tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post1183219918326454255..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: NemesisD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-88111316680018418462010-10-18T00:53:20.362-04:002010-10-18T00:53:20.362-04:00Thank you for your typically fine and thorough rev...Thank you for your typically fine and thorough review. I have linked to it on my literature and medicine blog as part of an article I wrote concerning this novel and the meaning of human illness. <br /><br />The drama of medical illness has an arc much like the arc of any story, with the patient as the protagonist and that patient's Aristotelian-type critical choice having consequences that help determine what that patient's illness means. Bucky's choice to live a solitary, joyless life bestowed his illness with tragic meaning, but it needn't be that way. <br /><br />In my capacity as the medical director of a dialysis clinic, I have had the pleasure of meeting a young man who, when faced with a medical catastrophe of equally dire proportions—end stage kidney disease—bestowed a very different meaning on his illness than did the fictional Bucky. His name is Shad Ireland, and he is the first dialysis patient to have ever completed a true Ironman triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race, and 26.2-mile marathon run. <br /><br />Can you imagine? A dialysis patient doing an Ironman? Are you kidding me?<br /><br />In Shad's own words, "A person's attitude toward their illness has a huge impact, not just on what they can achieve, but on their total quality of life...My motto is 'No limitations, only inspiration.'"<br /><br />If only Bucky had known Shad.Richard Baragerhttp://theliterarydoctor.com/wordpress/noreply@blogger.com