Here is the next part of the original Zuranski health crisis saga. Nothing new has occurred since the last installment.
Sometimes you feel it is always darkest before the dawn.
Last Saturday dad was released from the hospital. What great joy to have him home again! But, what a massive amount of work was required to get the house ready. We had to remove all the furniture, pull up the carpet in the hall and his room, remove all the staples in the floor and clean. We had to completely restructure the garage, dig up beds of flowers to create a path for the wheel chair. Now we are considering building ramps for the wheel chair.
I am grateful for the great values at the Goodwill, Salvation Army and Cancer Thrift Stores.
Buying towels, bed sheets, blankets, diapers, salves, cleaning materials, etc. takes a lot of time and the cost is surprising. Thank God there are tons of towels, fitted mattress covers, sheets and blankets at the thrift stores. They are in great shape, clean and priced reasonably.
Sleep for a few days was a luxury.
Listening for the slightest cry for help made sleeping difficult. When you wake up every few hours, it is amazing how tired you are in the morning. Not getting a full nights sleep really starts playing tricks with your mind. Wierd thoughts come out of no where. You begin to wonder if you are on the verge of insanity.
Thankfully, schedules and natural biological clocks have a tendency to appear in the midst of chaos.
Over this last week, a natural flow of events finally emerged. Once dad realized we could not keep up the same schedule of care as in the hospital, we all were able to develop more regular sleeping cycles. I think that in the hospital eating, physical therapy, sponge baths, etc. are done according to hospital timing. Now that dad is home, he is catching up on his sleep and reestablishing a more natural sleep and life cycle.
I used to hate paying the Medicare deduction but now I understand the value of Medicare’s financial assistance in taking care of senior citizens.
When the tax burden increases and you see all the deductions you begin to wonder where all the money is going. Medicare appears to be the best investment. Until your family is in need, you have no idea how valuable Mecicare’s financial assistance is. We are thankful dad also had Tricare that appears to be the best secondary insurance that pays for everything not covered by Medicare.
It would definitely be better if the Medicare money was used for therapies that made senior citizens healthier rather than for catastrophic illness.
But, it is important to realize most people really don’t want to do much to stay healthy. Most will abuse their bodies until they collapse. Then the harsh reality of disease rears its ugly head…the consequences of too little exercise, too much stress, too many late nights and a poor diet.
Just about everyone does not value health until they loose it.
How many people spend their lives seeking after wealth, power and material possessions? What a nasty surprise when they lose their health. Most people who become severely ill for their remaining days realize “hindsight is 20-20.” In many cases all their wealth and material possessions are forfeited because of the high cost of crisis medical care.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
How true this is, especially when you work in the alternative health field. We have seen this trajedy so many times in other families. Now that ours is affected, you realize there is not much you can really do to motivate people to improve their health. Most will spend more money on cars, houses, jewelry and vacations than on their health.
The good news is that both mom and dad are doing better.
Once your parents are on the chemical cocktails that are keeping them alive your choices are limited. Your only hope is to help them enjoy their remaining days is to work with the doctors to adjust the medications. The goal is to arrive at the most optimal chemical combinations that give them a decent quality of life and they stay alive.
With congestive heart failure, going off the medications is a death sentence.
It would be great if you could change your loved one’s life styles…their food, supplements, exercise program, etc. and they would follow through. But, that is not reality…only a joke created by unjustified optimism. Everyone is so programmed to a certain way of eating, sleeping, exercising or not, and entertainment, any change is threatening and therefore undesirable.
You have to do the best you can in difficult situations.
Rome was not built in one day…nor are changes made instantaneously. It seems parents will only really change their lifestyles if it is a matter of life and death. Once you get to be over 80 perhaps, changing anything is a waste to time.
If you can enjoy life as much as possible till your dying day, is that so bad?
That is a good question. I used to be such an optimist about people’s ability to change for the better. Now reality has slapped me upside the head. People can only change themselves and will do so only for good reason…with pain or pleasure as the primary motivators.
To Be Continued…