Bernard Cooper Connects the Tubes

2007: Los Angeles (Bernard Cooper Connects the Tubes)

In the chosen text, Brian, a man in his early fifties, suffers from HIV. Brian and his boyfriend, I am assuming, whose name is never provided, live together in Los Angeles, California.

Night-in and night-out, Brian and his boyfriend sit in what seems to be frozen time as they carefully place a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line into his arm. With this comes severe anxiety because with the secretive entrance of an air bubble into his filter, Brian dies. His primary physician recommended this form of treatment to Brian. It was either this, or to be the guinea pig of an experimental injection that would leave sores around the injection sites. Brian chooses the treatment that seems more logical to him.

Come to find out, Brian was one of the first volunteers for this treatment, and due to the lack of experiments with this treatment, Brian became resistant to a new line of drugs because little precautionary measures were performed. The problems continued to grow as Brian learns about his development of diabetes from the continuous taking of medicines. These medicines became to strong that they destroyed Brian’s pancreas, leaving him with diabetes.

Brian seems to be more high-spirited than his boyfriend despite all the failed attempts he has been through in an attempt to extend his life. In concluding words, the boyfriend has a flashback that allows us to see the positivity that reigns within Brian. He uses an analogy, “despair burns inside him for only so long before it runs its course and passes like a fever, restoring him to the ordinary (Lapham’s Quarterly 137).” Even though pain may exist, it only exists momentarily.