The Indignities of Illness
Bumps in the road! Setbacks! Wrenches in your plans! Life always has a mind of its own. I just returned from helping my sister, Janice. Janice developed a hematoma and landed back in the hospital. To say she was miserable is putting it mildly. She didn’t want to see anyone, she suffered with pain, nausea, and the indignities associated with a tube down her nose. Nurses are the backbone of the hospital and a person’s ability to recover. Bless them! They work so hard to care for the ill, but as a patient or a visitor, it is up to you to help them help you! Here are things I observed while a visitor and helper at the hospital. Make everyone who touches you as a patient wash their hands! Insist on it! Bring antiseptic wipes yourself for yourself. Why don’t hospitals supply Depends? I want to know. It’s better than the mess on the floor. If I were to build a hospital, I would consider fresh air – for heaven’s sake – let there be a place where a patient can get some fresh air! How can anyone rest in a hospital? Janice is home now! Rest and get your strength...
Read MoreKidney Disease and Butterflies
Since 2003, six members of my family have lost their jobs including me. I knew my job was going to be outsourced, but because I was writing my book, I stayed. On the last day of my job, when I returned home feeling blue, there was a phone call that the publisher had accepted my manuscript. See why I believe in angels? I believe God sent me in another direction. Some who have lost their job didn’t see it coming. Losing a job turns your life upside down. Conscientious and hard-working, a good employee can find it hard to find joy when stress, worry and tears hit when they are “let go.” Happiness seems hard to grasp. Living with kidney disease combines some of the same desperate feelings as you go about life. One of the things I admire most about my two sisters and my mom, my aunts and uncles, who all live or lived with kidney disease, is and was their amazing cheerfulness and zest for life. My mother told me she made up her mind to be happy. At her funeral so many people told me was how much fun she was! My sisters are the same. Joyful despite their burdens! Nathaniel Hawthorne: Happiness is as a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon...
Read More