Public Perception Essay

Robert F. Murphy

When people think about Robert Murphy they usually think about a person who lost the use of their legs, and traveled the world to learn about the things that he loved most. There is more to his story though, there are a lot more emotional aspects to this story, and it makes you think about how it affected his life. From childhood there had been signs of something being wrong with him, but they had been misdiagnosed and ignored. These symptoms became clearer as his life went on and the problem was not about to go away. It was only the beginning of the greatest and most unforgettable journey he would ever undergo in his life time.

As a young child, Robert liked to run around and play with his friends, as many children do when they are young. It was at the age of five when he had his first signs that something was wrong with him, and it was misdiagnosed as a case of rheumatism. That was the first mistake. If it had been correctly diagnosed and treated at this time, Robert might have been able to walk and have the use of his arms when he was older. If the hospitals had had the technology and knowledge back then, they could have diagnosed Robert’s problem and may have prevented was happening to him.

In his 40’s he started to have muscle cramps/spasms and thought that it was just from lifting something heavy the day before. Robert thought that it would go away in a couple days or so, but it never did. He was forced one day to go to a doctor by his wife, and it was a good thing that he did. He was not very smart to have not wanted to go to the doctor in the first place, because this could have also have prevented him from being unable to walk, and use his arms.

In his later years his problem was diagnosed, but by this time he was not able to walk very well, or hold anything in his left hand. Robert could not go anywhere without someone with him because he was unable to drive, and he could not go out on the street because it was too crowded and it was poorly paved so it was hard for him to control his wheelchair.

Many people underestimate what this man went through, and they don’t really think about what this can do to a person’s life. Even with what this man went through he still had high hopes, and did not let his disability get to him. Many people looked at him differently when he was in a wheelchair and he did not want to be treated differently because of this. Many people may have felt sorry for him and thought that it was weird for him to now be like this, so they could not talk to him because it was weird.

Day 10 (pg.216-231)

• he realizies how a disorder like his can change a persons social life

Day 9 (pg.192-215)

• In 1983 he started reading about advances in neurosurgery, and consulted with a neurosurgeon that said that he could remove the tumour
• if he did this then he could not get worse, and he could get better, but probably not walk.
• he may be able to breath better, and on his own

Day 8 (pg.168-191)

• the first time that he heard of anthropology was in 1947
• started to work on a project of diability at around 1979
• the project ended in 1983
• some of his muscle spasms got so bad that he would slip half way down his chair, because of this he had to wear a seat belt
• he could not feel temperature, and his pores did not open and close to exude persperation
• from 1980-1981 his state of health began to decline
• he found that from sitting in his chair all day he started getting ulcers
• one got so big that he had to have surgery on it to get it removed
• in 1984 he came down with a bad case of the flu, which did not help his healing and he got weaker
• in 1981 he got another ulcer, but it was not as big as the first one. He got that one removed as well by surgery
• later that summer he got another ulcer that formed on top of the surgical scar
• he went in for more surgery to remove it in the end of October, and he had to stay at he hospital for 2 months
• every 2 hours in the night someone would come and turn him over so that he would not get any more ulcer, or blood pooling
• as the pressure on the spinla cord in the lower cervical area increased, his fingers and hands had become weaker and stiffer
• in 1981 he could still pick up light objects with his left hand
• in about 1982 or 1983 he could do only that with his right hand and not pick up heavier things
• bought a computer because he could not type on a typewriter
• his left arm had become too weak to move his wheelshair, so he ordered a electric one
• his chest muscles had deteriorated, and hiss lung capacity had dropped to 50%

Day 7 (pg.144-167)

• he found that many companies would not hire people who had a wheelchair
• he found it hard to get around at Columbia University because there was not a lot of wheelchair accessible ways to get from one place to another (because of the stairs)
• he wrote a letter to the president of Columbia explaining the problem and they spent about 700,000 dollars in changes for it to be wheel chair accessible
• he felt that this gave him power and he thought that this was the only time since he was in a wheelchair that he had been truely respected and heard
• it is fairly hard to get a job when you are disabled, and the money that you get from medicare, and for having a disability that stops you from working is very little
• six months after his spinal cord surgery, he began to notice that he was on a very low plateau
• his exercises showed no further improvement
• his physiotherapy was not helping much either
• one day in 1978 he noticed that he could not raise his right leg high enough to get it on to the foot rest, but he could do it every so often
• the tumour began to keep growing
• and from 1977 to 1979 his left foot kept draging more and more heavily on the floor, and the right leg could not move as far forward anymore
• in 1978 he gave up walking for the fear of falling, but he could still stand, and walk a few steps with his walker
• in November of 1978 he went to stand up to get into a car, but he could not

Day 6 (pg.120-143)

• he found that when he talked to people when he had his disability they talked to him differently then when he did not have it.
• people treated him differently because if his condition, and he wished that he would be treated the same as when he had no disability
• between 1980 and 1983 he did research on social relations of the disabled
• found that there was a pattern of discriminating against the handicapped
• he found it hard to travel around on the streets becasue they were crowded and they were not very well paved

Day 5 (pg.96- 119)

• in all the years that he has had the tumour, he had never consciously asked "why me?"
• he had many dreams about him walking and doing things that he could not do in real life, but when he remembered that he was disabled he would stop what he was doing and sit down or stand there until he wakes up
• his fingers had lost both strength and dexterity

Day 4 (72-95)

• recieved a Mark Van Doren award for teavhing from the students of Columbia College his alma matter
• not being able to drive was hard for him, because it took away some of his freedom
• if they had to stay in a hotel they would have to measure the door way to make sure that the wheelchair could get in, they would have to bring things to help him, and if they wanted to go to a resturante they had to phone and ask if there was wheelchair access
• in 1962 he signed a conteact with the Prentice-Hall publishing house to do a textbook on introductory anthropology
• he did not do the textbook so in the spring of 1977 while looking for a writing project he had the idea of writing a text on cultural antropology, which he knew off the top of his head so he did not have to try and reaserch in the library which was hard because of his condition
• starting in early May he finished a 100,000 wor manuscript at the end of August
• his book "My Dialectics of Social Life" took him 8 month in 1968 and 1969
• he also wrote "An Overture to Social Anthropology" in 1979
• He sent the completed manuscript to the publishing company and the first copies were published in 1978
• his book was successful enough to warrant a second edition in 1986
• he returned to teaching in September 1977, and because it was a class of about 200 he had to project his voice, and that was hard for him, but it helped strenghten his muscles
• he knew what was wrong with him, and the fact that it was only going to get worse, and he was able to accept that. He was not able to accept the social limits, or tolerate the clips from his past
• it made him feel alone and isolated, despite the strong support from his family and friends
• the interesting part about his condition was that if you ran a knife through his leg, he could not feel it
• ever since the tumour became symptomatic the upper body functions suffered some impairment. It diminished his lung capacity, and consequently, more rapid and shallow and rapid breathing.
• the musculature of his arms and hands and progressively weakened, the range of movement had become more narrow, his fingers stiffened, and his hands became numb and insensitive to touch and temperature.
• he had to be careful of hot water, dishes and pots because he could burn himself without knowing
• by the spring of 1986 his left hand was almost useless because the fingers of quadriplegics curl inward towards the palms

Day 3 (pg.48-71)

• he was parapeligic, but he could stand and walk a little, so he was considered a good candidate for physical therapy
• he underwent both occupational and physical therapy every weekday
• he was making visible progress in therapy, he was able to walk with a walker from his room to the nurses station(about 50 feet)
• he had retained most of his upper body function and a good deal of the lower body functions
• he left the hospital on December 22, 1976
• life out side the hospital was hard and in his house there were many obsticles that would get in his way (like stairs)
• during his time at the hospital he never got paid sick leave
• despite his thoughts of suicide, he was not truely depressed and he still ate well, slept well and he still kept his sense of humor
• his brain was the only part of the central cortex that still worked well

Day 2 (pg.24-47)

· he took the diagnosis very calmly, and it took him a while to realize the significance of it
· they still knew very little about the tumour, so they could not jump to any conclusions on how to help him he felt no fear upon hearing the diagnosis, other than anticipation of a dismal future
· he put his past in to two categories, pre-wheelchair and post-wheelchair
· he thinks of the pre-illness years as a golden age, and the recent times as a time of bad auspices, gloomy auguries, and shattered expectations
· 1986, he was 62 and he gave no thought to retirement although he was fully eligible for full pension rights in three years, and he did not think about it because he did not expect to live to be 65
· in 1980 he applied for a two year research grant
· he grew up Irish Catholic in the 1930's and 1940's
· his family had graduated from lace-curtain, but working class, Irish to solid middle class in the 1920's, only to crash back down into poverty during the great depression
· his father had been an advertising salesman for a yachting magazine and was doing well enough to buy a house in Rockaway beach(in Queens NY)
· having this job pushed him over the edge of conviviality into alcoholism
· in 1935 his mother contracted breast cancer, grew sicker and weaker, then died in 1937
· by this terrible even they had all learned a lesson that "love invites loss", and it was probably the most valuable lesson that he ever learned
· entered the hospital in 1976
· the maximum growth of the tumour was at the top of the thoracic section of the spine(between the shoulder blades)
· signals from the lower body could no longer reach his brain, his body was no longer governed by a higher system of control (a disorder)
· first two weeks in hospital were taking test (blood samples, z-rays from all angles, 2 EMG's, arteriogram), the rest of the time he was answering questions, this happened for about three weeks
· then he got a CAT scan, and a myelogram
· the neurosurgeon came in and talked to him about the tests and how he would be a bad prospect for surgery because the tumour had wrapped around the spinal cord, making it hard to do without causing serious damage. As well one of the blood vessels that supplied the spinal cord with blood ran through the tumour, and they could not be tied off because the deprivation of blood would kill the cord.
· it was a no-win situation, and doing the surgery would produce immediate and catastrophic damage, while leaving the tumour would work its harm slowly
· the basic problem was that he was 55 years old when it was discovered, and if the "rheumatism" had been properly diagnosed, then he would have not had this problem
· he was told that the situation was far from hopeless, so instead of surgery the doctors recommended a course of cobalt therapy
· cobalt therapy began when he was in the hospital for seven weeks, four of them he was a outpatient
· the cobalt rays were aimed at his spine, but they kept on going and hit his digestive track
· due to the peculiarities of the tumour growth his left side was weaker than his right.
· other symptoms(muscle stiffness and weakness in torso and chest area) increased in number and severity
· mid-October 1976 he went to his neurologist for a check-up, and he was disturbed by the deterioration in my condition
· he was told that surgery was necessary regardless of the dangers.
· the radiotherapy had killed off some of the tumour, but not all of it, and it had produced negative side effects
· he re-entered to Neurological institute at the end of October, and had to wait to weeks for an opening on the surgery schedule
· he was sent and properly sedated to the operating room
· he woke up the next morning in the intensive care unit where his wife was and later he was wheeled to the fifth floor where he would recuperate for the next five weeks
· his mood after the first four days was ebullient, as if he had come back to life.
· he could raise his foot several inches off the ground (even though it was still weak) and could walk with the help of a nurse across that hall to the bathroom
· on the fifth day after the operation he woke up with a sense of fatigue, he could no longer raise his foot as high as he did the day before and his upbeat mood had turned in to depression
· the condition of his legs and arms had deteriorated and he could no longer walk
· the spasms in his legs and torso were also more intense, and he had a great deal of sensitivity, tingling and pain in his arms and hands(especially on his left side)

Day 1 pg.1-23

• he had a muscle spasm in 1972
• and it turned in to quadriplegia in 1986
• it was a result of a tumor inside his spinal coloum
• he is 62 years old and he is a professor of anthropology at Columbia University
• he has been married for 36 years to Yolanda and they have 2 children
• he got spinal surgery
• on July 1st, 1972 he ended a three year term as chairman of Columbia's department of Anthropology
• at the age of 48 he had perfect health
• on July.1st he had his emanicioation, and a week later he threw out a heavy, old air conditioner, and the next day he noticed a peculiar muscle spasm in his anus.
• was a tightness that would not go away, and seemed to have no relation to bowel function.
• his firsst reaction was to shrug it off, because he thought that if he had simply pulled a muscle then it would go away in a couple of weeks
• however it persisted and one afternoon he had a difficulty urinating
• he went to go see his internist right away, for he had a premonition that something was very wrong
• it only took a few minutes to discover that he had a anal fissure, and was going to have surgery until fall
• he went to see a surgeon who tried to break the spasm by injecting Novocain into the sphincter, and it went away for two days, and worsened during the summer, and another one developed on his abdominal wall
• after the vacation he was told by the doctor that it was probably from straining during elimination, and he hoped that it would clear up after the operation
• he had the procedure, and it was simple, do he was out in three days. The weeks after the surgery the discomfort wore off and it had become obvious that the spasm was still there
• the surgery had done nothing to resolve his condition so he went ot a different physician and his muscle tensions appeared in other parts of his abdomen, and he had no idea what was happening to him
• two years later the spasms increased, and were almost undetected because it happened so slowly
• he took up jogging to ease his pain, but it was so boring that he decided that it would be better to have the muscle twinges, and it made them worse
• he had a retal operation and it was his first hospitalization for he had always had good health and the only time when something bad had happened was when he lost the use of his leg at the age of four. At it was thought to be a touch rheumatism
• his internists reffered him to a surgeon and the surgeon had no idea what was wrong with him, so he went to another doctor who put him through a series of test that revealed that his organs were in perfect health
• he told the doctor that it was not the far in and that it felt as if it was more on the surface of the abdomen, so he did a test that confirmed this and that it was probably of the psychosomatic orgin.
• the idea that he was suffering from a somatized depression meant that there would be some type of psychotherapy of medication would cure him. Which was better than a irreversible disease
• the first 2 sessions were devoted to exploring his physical complaints and his current mood, and the symptoms of depression seemed to be absent
• most of his serious psychological problem was from the gnawing worry about his health
• the psychiatrist suggested course of treatment in an orgone box and that ended his avdventure with psychiatry
• When his muscle spasms became more pronounced his wife suggested that he should go see a neurologist and made an appointment in 1976 with a specialist in New Jersey
• he ran a series of test and when the doctor ran a key along the sole of his left foot his big toe began to curl upward which was a sign of a major impairment of the central nervous system
• after a series of x- rays and CAT scans the doctor found an obstruction in the spine which was the source of his problems.
• worked in the Navy
• the x-ray plated had shown that the dye had filtered above the obstruction, and the outlines were visible from top to bottom, which was good news
• the bad news was that it was a tumor extending from the second cervical vertebra to the eighth thoracic vertebra (top of the neck to the mid-chest) and luckily it was thin and had not yet touched the spinal colum, but it was still growing steadily
• the tumor was probably not malignant

What I already know about Robert Murphy is:

• he is an anthropologist
• one day he felt a muscle spasm/cramp, that was not normal
• Little did he know that it was the first sign of a tumor of his spinal cord
• He then became paralyzed, and the journey of his difficult life began.