WK 4 Blog Assignment

Well, I am sad to say that I wrote a huge blog and then my computer overheated and I lost it. Good thing the new computer arrived this week, I just hadn't switched all my stuff over yet and wanted to get my work done before playing with all my files while I move them. So, I guarantee this post is not nearly as good as it had been.

 So this assignment is about my experience with sickness/disease in the family, which was a huge stresser to my brother an I as we grew up, and even today. My father has been sick since before I was officially a teenager, I believe they call them tween's now. My brother is four years younger than me, and was in elementary school. Our first health encounter was a spine problem, the solution was to fuse some disks in my fathers spine. During recovery, my father was practically paralyzed from the waist down, gaining control very slowly. Soon we discovered there was a blood clot which needed to be removed but was risky. Being from MA, it was unusual for a procedure to happen out of state, but my father found a procedure that could be performed which he felt was a good risk to take. It went well, but paralyzed one of his vocal cords, his voice at 10% of what it used to be- something devastating to our family, as my fathers livelihood was being a radio DJ. Another experimental surgery placed a silicone implant next to his working vocal cord, which vibrated the paralyzed one, giving him back about 80% of the voice he had. Then, they found cancer in his lung. Chemo and other treatments left us at the option to remove his left lung. More chemo to ensure everything was in remission and we thought we were good to go! Pneumonia hit, and landed dad on oxygen. Gradually he was able to function without it, and then pneumonia hit again, and he was on oxygen full time. It almost killed him. He's on oxygen permanently. Pneumonia hit a third time, and thankfully he recovered. It has been over 10 years, and the doctors have cleared him of any possible return of lung cancer. He can walk, usually without a cane. He is on oxygen but makes a habit of remaining active. This includes getting three oxygen hoses each 10 feet long so he can go lounge in the lake while we're on vacation! He frequents the local gym and sits in the hottub and the pool regularly, keeping the tank away from the water, but using long hoses so he can roam a bit. He can drive. He can talk. He can laugh (and complain, for that matter hahaha). and most importantly, he lives. My father is turning 65 this year. The past 15 years have been a roller coaster for my brother and I. Four years apart, I never realized how much he missed or doesn't remember. We used to go roller skating regularly with my dad, weekend trips to the lake to spend time on our boat, cuddle time watching tv, daddy used to cook dinner too. My brother remembers little of this, and seems to have suffered emotionally. He distances himself from my father because he's afraid of getting too close, we have almost lost him too many times in our life. He spends a lot of time with my mom, though.  Me on the other hand, I'm daddy's girl. I call him and chat a lot, while my brother who is still home- barely talks to him. Some might think my brother simply doesn't get along with my father, but the problem is that they are similar and that he is secretly just as sentimental as dad. My brothers college essay was all about his struggles with my fathers illnesses, he let only me read it. It was difficult to focus on school when there was a health problem, but for me it was easier to keep going and doing my school work because there was nothing I could do to fix daddy. Staying at home and crying didn't help. Now that I'm older, I am still striving for greatness in order to impress my dad. I am who I am because of his problems.


I don't have a special affinity for any specific region in order to research stresses there. One frustrating part of this class, is i'm simply not interested in other regions at this time. Randomly, I found an article about obesity in Portugal. This article discusses "Prevalence of overweight and obesity are elevated among children of the Sintra region in Portugal compared to most other regions of Europe"(Ferreira & Marques-Vidal, 2008, p1) and that the "The relationship with the parents’ nutritional state stresses the need to target families for preventing obesity" (Ferreira & Marques-Vidal, 2008, p1). It is decieded that "parental BMI and dietary selectivity appear to exert a higher effect than birth weight, breast­feeding, or school meals."




Ferreira, R. J., & Marques-vidal, P. (2008). Prevalence and determinants of obesity in children in public schools of sintra, portugal. Obesity, 16(2), 497-500. doi: 10.1038/oby.2007.74