In a nutshell: I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age 25 in the summer of 2001 while living in Chicago, IL. My symptoms had started years earlier and my attempts to get help were stymied by a handful of misdiagnoses by general practitioners and emergency room physicians. My pain was in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen and among other issues I suffered from backaches, chills, fever, diarrhea, nausea, dehydration, fatigue, anemia, bloating and there was at times golf ball sized lump where the pain was. Continue reading
Did Aaron Swartz Have Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Among other achievements Aaron Swartz was a programming prodigy, internet pioneer and activist. He tragically died January 11, 2013 at the age of 26. This site is happily licensed under a Creative Commons which is an organization Swartz contributed to. This month New Republic has an article on Swartz which caught my eye. At the end of a paragraph is this sentence in parentheses: Swartz had a chronic bowel condition that sometimes crippled him with stomach pain.
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Art – No Signal
If we were to hook up an EKG machine to the health care industry we’d not see the waves generated by a human heart. But we wouldn’t get nothing either. We’d get the no signal display commonly seen on TV’s trying to find a station to display. Continue reading
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Art – A few more medical record collages
These are the first collages I made out of my medical records from March to July 2012. Continue reading
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Art – Azathioprine and Incentive Collages
By July 2012 I had stopped taking azathioprine for over a year. My joints had more than made a come back from the drug’s side effects and I had joined a tennis league. Here are two more collages I made back in July 2012. They’re separate ideas but go together in a lot of ways.
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Art – Medical Record Collages
Below are more collages I made using my medical records.
This collage, called Dr. Benway Operates is a juxtaposition between my surgery records and an excerpt from Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. It’s incredible how well Burroughs captures the ideas of over-treatment and the complete dehumanization of the patient in his 1959 American classic. Continue reading
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Art – Taking the Medical Industry Out and Shooting It
This is a continuation blog post featuring art work I made in the late spring and early summer of 2012. The two pieces below were made using my medical records, medical bills, spray paint, black gesso, livestock marker and other various collage materials. I also used a 12 gauge shotgun and 9mm pistol. Continue reading
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What is a Hospital?
I love magic tricks and I’ve seen Penn and Teller twice. I love it when Teller does a trick and Penn explains it while Teller reenacts it for you in slow motion. It’s like being amazed three times at once: The first time you’re amazed cause it looks impossible and the second time you’re amazed cause it’s a simple trick, and then you’re amazed you fell for it! It’s one of those 1+1=3 magic formulas. The inverse feeling of magic amazement arose for me when I read the definition for “hospital” after recently reading a slew of books about our medical system. Continue reading
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