I Don’t Know What It’s Like To Be Pain Free I interviewed Jerry, my father-in-law, a 50 year old, Caucasian male, in his home in Bonnerdale, Arkansas, on Sunday, November 6, 2016. He is in a committed relationship with his first wife, Connie, and has four children and two grandchildren. He is a homeowner, a Christian, and is self-employed. Jerry is comfortable answering my questions and he responds well to them, although he is clearly tired.
Jerry was the electric maintenance supervisor for Blair Electric in Porterville California. He was recently married at this time, bringing home $2,000 a week, and he didn’t have a care in the world. All of this changed on May 10, 2006, when the plant called because their main palletizing machine went …show more content…
First, that his vitality, “a measure of health that refers to how healthy and energetic-physically, intellectually, and socially-an individual feels” (Sternberg, 2014), is not very high at all, considering the fact that he is constantly in pain and that nothing seems to help relieve it. Unfortunately, he will probably suffer with pain for the rest of his life. Second is that he uses avoidant coping, “a method of responding to a stressor by ignoring, forgetting, or hiding it” (Sternberg, 2014). Besides him admitting to avoidant coping (he doesn’t think about things so he won’t get stressed out), this type of coping is evident because he completely disregards the fact that he is aging and puts it off as effects of his accident, and in his younger years used avoidant coping, which led to a hospitalizing nervous breakdown. Avoidant coping is probably the worst way to cope, and in the long run, avoidant coping will be bad for Jerry, just like it was in his past. Finally, at this point in life, his family is his social convoy, “the people who move through life beside each individual” (Sternberg, 2014), and that is why he is closest to them and probably always will be. Family bonds are strong, and although I don’t understand or agree with his reasoning or values at times, family is family, and we stick together. Jerry will probably live for many years to come, but unfortunately with pain. I hope a cure can be found for CRPS, or a medicine will be introduced to him that will actually help him with his pain. I truly hope he can learn to cope in a positive manner, because ironically, by not thinking about things, he is causing effects just like if he were to overthink things, and neither is healthy. I hope his quality of life will improve, because I believe everyone deserves to live a happy life, especially a man like Jerry, my hilarious, sometimes rude, always brutally honest, stubborn, hard-working, overall amazing
Jerry was the electric maintenance supervisor for Blair Electric in Porterville California. He was recently married at this time, bringing home $2,000 a week, and he didn’t have a care in the world. All of this changed on May 10, 2006, when the plant called because their main palletizing machine went …show more content…
First, that his vitality, “a measure of health that refers to how healthy and energetic-physically, intellectually, and socially-an individual feels” (Sternberg, 2014), is not very high at all, considering the fact that he is constantly in pain and that nothing seems to help relieve it. Unfortunately, he will probably suffer with pain for the rest of his life. Second is that he uses avoidant coping, “a method of responding to a stressor by ignoring, forgetting, or hiding it” (Sternberg, 2014). Besides him admitting to avoidant coping (he doesn’t think about things so he won’t get stressed out), this type of coping is evident because he completely disregards the fact that he is aging and puts it off as effects of his accident, and in his younger years used avoidant coping, which led to a hospitalizing nervous breakdown. Avoidant coping is probably the worst way to cope, and in the long run, avoidant coping will be bad for Jerry, just like it was in his past. Finally, at this point in life, his family is his social convoy, “the people who move through life beside each individual” (Sternberg, 2014), and that is why he is closest to them and probably always will be. Family bonds are strong, and although I don’t understand or agree with his reasoning or values at times, family is family, and we stick together. Jerry will probably live for many years to come, but unfortunately with pain. I hope a cure can be found for CRPS, or a medicine will be introduced to him that will actually help him with his pain. I truly hope he can learn to cope in a positive manner, because ironically, by not thinking about things, he is causing effects just like if he were to overthink things, and neither is healthy. I hope his quality of life will improve, because I believe everyone deserves to live a happy life, especially a man like Jerry, my hilarious, sometimes rude, always brutally honest, stubborn, hard-working, overall amazing