Rejecting Dollhood

 This is my second project for the class called Drama. In our second unit called Doll, we talked about what dolls are, how they're portrayed in fiction, and in real life. We also read A Doll's House where we read about Nora and her experiences in a world of doll's. Dolls themselves could be women who are possessed by someone, treated some way by specific people, and many other different reasons. In the play, we were able to see Nora struggle with these norms put onto her which ended with her wanting to leave them for something better. We also went to go see The Tragedy of Christophe which talked about racism, slavery, and many other topics that we still deal with in our lives. We also had a talk back with the actors and got to learn about what they enjoyed most throughout making the play. For this action project we were assigned to create a small play that was supposed to be a continuation after A Doll's House. My play's title is Rejecting Dollhood and it talks about how Nora has changed after A Doll's House. By this point, Nora has became a more independent women and has self doubts about writing a book about her stories of being portrayed by others. Nora best friend Marcella, is a Matron who has lived independently since her husband's death. My gender roles mainly fit how it was back in the 1870's and the world that Nora lived in. Because of that, I will be portraying myself as a different person who will help nora with other things.

Here's my video below:

Here's my Script:

Throughout this course I thought it was interesting looking at social norms and how they can be portrayed in different ways. I also enjoyed writing an original play so I know how to work in celtx in the near future. I don't usually write myself into the stories I create so this was something new. One thing that was difficult was how to wrap up the play in a telling way. Sometimes it took me a while to figure out how to write on the platform at the start. If I was to do this again I might try to pick a different women to have as my second character besides Marcella because it might be eaiser to write about a women I have more information about.

Shin Splints and how to treat them

 Treating Shin Splints

"new frisbee wrap" by Phil Denton is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.

This is my second action project for my class, Cure. Throughout this unit titled Treatment, we’ve been learning about how different treatments work inside of the body. Some of those medications are analgesics, antibiotics, and laxatives. We also learned about the differences between substances, drugs, and medications and why people might take them at one point or the other. We also did an experiment with different antibiotics to see which ones might be the best to fight germs. After the experiment, we went over conic sections and even went to MSI for a heart diagnostic lab. Leading to our action project, we are supposed to research a symptom that might happen in the body and figure out what types of treatments would be best to cure that symptom. I decided to do shin splints as my symptom and wanted to present it through a slideshow. Here’s a link to my slideshow below:

 

Overall, I did enjoy working on this action project because it pushed me to do a lot of interesting learning how different treatments may affect the body in good ways and bad. One of the difficult things about this action project was that sometimes it was very hard to find good information for certain treatments and medications. This caused me to look on more websites besides the first few I researched. If I was to do this project again, I might consider looking into a different symptom to try and get new results.

Sources: 

• Bone, M. and J. T. (2021, August 29). What ice packs to use for injuries. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/does-it-matter-what-type-of-ice-pack-you-use-for-an-injury/ 

• Do you have a go-to pharmacy? (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.goodrx.com/ibuprofen?dosage=800mg&form=tablet&label_override=ibuprofen&quantity=30&sort_type=popularity 

• Orthoinfo. (2019, August 19). Shin splints - orthoinfo - Aaos. OrthoInfo. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/shin-splints/ 

• Mayo Clinic researchers. (2021, October 16). Shin Splints. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/shin-splints/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354110 

• Wheeler, MD, T. (n.d.). Shin splints: Causes, treatment, recovery, and prevention. WebMD. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/shin-splints 

Arts and Crafting Quitapenas

Arts and Crafting Quitapenas

This is my action project for my Spanish class. In the last few weeks, we’ve been learning about how to use the Spanish preterit, present tense, and describing people in different ways using the pretirct. We also learned about how to describe different stores and characteristics of different people. With this action project the goal was to create a quitapena doll using arts and crafts materials. After creating the doll we had to describe the doll’s characteristics and other things about it.

What I found most challenging about this project was creating the actual doll itself. My sample drawing came out completely different than what I actually created so that was a huge change. Even though it took a lot of time, I'm most proud of how I was able to make it turn out pretty well. 

Here's my concept drawing:

RBL,Quitapena concept drawing, 2022

Here’s my completed Quitapena below:

RBL,Quitapena doll, 2022

La muñeca Quitapena lleva pantalones verdes, camisa morada, dos zapatos azules, reloj rojo, bufanda amarilla y rosada

La camisa morada estȧ hecha de seda

Los pantalones verdes estȧn hechas de telas blandas.

La Quitapenas escribe

A La Quitapenas le gusta reloj rojo

La Quitapenas muestra que estȧ feliz

La Quitapena bebe agua del la menana

La Quitapena estuvo confianzas

Relationship Review - Othello and Iago

 Relationship Review - Othello and Iago

 

This is my first blog post for my Healthy Relationships in Shakespeare class. In this class, we’ve been learning about different character relationships in Shakespeare plays. Throughout this unit we did this by reading the play Othello. In the play there are many different relationships between lovers, acquaintances, and frenemies. As the play goes on, we get to see how these relationships clash with each other leading to tragedy. The purpose of this action project is to find the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships in Othello. In this blog, I’ll be looking into the relationship between Othello and Iago. I’ll also be looking at how that affects the rest of the play.

"2 hearts in love" by Leonard J Matthews is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Now, before I summarize Othello, let’s understand some factors for a healthy relationship. 

Communication - In a relationship, talking to one another about personal concerns or issues is important to see someone else's thoughts, or what’s on their mind.

Acceptance - Accepting one another for who they are such as their physical and emotional perspectives.

Time - Making time in a relationship is critical because if a person can’t spend time with another, the relationship will slowly fail. 

Respectful Conflicts - Everyone is going to have arguments here and there, the important thing is being able to understand the other person's side first before jumping towards conclusions. 

Enjoyment - Be able to enjoy having fun with a partner. If someone isn’t able to, that should be communicated in some way.

Now that we know a few things needed for a successful relationship, let’s summarize Othello, and see how this relationship is different. 

"Othello" by Portland Center Stage at The Armory is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

The play starts with a conversation between two soldiers named Rodrigo and Iago. They become jealous of their leader, a black general named Othello for secretly marrying a beautiful white woman named Desdemona. Desdemona’s father Barbantio, finds out that Desdemona married Othello. Barbantio then has the couple explain their love, but Barbantio warns Othello to watch Desdemona and uses his father daughter relationship with her as an example. Iago was enraged before this because Othello promoted a different soldier named Cassio instead of himself. Iago then decides to set up a plan that would end in the deaths of the Moor (Othello), and Desdemona. So Iago goes on to lie, manipulate, and torture everyone around him in order to fullfil his goal. Once Othello realizes that he’s been manipulated by Iago for the entire story it’s all too late. Desdemona, Rodrigo, and Emilia all end up dying because of Iago. So, Othello stabs Iago and then takes his own life. After these events, Cassio becomes the new general and the story ends.

In Othello, Iago is Othello’s right hand man who constantly throws false information into his face. Because Iago exploited Othello, it caused his downfall in the story. Iago’s right hand man relationship with Othello is not healthy. This is because Iago wasn’t able to accept that he didn’t get promoted, Iago always gave very vague information to Othello about his relationship with Desdemona, and Iago exploited Othello with false “wisdom” causing him to jump to conclusions. 

"othello-iago" by stef wu is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

My first reason for why Othello and Iago’s relationship wasn't healthy is because Iago couldn’t accept the reality of his situation. This shows up at the start of the play when Iago talks with Rodrigo about what he should do to get Desdemona to notice him. After Rodrigo leaves, Iago plots, “ The Moor is of free and open nature, That thinks men honest that but seem to be so, And will as tenderly be led by th’ noce As asses are. I have’t. It is engend’red. Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” (Act 1, Scene 3, line 399). At this moment Iago was filled with salt because Cassio received a promotion from Othello which Iago thought he deserved more. This caused Iago to experience  jealousy, rage, and many other feelings. These feelings are what caused Iago to start his plan to kill Cassio and destroy Othello and Desdemona’s relationship. Because this anger fueled him, it led to the tragedies at the end. Now this could’ve been easily dealt with if Iago had just told Othello how he felt in the first place, rather than plotting Othello’s death behind his back. 

My second point regarding why their relationship is unhealthy is because Iago threw false information into Othello’s face. Let's look at an example of how they interacted with each other. In Act Three Scene Three, Iago told Othello that, “One of this kind is Cassio. In sleep I heard him say, “Sweet Desdemona, Let us be wary, let us hide our love”; And then, sir would he gripe and wring my hand; Cry, “O sweet creature!”( Act  3, scene 3, line 418 ). This quote is an example of how Othello and Iago interacted because it shows how Iago would only bring information to Othello about Cassio and Desdemona. Othello didn’t look to others to confirm the information about his own relationship with Desdemona. This also illustrates the fact that Othello many times referred to Iago as “Honest Iago” even though Iago was manipulating Othello the whole time.

This is Othello after slapping Desdemona: "Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, and Gratiano" by Mobtown Players is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

The last point demonstrates why Othello and Iago’s relationship isn't healthy. Iago exploited Othello with false “wisdom” causing him to jump to conclusions.. Our example of this is in Act four Scene One when Othello states, “O devil, devil! If that each earth could teem with a woman's tears, Each drop she fails would prove a crocodile. Out of my sight!” (Act 4, Scene 1, Line 245). This quote takes place after Othello dismisses Desdemona because he thinks she’s cheated with Cassio when in reality, she hasn’t. Iago’s words cause Othello to jump to the conclusion of her cheating which leads to him killing her because of rage and jealousy. At this moment, if Othello could have communicated his issue with Desdemona more clearly instead of just acting out on his assumptions based on Iago’s lies to him he might have saved his marriage. If Othello did ask around about this situation, he could have found out Iago was manipulating him rather than just taking in all the information Iago gave to him.

In conclusion, Othello and Iago’s boss and right hand man relationship wasn’t healthy. Iago gave false information to Othello which caused Othello to make complete turnarounds in his behavior. Additionally, Iago wasn’t able to accept his spot in the first place.

__________________________________________________________________________

I did enjoy doing this project because it opened my eyes to how I might look at new relationships in the future, and improve the relationships I have with some of my friend’s and family members. If I were to do this project again I might look at a different relationship or do this in a new format. 

Sources:

• 5 essentials for a healthy relationship. Health & Wellness Services. (2021, March 12). Retrieved April 30, 2022, from https://www.colorado.edu/health/5-essentials-healthy-relationship 

• Person. (2015, January 27). Relationships in othello. independent. Retrieved April 30, 2022, from https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/exams/relationships-in-othello-30940458.html#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20personal%20relationship%20between,be%20entirely%20loyal%20to%20him. 

Macduff's Nest in Ashes

This is my first Action Project for the class called Drama. In this first unit called Queen, we talked about queens in our lives and queens in Shakespearean plays. We started by giving our own examples of queens. We saw some of our own as strong, kind hearted, and compassionate towards others or their fans. We read The Tragedie of Macbeth in class to further understand the meaning behind a queen. It gave me a completely new twist on the definition of a queen because it talked about being power hungry, greedy, and tratorious intentions. In Macbeth, men were easily manipulated and sometimes women stepped up to lead the couple. These traits were shown better when we eventually watched the movie based on the book. This was the version that came out this year that starred Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Leading to our action project we were assigned to write a sonnet to a Macbeth character of our choice. I decided to write my poem to Macduff because he’s a character that’s very accurate to gender roles at the time. He mainly kept his women and children at home while he was out fighting in the war. This caused Macduff to lose a lot because of his want to be a man. I want to give him a reality check after the events of the play.
Here's my poem below:

Macduff's Nest in Ashes

“The most diminutive of birds,will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl” 

 Macduff, thy eagle for a dying bundle of roses 

 f'r fairness in men and women constantly prowl

 Leaving batt'r'd bodies as the door closes 

 Becoming a man destroyed your reality 

 Betraying your family to fight the saddened side

 Your distance from your kin led to their fatality

 Your wife betrayed, dead because of your pride 

 Keepeth thy kingdom closer than your family 

 Respect their roles and live with regret

 New plans of action keep their sanity 

 With your sword go pay off your debts

To be a father to a growing Malcolm

Leading Scotland to blissful stardom 

Here's a video of the poem as well:

In this course I really enjoyed acting out and reading the story of Macbeth. Learning about the history of it is long but also enjoyable. I also enjoyed watching the movie to see the story in a different perspective. When working on this Action Project I sometimes found it difficult to get everything to rhyme and also have the volta point in the poem. I overcame this by simply rewriting the poem again until I was satisfied with it.

It’s Not All Handy Dandy - by RBL

 It’s Not All Handy Dandy

This is my first action project for my Cure class. This class is a second part to our Disease class last term. In this unit, titled Emergency, we’ve been learning about what can go wrong in the body and how to fix it. We first looked at the Hippocratic oath that doctors take, so we could see the rules that they follow. We also went to the International Museum for Surgical Science to see how different surgeries are done and why. As well as learning how different cells can reproduce through meiosis and mitosis. Leading up to our action project being to look up a surgery of our own choice and create a pamphlet about it that patients might see before getting that surgery. I decided to research Carpal Tunnel syndrome for my action project. In the cells, carpal tunnel syndrome can cause a stop in fluid production in the cells because of repeated use of the same action. From there these cells might cause friction in the system leading to the hand slowing down. can cause and here's my pamphlet below.

   

Overall I did enjoy doing this action project because it was interesting to see how carpal tunnel syndrome can effect different people. I also enjoyed doing research on how the surgery itself is done and how people can recover from it. I did find it difficult to start because I wasn’t sure how I should’ve written all of the information in a good manner. If I were to do it again, I would pick a surgery that I had more personal experience with.

New wisdom - By RBL

 New wisdom - By RBL

In this blog I'll be telling you about the Akoben Rites of Passage Society that I'm learning from. In the fall-civic term, it's been meeting every-other Sunday and we've talked about important topics like how to be responsible, learn how to create our own part-time shelters, and how to defend our communities. There are a lot of programs like this located in different parts of the world. Their goals are how to teach black young men how to take care of each other, and the world. 

To be a Disease Detective - By RBL

To be a Disease Detective

This is my last action project for my disease class. For this unit, we looked into current diseases that impact people everyday. For this we got to play the board game Pandemic in class and see how doctors research and dissect different information to find causes for certain diseases. We also interviewed two health doctors who’ve done different jobs in the CDC. Leading to our action project, we were given a specific scenario for an epidemic of a certain disease. My scenario was an epidemic of Hepatitis A. 

Disease overview:

An epidemic of Hepatitis A occurred in the state of Washington in July 2019. Symptoms can start when you eat some sort of contaminated food. From there, the disease spreads out to your liver to cause severe damage. There were over 450 cases, more than 250 of which resulted in hospitalization and at least 9 deaths. Most cases occurred in unhomed populations, recently incarcerated populations, and drug users.

Hepatitis A (HAV) is a very contagious disease caused by certain viruses in the liver. Even though hepatitis A is a very contagious disease even though there are less than 1,000 known cases in a year because most of our population has been vaccinated against it. 

When inside your body, it can cause inflation's to the liver and can make it difficult for your liver to work properly. You can directly get it from things such as contaminated food or water, drug users, men who have sex with men (MSM), and homeless individuals who might have unstable housing. Those are some of the few ways hepatitis A can spread through communities. A few symptoms for hepatitis A are intense itching, fatigue, joint pain, nausea, and vomiting. It’s important to realize that even though most of these symptoms for hepatitis A can last about two months, if you end up with a virus it can then last up to six months. This can leave severe damage to your body system. The best ways to fight against this are to get vaccinated, wash hands frequently, and don’t do drugs. 

Vaccines at Sanofi “Hepatitis A virus (HAV)” Taken August 7, 2013 

Outbreak info:

    A recent outbreak of hepatitis A was reported in Seattle,WA in 2019 because of food contamination. The populations that were infected the most by this outbreak were the unsheltered, drug users (injection or non-injection), and people that have been, are, or recently incarcerated. Compared to those with the highest risk of getting hepatitis A, 36.7% of Seattle’s population has limited access to healthy foods compared to the national average of 64.2%. The interesting thing is that the parts of Seattle with the highest healthy food access are in the northern and southern parts of Seattle.  

According to the CDC, the incubation period for it is about 28 days. There were 465 cases total, 263 people hospitalized, and 9 people who died. There’s a 94% efficacy for the vaccine so there’s more chance that if you get vaccinated, you will recover quicker than if you don’t. The reproductive rate for hepatitis A is 2.4. This is important because it can spread relatively quickly so it’s important to take precautions to prevent the disease. In order for Seattle to keep their population safe from hepatitis A, 62% or more would need to get vaccinated. 

Here’s a timeline on how hepatitis A can affect someone:

RBL “Hepatitis A outbreak timeline” created March 9th, 2022

Those are some of the things states have done in the past. Here are some things that you can do to protect yourself and others from hepatitis A.

Recommendations:

To prevent hepatitis A outbreaks like these we should wash our hands more often, or get a vaccine for hepatitis A. Another thing you can do yourself is to be mindful of the things you eat and how they are made, as well as wear gloves when entering populated areas. As a whole we can advocate for those who have drug addiction or drug problems, so they won’t have to fight against their own drug issues. Another thing we can do is provide more housing or create more homeless shelters for those who don’t have the greatest healthcare options, and do more health checkups on local restaurants to make sure they’re selling healthy food. With taking these precautions, we can all stay safe from hepatitis A.

Sources: 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/. 

Flynn, Dan. “National Hepatitis A Outbreak Mostly over in West, but Continues in East.” Food Safety News, 7 Apr. 2021, https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/04/national-hepatitis-a-outbreak-mostly-over-in-west-but-continues-in-east/. 

“Hepatitis A Outbreak.” Washington State Department of Health, https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/illness-and-disease-z/hepatitis-information/hepatitis/hepatitis-outbreak. 

Widespread Outbreaks of Hepatitis A Across the U.S.. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/outbreaks/2017March-HepatitisA.htm

Should Kindred be banned from prisons? - By RBL

 Should Kindred be banned from prisons?

This is my last action project for my Humanities class, Forbidden Books. During this unit, we looked at several books that were banned for certain reasons. We read books like Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Fahrenheit 451, and excerpts from The Color Purple. We also looked at different books and the reasons why they were banned from school systems. Leading up to our action project which was to read a book that was banned from a school system. In my case, I ended up reading Kindred by Octavia Butler. Surprisingly, Kindred isn't banned from a single school system, but it was banned in prisons. Because of this, I had to do a lot more digging for information because it wasn’t directly banned in schools. If there is one thing I learned from Kindred it’s that power will come when you least expect it. Maybe it's banned because are worried about how it sees power. This is the essay that I wrote about the book. I hope you enjoy it.

Memory for Masters - By RBL

 Memory for Masters

Here is my second blog post for my disease class. For this unit we really focused a lot about different mental disorders. For this we looked at a lot of the DSM-V which is a very long and detailed medical document that gives a lot of information about certain medical disorders. We also looked at autism directly by watching and reading Naoki Higashida's “The reason I jump”.  Because of that it helped me to understand how mental disorders can affect how different people’s brain’s work. For this action project we were to choose a mental disorder of our choice, research how it can affect the body, and create an activity on how it might affect someone. The mental disorder that I decided to choose for this was amnesia.  Here’s my analysis and activity below.  

Amnesia is a process of losing or getting to lose parts of your memory over time. Symptoms usually start after some type of traumatic event or some type of accident. A person with dissociative amnesia may struggle to remember key details about themselves and their life, including their name, date of birth, where they live or work, or significant events. 

Beta waves are the waves that do most of our active interaction in our brains. For that the body is learning how to do specific things and how to use said things. These waves are most affected by amnesia because with it you start to lose some of your memory. Along with that since beta waves allow for us to have active interactions with others, amnesia can cause us to lose parts of those interactions. The worse a person’s amnesia is the harder it is for beta waves to work properly inside of the brain. Here are two facts about amnesia below:

• About 1.8% of Americans are diagnosed with amnesia in a year 

• Similar to otosclerosis, women have a higher chance of getting amnesia than men

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, an author and personality theorist, has amnesia and states that, “Desperateness sometimes makes us do something that gives someone, or some people, the impression that we suffer from forgetfulness.” From this quote we can understand that amnesia can sometimes make others feel desperate for something in a way. With that it might make someone with amnesia some type of way because of the way they are. Because of that it’s important to help those people anyway that we can.

One misconception that a lot of people have about amnesia is that it can cause someone to forget who they are. This misconception is false because the majority of people with amnesia more often forget past events in their lives. More often than not, people with amnesia can forget people around them or how to do specific things than just forgetting themselves as well.

 If you have amnesia or if someone close to you might have amnesia here are some things you can do to help with treating it:

Making new plans - Create more opportunities for the person with that disorder to make new memories to make up for the lost ones.

Seek out a therapist - Talking to someone about memories or about how to cope with possible trauma. 

Ask for medications - Sometimes doctors can also provide forms of medication for amnesia that can help to reduce possible anxiety from it.

To understand how it might feel to have amnesia, I wanted to make an interesting twist to the memory game. The goal with it is to give people a chance of how it might feel to have amnesia or how it might feel losing track of your memory. Now here’s a video on how to play:

Once you’ve finished feel free to answer this short survey about your experience playing - https://forms.gle/yqiwnxwr87e5YGEWA

Sources:

• “Dissociative Amnesia Facts and Statistics: The Recovery Village.” The Recovery Village Drug and Alcohol Rehab, The Recovery Village Drug and Alcohol Rehab, 30 Dec. 2020,         https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/dissociative-amnesia/related/dissociative-amnesia-statistics/. 

• DSM-V document - published May 13th, 2013 

• Geralyn Dexter, LMHC. “What Causes Dissociative Amnesia?” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 21 Dec. 2021, https://www.verywellhealth.com/dissociative-amnesia-symptoms-causes-treatment-5210967. 

• Sarah Jividen, RN. “All about the Different Types of Amnesia.” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 18 Oct. 2021, https://www.verywellhealth.com/amnesia-types-5203061. 

A Fantastic Floorplan - By RBL

 A Fantastic Floorplan

Hello and welcome to this blog. In this blog I'll be sharing to you a floorplan I made in Spanish class and what each part of it means. To prep for this, we went over how to use different Spanish words with ar, er, and ir endings. We also looked at parts of a house and different appliances that you might find in a house as well. For me the hardest part of this ap was drawing out my floorplan on paper. I'm not an experienced drawer so this part I found a bit challenging. Overall, I'm really proud how it came out and I hope you enjoy looking at it as well.

RBL A Fantastic Floorplan rough draft, drawn February 7th, 2022

RBL A Fantastic Floorplan Final, February 13th, 2022

Activities:

La sala:

Estoy descansando en el sillón.

Estoy echando agua a las flores en la vasesa.

Estoy abriendo cabinete.

Mi sobrina ordena los juguetes

Sacudo los libros.

Traigo el agua.

Abro la puerta.

El comedor:

Estoy bebiendo agua en la mesa

Nosotros comemos en la mesa

Nosotros hablamos en la mesa

Las sacudidas mezcla de senderos

La cocina:

Yo caliento la comida en el microondas

Caliento la comida.

Hablo con mi mamȧ

le hablo

Estoy bebiendo el jugo de manzana Jugo

Lo estoy bebiendo

Le llamo practicando a cocinar

Llamo a mi mamá/le llamó.

El baño:

Yo voy a tomar una ducha

Yo lavo la ropa en la lavadora

La lavo (La ropa)

Yo limpio mi baño

Yo traigo pijama el baño

El dormitorio:

Yo Duermo en mi cama

Como papas fritas en mi habitación

Leo libros en mi habitación

  

Can You Hear me? - By RBL

Can You Hear me?

This is my first blog post for my Disease class. This first unit was based on anatomy and learning about how different diseases can impact the human body. We began the class by looking at the main body systems. After that, we went on to talk about how different cancers could affect each system and how the systems could fend against them. We then split into smaller groups to look at the City Health Dashboard website. On the dashboard, we researched different diseases and different problems that are affecting the city and how corporations are fighting against some of the conflicts. This all led to our Action Project, which is to interview someone about a specific disease that they have or that they’ve had and talk about what parts of the body this disease affects. Hope you enjoy it!



Patient profile:

For this action project, the disease that I decided to study was otosclerosis. Before we get into otosclerosis we should talk about what sclerosis means. Sclerosis means that a bone is over growing. Otosclerosis is an ear disorder where a new bone forms around the insides of the ear which can cause hearing difficulties.




Medically the types of people who have the biggest risk of getting this disease are women of all ages. It can also be passed down through different genes from family or can develop while a person is pregnant. Another way this disease can develop is through overgrowing of bones inside the ear. When a bone isn’t growing the right way, it can also cause otosclerosis. This disease manifests as possible changes in bones and bone structure. It isn’t a communicable disease. Although people can’t see otosclerosis directly, they can notice if someone is having hearing issues. This disease directly affects the vestibular system which is a subset of the nervous system. The system itself receives soundwaves that allow us to hear. An example of how this disease can affect someone is if they are watching television and notice that they can’t hear clearly. Because of this they might have to resort to other means to improve their hearing. Some of the factors that can cause this disease are lack of water, measles, and sometimes the reason behind the disease can be unknown. This means that this disease is multifactorial.


Personally, I have a family member who has had otosclerosis for years. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University. When I interviewed her, she told me her symptoms first started when she was in her mid 30’s. Based on the fact that she was a woman in her mid 30’s, it suggests that she was at a high risk of getting the disease. She noticed that when she was talking on the phone her hearing felt like it was starting to fade. When she first went to her doctor, she was told that her hearing was fading on each ear.

Here’s an example of what otosclerosis might look inside of my family member’s ear:

“Otosclerosis drawing” drawn by RBL January 19th 

After hearing from the doctor at that time, her hearing loss wasn’t too significant. 4 years later her symptoms only got worse. She then decided to go to a different doctor. Some of the diagnostics she took in order to find this disease were to take hearing tests in order to test inner ear vibrations. After doing a hearing test she was diagnosed with otosclerosis. The bones that are a part of the vestibular system grew too big which caused a lack of vibration in her ears. With minimal vibrations, it made it really difficult for her to hear. In my family member’s case, the doctor gave her two options for treating her disease. One option was a stapedectomy. A stapedectomy is a surgery where doctors replace the bones in your middle ear with prosthetics that are artificial materials so the ears can get that vibration. At that time, my family member hadn't had any good experiences with surgeries, so she wasn’t thrilled with getting one. So, she decided to get hearing aids instead.

 Here’s an example of the kinds of hearing aids she wears:

"Receiver-in-the-ear open ear Oticon hearing aids" by ikesters is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

She told me that, “I was also really embarrassed to wear hearing aids at first. I first wore hearing aids for a practice period similar to having glasses.” My family member still wears hearing aids today and told me that she’s ok with wearing them because they improve her hearing significantly. With better technology the hearing aids will get better too.

Closing thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed doing this action project because it allowed me to learn more about my family member’s life with this disease. It also made me think about how different diseases can impact people's lives and the people around them. It also pushes me to understand how her disease might affect her and how I can help her and understand how to see her thoughts.



Sources:


H.P personal interview

Noted January 16, 2022


The Royal Victorian eye and ear hospital. (n.d.). Ears - otosclerosis. Ears - otosclerosis - Better Health Channel. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/ears-otosclerosis