselves. 

Walking through the mall is like trying to go against the current of the Amazon River.  The only way to get through is to pretend that we are football players heading for the end zone in the super bowl.  We push through the crowd to get to the sales we are so thankful for on this special day because we want is that special blanket with sleeves because it’s now only $15.99.  Hours later, with our arms full of pointless items, we head toward the parking lot.

The parking lot is like a maze we have to get through.  When we find our car, and maybe even the people we came with, is when we truly give thanks on this Thanksgiving Day. We have made it out of the mall alive!  Later that night, we are back at the house ready for bed, we come to realize the table is still filled with leftover turkey and stuffing, grandpa is still shoveling food into his mouth, our uncle is sitting in a pool of  gravy on the white carpeting, and grandma is still sitting in the same spot telling her stories.  We come to realize we have completely missed the Thanksgiving experience we used to cherish.  But, hey, we found some really good sales and got a lot of really pointless, but cool stuff!  Isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?

Physician Assisted Suicide

The topic I chose to write about is physician assisted suicide.  I feel this topic is not discussed as much as it should be and that it should be an option given to all patients who are terminally ill.  The only states in which physician assisted suicide is legal to perform in are Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and Montana.  There are many different illnesses that do not have a cure which results in a slow, usually painful death.  By the use of physician assisted suicide, this painful death can be avoided and the patient can live they’re last days comfortably doing what they want.

Recently in the news, there has been an on-going story about a woman from California who moved to Oregon after she was given six months to live after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  She had made the decision in October to die using physician assisted suicide, but decided to wait a while longer.  As of November 1, 2014 she passed away in her home surrounded by her family.  This story has brought attention to physician assisted suicide and how it can be a positive way to die.  If this woman decided to go through different treatment options, she would just be prolonging her suffering as there is no cure for brain cancer.  Because of physician assisted suicide, this woman died a peaceful death surrounded by those she loved.

I think when physician assisted suicide is discussed people usually discuss the ethical issues that surround it and not the humanity side of the argument.  When our pets are having a hard time toward the end of their life, we take them to the vet where they put them “to sleep” to end their suffering.  This should not be any different for humans.  Instead of peacefully going “to sleep” humans are told they have to take the slow and painful route to die.  Physician assisted suicide should be legal to eliminate suffering from a slow and painful death.

Work With the Living or Work With the Dead

The profession someone chooses can say a lot for what type of person they are.  For each profession there is a standard definition, but there is also a definition for what type of person leads that career.  The emergency room (ER) physician profession is described as a doctor who runs the emergency department as a hospital.  An ER physician is described as, “… [a person] who thrives on the relentless pace, the wide variety of patients and cases, and the challenge of making an accurate determination quickly,” as stated in “Emergency Medicine”.  In the article, “Coroner: Job Description & Career Info,” the coroner profession is described as a person who supervises and performs examinations of the deceased to find the cause of death.  A coroner is described as someone with a great eye for detail and can handle stress well. The ER physician and coroner professions are the same in the fact that both are stemmed from the medical field, but are different in the ways the jobs are approached and the how obtainable each profession is.

To become an ER physician, not only is it necessary to obtain a medical doctor degree through medical school, but it is necessary to participate in a residency in the field.   “Residencies in emergency medicine are highly competitive, so you’ll need excellent grades and recommendations from your medical school professors” (Emergency Medicine para 4).  The residency element adds more to the fact of doing well in medical school is the key to success as an ER physician.  In total, to become an ER physician, it takes about 11 years of schooling post-high school.  In hospitals, the emergency room is open 24-hours and day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  This requires an ER physician to be in the emergency room during the hours of operation.  An ER physician’s shifts range from 8-12 hours to keep the emergency room running (Emergency Medicine para 6).  Being an ER physician requires a certain amount of endurance to be able to keep up with the long hours put in at the hospital each week.  Finding a job as an ER physician will not be a problem in the near future with the right credentials.  People will always need doctors to help them be healthy.

Like that of an ER physician, to become a coroner it is necessary to obtain a medical doctor degree through medical school.  After obtaining a M.D., it is necessary to participate in an internship and residency (Coroner: Job Description & Career Info para 5).  In total, to become a coroner, it is necessary to obtain at least 10 years of schooling post-high school.  Because a coroner has so many different duties to perform, there is no telling where the work will be done.  “…specific job duties include visiting death scenes, identifying human remains, supervising the transportation of corpses, operating crime scene equipment, completing death certificates and notifying next of kin” (Coroner: Job Description & Career Info para 2).  Working conditions for a coroner may vary from case to case.  Becoming a coroner is more complicated than finding any old job.  This is because in some states they are appointed by the government, and in other states they are elected by the people (Coroner: Job Description & Career Info para 3).  Although finding a job as a coroner can be complicated it could pay off in the end.

The ER physician and coroner professions are the same in the fact that both are stemmed from the medical field, but are different in the ways the jobs are approached and the how obtainable each profession is.  

The only question is: to work with the living, or to work with the dead.

TED Talk: "Saving faces: A facial surgeon's craft"

In his TED talk entitled “Saving faces: A facial surgeon’s craft”, Ian Hutchison describes the facial reconstruction surgical techniques used in the UK and how it changes lives.  Hutchison begins by pointing out that different age groups have reconstruction done for different reasons and the process they go through.  For example, Hutchison showed a young girl with a benign blood vessel tumor coming out of her nose that was slowly killing her by essentially soaking up all the blood from the rest of her face.  The only reason she had facial reconstruction surgery was to save her life.  On the other hand, a girl in her early twenties, with an extended lower jaw, had facial reconstruction surgery because everyone was continually asking her if she was angry.  For her, facial reconstruction was the only way to be seen as the person she really is.  Hutchison then explains the effects that can happen to a person having facial surgery.  Not only is there a significantly large risk for infections within the body, there are also psychological side effects.  After having reconstructive surgery, your face doesn’t look exactly how it did before.  As Hutchison says, “facial reconstruction [and transplants] is not live saving surgery; it is a quality of life surgery”.

Personally, I really enjoyed the angle Hutchison took when talking about facial reconstruction.  I like how he mentioned body dysmorphic disorder to differentiate between elective facial plastic surgery and facial reconstruction.  Even though this was only a side note made, I believe it is very important because body dysmorphic disorder is a physiological disorder when people only see the flaws in themselves so they seek out surgery to change their appearance, where facial reconstruction is mainly for people who have a life threatening tumor, or have had an accident to try to get their quality of life back.  For example, in the TED talk, there was a man who had the center section of his lower jaw shot off of his face.  To fix this, Hutchison made a jaw implant to attempt to give the man his life back.  The reconstruction was successful; however, because of the lack of skin on his face, the surgeons had to use a patch of skin from the man’s back to patch up the incision.  Because of this, the man has a darker, rougher piece of skin on the tip of his chin.  Because of the reconstruction this man was able to get his life back, besides the side effect of the skin patch.  All in all, I really enjoyed Hutchison’s view on facial reconstruction and the process he goes through to achieve the best end result possible.

http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_hutchison_saving_faces