Another Head-Crushing Migraine and Sweet, Sweet Rain
I’m in so much pain I can’t find adequate words to describe it. It started with my TMJ, combined with the dental work I had done last week. I believe the dentist sawed a few nerves in half that shouldn’t have been severed. It’s like no tooth pain I’ve ever felt before. The pain is so acute and shrill- it’s dizzying. As a matter of fact, having a baby (all natural) wasn’t this painful, and I’ve had 3 natural births!
No, this feels like somebody has bashed my head on my right side and it’s beginning to envelop my right eye socket in a sick, orbital frenzy. The vessels surrounding my (right) temporal and occipital region are pregnant with pain- threatening to burst, they feel like. My lymph node under the right side of my chin is swollen, indicating that i may have an accompanying infection of some sort. This is far worse than a normal unilateral migraine, because this includes TMJ pain and damaged nerves. It’s literally taking my breath away.
It’d do me no good to go to the ER- they’d just shoot me up with a demerol cocktail and while that would end this excruciating pain temporarily, it’d do nothing for me in the long run. It boils my blood that Medicaid won’t cover TMJ! They feel that it’s not “necessary”, nor are any procedures affiliated with it. This is the worst pain I’ve ever been in in my life- and it’s only just begun. If I don’t manage to knock this pain out FAST, it’ll take me down for the next 2 to 3 days and I cannot afford that during midterms.
Time to log off before I vomit.
Thank God for the rain dancing on my roof…
Rainy Day Brunch and Comfy Socks
The rain is falling down in soft patterns that make me happy. It was a raging torrent earlier but has now fallen back to gentle solace. The house is clean so I’ve decided to stay in bed and knock back my Ethics assignment, which is due by midnight. Looks like a great time waiting to happen! (Note the sarcasm.) Take, for example:
- In Everyday Morality, Martin considers Ruth Benedict as representing the philosophical view of ethical conventionalism (pp. 53-54). What does she say in the excerpt from her Anthropology and the Abnormal (in Resources) that would support ethical conventionalism?
- Although not included in the excerpt, Benedict ends her paper with these words: “It is as it is in ethics: all our local conventions of moral behavior and of immoral are without absolute validity, and yet it is quite possible that a modicum of what is considered right and what wrong could be disentangled that is shared by the hole human race” (quoted in Rosenstand, p. 147). Does this statement contradict what she said in the excerpt from Anthropology and the Abnormal that you read? Why or why not? Does this statement contradict the perspective of ethical conventionalism? Why or why not?
- According to the excerpts you have read, what do The Poisonwood Bible and Possessing the Secret of Joy have in common? What are their major differences? Which of these two approaches to diversity and relativism do you find more compelling? Explain.
- What would each of the various perspectives Martin discusses in chapter 4 (ethical conventionalism, ethical pluralism, two versions of conceptual relativism, two definitions of multiculturalism) say about female genital mutilation? In your view, would female genital mutilation be morally right (permissible or obligatory) or morally wrong (impermissible)? Why or why not?
Ethical conventionalism, perspectivism, universalism, ethical pluralism, etc.
Blah.
My TMJ pain is making me crazy: it’s unrelenting! It feels like somebody’s pulling my jaw (continuously) out if its socket. Medicaid will not cover TMJ because they think that surgical procedures for chronic TMJ (such as I have) are not “necessary”. Don’t you love it? So now I’m in constant pain and have one of two choices: do nothing and suffer, or double up on my (homeopathic, all natural) pain meds. I really don’t want to do that but damn if I’m going to sit here and try to get work done with little, evil elves digging out my jaw meat with pitchforks. (Double up on pain meds it is.)
I have an exceptional brunch of fried ham, brown eggs, English muffin w/cream cheese & cherry preserves + lemon ginger tea.
And my comfy socks.
Thanks again to my son’s little lady- Many tator tots– who is a total sweetheart! 🙂
m o n o c h r o m e j u n k i e † 