Clara's Personal Narrative
This story tells the experience of Clara who is receiving Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy to manage symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Clare manages a popular restaurant in a Minneapolis suburb. Running a food place required lots of energy and stamina. When she was about 37, she began to notice her energy levels dropping and tremors on her left side.
She ignored the symptoms and dismissed it as too much stress and physical labor.
However, Clara started worrying when a couple years passed and things hadn't improved. A doctor urged Clare to see a neurologist about the severe tremor in her left hand. The neurologist told Clare she had Parkinson's disease.Clare's doctor put her on medications to manage her tremors. But these medications produced unpleasant side effects like dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. Then Clare tried a drug called Sinemet, which helped her symptoms without the side effects.
Unfortunately, the disease progressed over the course of several years and her tremors increased. Additionally, she would "freeze up" and be unable to move for minutes at a time. This is a familiar chain of events for PD patients.
Eventually, Clare had to stop working out front at the restaurant, greeting and seating guests. Even helping out in the kitchen became too hard, because she was unsteady on her feet. She sometimes dropped pizzas or fell against the pizza oven, burning herself.
Parkinson's disease affected Clare's personal life as well. Clare was forced to give up golf, a sport she loved. She couldn't go out with friends as often either. Most of her time was spent either working or recovering from work at home. Worst of all, she couldn't play with her beloved basset hound Fred or take him on frequent walks.
"The world as I knew it was over," said Clare. "I realized I would have to stop working. How was I going to earn a living? It was kind of scary". Clare's neurologist told her about Medtronic DBS Therapy . She went to a class on DBS and researched the therapy online. "I learned about the risks of the procedure," she says. "I knew there could be complications. Maybe it wouldn't work at all. But I decided that the possible outcomes were worth it. I just had to do it". After successful surgery and DBS therapy, her symptoms have improved dramatically and her life was restored (Medtronic).
She ignored the symptoms and dismissed it as too much stress and physical labor.
However, Clara started worrying when a couple years passed and things hadn't improved. A doctor urged Clare to see a neurologist about the severe tremor in her left hand. The neurologist told Clare she had Parkinson's disease.Clare's doctor put her on medications to manage her tremors. But these medications produced unpleasant side effects like dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. Then Clare tried a drug called Sinemet, which helped her symptoms without the side effects.
Unfortunately, the disease progressed over the course of several years and her tremors increased. Additionally, she would "freeze up" and be unable to move for minutes at a time. This is a familiar chain of events for PD patients.
Eventually, Clare had to stop working out front at the restaurant, greeting and seating guests. Even helping out in the kitchen became too hard, because she was unsteady on her feet. She sometimes dropped pizzas or fell against the pizza oven, burning herself.
Parkinson's disease affected Clare's personal life as well. Clare was forced to give up golf, a sport she loved. She couldn't go out with friends as often either. Most of her time was spent either working or recovering from work at home. Worst of all, she couldn't play with her beloved basset hound Fred or take him on frequent walks.
"The world as I knew it was over," said Clare. "I realized I would have to stop working. How was I going to earn a living? It was kind of scary". Clare's neurologist told her about Medtronic DBS Therapy . She went to a class on DBS and researched the therapy online. "I learned about the risks of the procedure," she says. "I knew there could be complications. Maybe it wouldn't work at all. But I decided that the possible outcomes were worth it. I just had to do it". After successful surgery and DBS therapy, her symptoms have improved dramatically and her life was restored (Medtronic).
Experiential ApproachAnthropolgists understand that illness does not happen in a vaccuum. It has a social context which contributes to it meaning and significance. The Experiential approach emphasizes the subjective experience of illness and healing. This area is interested in studying the biological, psychological and social dimensions of health in order to understand what it means to be sick. It focuses and claims that a more effective way to look at illness is to study it as a individual experience that is influenced by a social context. The sick role is an example of such an approach. It consists of acknowledging abnormal health, seeing a professional, and being excused from everyday activities. In Clara's case, it took her a couple years to see a physician for her slight tremor and fatigue. This approach can also be beneficial in some cases. Clara's fatigue might have made her feel and seem lazy or unmotivated. After the diagnosis, she knows that she was suffering from serious and socially acceptable condition.
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importance of narrativesPersonal narratives are the stories that the patients tell to their friends, family, professionals and even complete strangers regarding their illness. Anthropologists evaluate personal narratives of ill people in order to better understand how the social context is associated with their health. Clara's personal narrative seems to have started as a chaos narrative which transformed itself into a quest narrative. At one point in her life, she felt as if the world she knew was over. She could not perform the everyday tasks she need to do in order to function in society. The fact that Parkinson's is a chronic and degenerative disease without a real cure made her feel hopeless. However, after the DBS therapy, her life was restored and she no longer felt hopeless. She accepted her illness, but continued with her everyday illnesses. This type of situation conforms more with the quest narrative.
The abstract of the narrative is the story of a woman who manages a popular restaurant in Minneapolis. She realizes the onset of he illness at age 37 and battles with the worsening condition ever since. She restores balance and health to her a life through a relatively new technological breakthrough. The Orientation tells us that the onset came when she was 37. She first started noticing it after hard days of managing the restaurant in her hometown. As far as who, everything and everyone around her was in some way connected to her illness. At one point in her life, she felt like she couldn't even hang out with her friends or in any social settings. A complicating action would be a couple years after the onset of her first symptoms. Clara's progression of the illness came to a point in where everyday activities were significantly affected. She finally visited a doctor, who diagnosed her with Parkinson's disease. Her life as she knew it changed dramatically from that point on. The evaluation and importance of this event is the fact that she started looking at herself differently from that point on. Her subjective view of her fatigue and tremor was dramatically change. She finally had an answer to her symptoms, and proceeded to take steps to control it. The resolution was that she finally received the effective DBS therapy, which allowed her to live a normal life again. |
"Parkinson's Disease and Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy “ Clare's Story." Medtronic, World Leader in Medical Device Technology and Therapies. http://www.medtronic.com/patients/parkinsons-disease/personal-stories/clare/index.htm (accessed August 14, 2013).
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