Hayles & TEDTalk Videos- 10.9

Accessible Information

Story Time

(let’s hope I’m not oversharing….)

On a personal level, I really related to Goetz’s TEDTalk video in terms of informing patients. I have to go to the doctor’s office about every six month because of my epilepsy diagnosis, I need labs at least once a year but my primary physician always makes me do all the labs whenever I go in- even if it’s just a cold or some other issue, I almost always have to get that stuff done. I mostly have to have my blood drawn at least once a year to check the condition of my liver because of one of the medications (Depakote) I have to take everyday can affect my liver’s condition.

When I was first diagnosed, my neurologist started me on this medication called Keppra- it’s assumed that Keppra is a ‘one size fits all’ anticonvulsant…..It was not. And I hadn’t been told of any side effects either. Then we tried a new drug (Lamictal)  and that worked, but it wasn’t strong enough. So now I take Lamictal and Depakote. The only information that I have even been given about Depakote was: “It will cause increased appetite and weight gain in women, and you can’t be pregnant while taking Depakote”. *sorry for oversharing* This is all what my doctor told me about Depakote. As far as I know, he never told me anything about what Lamictal does. I was just in such an overwhelmed haze that I didn’t bother to seriously ask him about all what could happen when you take the drugs and he didn't really bother to tell me….

Now I have the 2 bottles in my bathroom, and the only other information I am given about these two drugs is that one can make me sleepy and the other really thirsty….and hungry….like all the time.

This TEDTalk video really got me thinking about how frequently I do have to take all my medical tests and take my medications but more importantly: how often I am simply told “Oh ya, you’re good. Your tests came back fine.” (Seriously, you just get a phone call now about blood tests.) Or that you’re sent home with pieces of paper reporting the blood or urine test results and you have no clue what they mean. One time I saw NaCl, and I knew what that meant….And of course I recognize my name and the date I was there, but I have no idea what this could mean for my liver or how I can take extra measures to protect my liver while I take this extremely strong anticonvulsant.

….

(Quickly) Now for the rhetoric-

I didn’t quite understand the rhetorical definition of telos until last week when Doug wrote back to me:

Telos is roughly equivalent to the English sense of "ends," as in "the ends justify the means" or "to what end are you putting all this effort?" So, like, lonnnnng-term purposes / goals / effects. It's the same Greek root that English takes up in the sense of "far" or "far away" or "distant" (telescope, telephone, teleportation) so like what's "out there."  Any time you see telos, you know people are talking about "how does this end" or "what are the ends of this?"  

So now what I think that roughly means is that you have to think long term while writing- and I suppose as far as you can think of when writing for a task or an audience (in this case the focus is the audience as a reader or a viewer).  For instance, the writers distributing the medical reports should ultimately be considering the patients, since they are the viewers at the end of the line that need the answers in the clearest way possible  and will be one of the last people to read the reports.

….

Questions-

• Hypertext” is this like hyperlink or something else?
• I’m not entirely sure I understand hyperreading?
• In general, this terminology used to describe Web reading in Hayles went over my head. :/