Review Of Motion Picture The Cake And Comments About Chronic Pain

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Review Of The Movie Cake And Comments About Chronic Pain

The movie “Cake” starring Jennifer Anniston. It is billed as a movie about Clare Bennett, who deals with the suicide of a member of her chronic pain support group. Here is the advertising blurb about the movie.

“The acerbic, hilarious CLAIRE SIMMONS becomes fascinated by the suicide of a woman in her chronic pain support group. As she uncovers the details of Nina’s suicide and develops a poignant relationship with Nina’s husband, she also grapples with her own, very raw personal tragedy.”

Jennifer plays a woman afflicted with chronic pain due to injuries and metal rods in her legs, the story is not clear about the accident that claimed the son and severely injured her. She is supposed to be a “hilarious” character. I did not detect that in her character at all. I did detect some sarcasm in some of her dialog.

The biggest problem with this movie is that we have no idea who Claire was before the accident and resulting chronic pain and drugs. We don’t know what aspects of her personality and behavior are affected by her chronic pain and narcotic use. Both chronic pain and chronic narcotic use can have an effect on one’s personality and behavior. Not knowing what she was like before, seriously hinders us from knowing the roll of the pain pills.

cake_chronic_painOne view of the movie and most are left thinking that people with chronic pain are addicted to pain pills. That is not at all true and the movie does a grave disservice to those of us who have chronic pain.

There is a lot of evidence of her being addicted to pain killers and the fact that she had hidden stashes of narcotics around the house suggests that she is addicted. But if they want to address the issues of chronic pain they need to also address the role that pain killers play in pain management. They don’t.

There were some interesting aspects of this movie as Jennifer Anniston played a pain ridden Claire such as her laying down flat whenever she was in a vehicle.

Her character had a hard time standing up and sitting down. She used her swimming pool for relaxation. She had trouble sleeping. She moaned when making certain movements, but if I was the consultant to the movie she would have moaned a lot more when rolling over from her back to her side in bed or when standing up from a seated position.

It also showed this chronic pain patient as having a bad attitude and angry. I can relate to that. We’re not always ornery and angry, but we all have our moments.

I would like to see a similar movie about someone who suffers from chronic pain who doesn’t have the financial benefits she did. Show us a person with chronic pain and fatigue with limited financial resources. That would make for a good movie, depressing but realistic.

The movie showed that Claire, the one with chronic pain, still had an interest in physical intimacy. Being a man, I can’t speak to that, but I look at it dubiously.

This isn’t a theatrical review of the movie, I am reviewing the movie and its storyline from the perspective of someone who has had chronic pain for more than eleven years and fibromyalgia for more than thirty years.

Overall, this movie “Cake” is not a great movie to represent chronic pain. But it is a start. Chronic pain is prevalent in our society that it is bound to come up more and more in our cinema. Hopefully they will do a better, more responsible job in the future.

Chronic pain is very real and very difficult to deal with, both from the patient’s perspective and from the care givers perspective. This movie is rated R and not family friendly.

One last thought to anyone who might read this and not understand the effects of chronic pain, everyone who has chronic pain responds differently.

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A Day In My Life With Fibro – At The Movies Jurassic World

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In My Life With Fibro – At The Movies Jurassic World

I went to see Jurassic World this evening with my daughter. She was taking me on a date for a father’s day gift. Ya, she’s awesome. I enjoyed the movie. We didn’t see it in 3D thankfully. I was overwhelmed with the traditional 2D viewing, because something happened while I watched that great movie. All the big scenes and noise and motion and wide shots were a lot of visual stimulation.

jurassic_world_big_movies-fibroI didn’t notice it at first, but then after a while I was getting a small headache. My eyes got tired and I felt over stimulated. I know I’m getting old, but I think it may be related to fibromyalgia and the related sensitivity issues. I don’t see any 3D movies anymore because they are verifiably hard on my eyes and head. But now the big concept, big scenes type movies for the summer are coming out and I worry that I may not be able to see them.

I really liked Jurassic World, and I did see the original Jurassic Park. To me they are two different movies with a similar theme. The movie got me hooked and I stayed the whole time. But now it seems that parts of me like my eye’s, neck and brain are still coming down off that sensory roller coaster I was just in.

Have any of you had that problem with big movies with a lot of noise, action and big scenes? I wonder if it is related to chemical and light sensitivity that fibro is known for? What do you all think?

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40 Facts About Noah and the Ark

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Troy Wagstaff

FACTS ABOUT NOAH, THE ARK AND FLOODS AND RELATED EVENTS

At the time Heavenly Father spoke to Noah about building an ark and saving the Animal Kingdom and his family from utter destruction the earth was evil and corrupt with abounding wickedness. At the same time the population of the earth was involved in their own lives like every other day in spite of Noah preaching to them. Let’s take a closer look.

Condition of the earth and the population therein:

1. “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-12) There were only eight righteous people on the earth that qualified to be saved. Noah and his wife. Their three sons and their wives.

2. No was a preacher of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5) Therein lies a safe assumption that Noah preached to the people and the people had a chance to believe the word of God.

3. “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,” (Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:26-27)

4. God was longsuffering towards the people who live upon the earth. All the wicked had a chance for repentance while the Ark was being prepared. (1 Peter 3:20)

5. Noah was a great man, a prophet of the Lord and a man of great faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

6. Noah was a just man who walked with God. (Noah was not indecisive, he was a man of great faith and righteousness who was deliberate and confident in his relationship with God.) (Genesis 6:9)

7. In Genesis 6 verses 6 and 7 it uses the term “repenteth”. Consider the Hebrew meaning of that term. (Repenteth, Repent in Hebrew language: In the Hebrew of the Old Covenant two words are used in the concept of repentance, they are -1. NAHUM – to lament, to grieve. This word is describing the emotions that are aroused when motivated to take a different course of action. 2. SHUB – This word expresses a radical change of mind toward sin and implies a conscious moral separation from sin and a decision to forsake it and agree with God. The second meaning doesn’t apply.)

8. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 6:10)

9. The Ark was made with Gopher wood with pitch inside and outside of the Ark. (Genesis 6:14)

noah_meme10. The Ark had three stories and measured The length is 300 cubits. Breadth is 50 cubits and the height is 30 cubits. (Genesis 6:15-16) What is a cubit? You may want to research this one yourself. I’m not that concerned about it because it is impossible to know for certain but the average long Cubit is about 20 from a quick look on the Internet. This would mean the length of the ark was about 500 feet long or 1.7 football fields long. But then again, who knows for sure.

11. All flesh upon the earth was destroyed! Both Noah movies have people other than Noah’s family surviving. This is a flagrant error on the part of the writers of the movie, creative license or not. (Genesis 6:17)

12. Noah was commanded to store enough food for his family and for all the animals in the ark. (Genesis 6:21-22)

13. It seems all stories of the animals on the ark say “two by two”. But according to Genesis 7:2-3, it says that he needed seven of every clean beast, male and female. Unclean beasts a male and a female. Of the fowl of the air he had seven of every bird. Later on in the story one of every clean beast and one of every fowl was sacrificed by Noah to God. (Genesis 8:20)

14. Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark before the flood. (Genesis 7:6)

15. It rained for forty days and 40 nights upon the earth. (Genesis 7:4)

16. Noah’s family and the animals were in the ark seven days before the flood. (Genesis 7:10)
17. Along with 40 days and nights of rain, fountains of water deep within the earth opened up to help flood the earth. (Genesis 7: 11)

18. HOW LONG WAS NOAH IN THE ARK? From the start of the flood their calendar says it was the 17th day of the 2nd month of the year. Noah was 600 years old. (Genesis 7:11) “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:24). 4 And the ark rested in the 17th day of the 7th month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the 1st day of the 10th month. It was at that time the mountain tops were seen. (Genesis 8:4-5). In Genesis 8:13 it refers to the 601st year. This sounds like a comparison to Noah being 600 years old when he entered the Ark. It refers to the first day of the first year of the 601st year that the water was dried up from off the face of the land. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry. (Genesis 8:13-14) This sounds like Noah was on the Ark one year and ten days.

19. The flood was so great that water covered every hill and mountain by at least 15 cubits. (Genesis 7:19-20)

20. It sounds like after 40 days and 40 nights of flooding the ark finally started to float. (Genesis 7:17)

21. Every living substance was destroyed by the flood. (Genesis 7:21)

22. The waters dried up in a continuous fashion, not all at once. (Genesis 8:3)

23. First a Raven was sent for to test for dry land. Then a dove was sent forth to test for dry land. The dove came back empty handed. They waited for another seven days then sent out the dove which then returned with an olive branch in its mouth. Seven days later the dove was released again to never return to the ark again. (Genesis 8:7-12)

24. After moving onto dry land, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices of one of every clean beast and one of every fowl. (Genesis 8:21)

25. The Lord responded to the sacrifice with a promise to never destroy every living thing by water. (Genesis 8:21)

26. The Lord blessed Noah and Shem, Ham and Japheth and commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. (Genesis 9:1)

27. The fear of man will be placed on every living animal. (Genesis 9:2)

28. The animals and vegetation are meant for the use of men. (Genesis 9:3)

29. If man commits murder then his life will be required of him. (Genesis 9:5-6)

30. In the image of God was man created. (Genesis 9:6)

31. The Lord made a covenant with men to never destroy the earth again by flood. As a token of that covenant, the Lord provided a Rainbow (bow) in the sky. (Genesis 9: 9-17)

32. Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth came off the ark, along with Noahs grandson Canaan. Ham was the father of Canaan. (Genesis 9:18)

33. The earth was populated by Shem, Ham (Canaan) and Japheth and their wives. (Genesis 9:18-19)

34. After the flood Noah became a husbandman and grew grapes and made wine. ( Genesis 9:20)

35. Noah and his family stayed together after the flood. (Genesis 9:20-29)

36. Noah was drunk from wine and was found naked in his tent by his son Ham. (Genesis 9:21-22)

37. Shem and Japheth took a garment and covered Noah without seeing Noah’s nakedness. (Genesis 9:23)

38. Noah considered Canaan his son. Noah was very upset and cursed Canaan for thing his clothes. (Genesis 9:24-25)

39. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. (Genesis 9:28)

40. Noah lived for a total of 950 years. (Genesis 9:29)

If you have seen either of the two movies about Noah, the one in 1999 or the one in 2014 and compare it to these basic facts, you can clearly see where the movies are in error and where they are true to the account in Genesis. Be aware of the errors in the movies so that you are not misled. Keep in mind the true biblical facts of the epic story of Noah and the flood.

With the successes of “Bible story” movies you can bet that more will be made. That’s a good thing if you compare it to the movies that are pornography hiding behind a r-rated movie. But a warning needs to be made about them. They are talk creative license from the Bible and they are written from someone’s perspective other than The Lord’s perspective.

I say, make the movies about great and epic bible stories but from a consumer stand point, make sure to do your homework and compare what you saw to what the Bible says about the story.

by Troy Wagstaff

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