Critical thinking

Essay by binks06College, UndergraduateB, December 2006

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Critical Thinking Barriers and Misperception Paper

According to Webster's dictionary the definition of denial is a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality. I was in painful denial about my mother's health in the spring of 2004. My mother had been battling lymphoma for a number of years. In the fall of 2000 her doctor informed us the cancer was back and treatment was imminent. She was very hesitant about going another bout with chemotherapy since the first treatments almost killed her. I convinced her to start treatment for a second time, but she ended up in congestive heart failure after only one treatment. She was hospitalized and then upon release from the hospital came to stay with my family so I could nurse her back to health. I was scared at the very thought of my mother dying.

Mom continued with a different treatment that was well tolerated but in 2003 the lymphoma reared its ugly head again and this time mom refused chemotherapy. We discussed the treatment options with her doctor and decided on radiation treatments. We were told this was not a cure, but would help reduce the swelling in her left leg. She agreed and I took her to these treatments which lasted a few weeks. Her doctor told her that she would start to feel better by the spring of 2004. The swelling returned and the C.A.T. scan revealed a reoccurrence of lymphoma. My mother became depressed but I was determined to nurse her back to health as I had in the past. Why would my care not help her this time? The doctor told me that I should call in Hospice since mom was no longer...