Had a dreadful night’s sleep. Went bed around midnight, but I remember seeing 3.20am come and go. Must have finally drifted off sometime after that.
Yesterday morning I was talking to a guy that came to replace some faulty bedroom lights. His name’s Andy. We were just chatting when Andy told me that his five-year-old son has a reduced life expectancy. There is a name for his condition, but it passed me by. The little boy breathes through a tube inserted in his throat and only has one lung. He had a cardiac failure at the age of two so he’s considered fortunate to have reached five. His dad phones him from work ten times a day. My thoughts, as he told me this, were naturally enough of Heather, also five. I tried for a second to imagine what this Andy’s world was like, but I realised I didn’t even want to go there as a tourist. How anyone can live and function there, I don’t know. I guess they have to.
In the afternoon I went to give blood. When I got home I felt tired and dozed off in a chair for over an hour.
My little sister Helen phoned in the evening. She admitted that for the past year she’s been suffering back pain, but hadn’t told anybody because of all the excitement of her marriage and buying a house. She went to see her GP yesterday, and he told her she has arthritis and prescribed painkillers. No examination, no X-Ray, no blood tests. He said that if the tablets help then it will confirm his diagnosis. Well, I have all respect for doctors, really I do, but in this instance I think the guy has his great fat head up his great fat arse. She should get a second opinion. I’m thinking of contacting the chiropractor my friend David mentioned in a recent posting. Just for advice. But I must speak to Helen and Mark, my new brother-in-law and good friend, first.
It was probably a combination of thinking about the Andy and his family, dwelling on what Helen’s back pain means and my falling asleep in the afternoon that kept me awake in the wee small hours of the morning. Thinking how much I love my family and what they mean to me, how I would take their illnesses and pain on myself if it would spare them. I recall my Mum saying that you love your children so much you would take their place rather than see them suffer. It’s true.
2 comments:
I have chronic back pain, Michael. Last chance to see a doctor about it was given a physician's assistant, who prescribed an anti-depressant! I didn't have any health insurance then, and that was by now three years ago. I did have some X-rays done (at MY insistence), which even then, I had to prompt them for some kind of reading. Briefly stated they came back as "normal", and cost me a pretty penny. Arthritis won't show up on an ex-ray, neither will a bulging or ruptured disc. That takes an MRI scan...which someday, when I hit the lottery, am going to opt to get.
I do not agree with the doctor prescribing something like that on a whim. My PA game me Vioxx samples. Perhaps you've heard of them and their lawsuits after their recall. I have a history of heart disease in early onset, moderately high cholesterol readings. It's a wonder anyone competent practices medicine anymore without charging an arm and a leg.
My next venture will be with a Community Health program. Having gone into business for myself last year I only cleared half of what I made working for somebody else. I might qualify! Wish me luck!
I hear that there is now some new medicine for arthritis and will keep my ears pricked up to share it sometime. I know I have Osteo-arthritis as described by "an old man", which gives symptoms of numbness in the hands when waking up in the morning, among other things. One spontaneous cure I've heard of through the book, "Spontaneous Healing", by Dr. Andrew Weill, lists accidental bee-sting as a remission phenomena, which cured an older gentleman's arthritis. Rhumatoid Arthritis is another matter entirely.
I have a non-fiction book title that I'd like to recommend. It's "The Omnivore's Dilemma", by Michael Pollan. It details the national eating dis-order we North Americans see to have in the matter of Corn mono-culture. It's sensational, and I'm only through the first chapter.
I'm sorry to hear of your problems, Andrew. Hearing them makes me thankful to be living in the UK where healthcare is (mostly) free on the National Health Service. I had no idea it was so expensive in the US, although someone recently told me it can cost as much as $800 a month, which seems outrageous to me.
I spoke to my sister at length last night, about her visit to her GP, and it will be the subject of my next posting, so rather than repeat everything, I'll let you read it there. I hope things improve for you. Health issues, when they are insurmountable because science has yet to catch up, are frustrating, but when it's just down to money -- and there is so much waste in the world -- that must feel intolerable.
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