So tonight as I sit to write my hubby has been on hold with Westjet for almost 1 1/2hours waiting to ask a question about how dad boards the plane if he has assistance with his walker and bags. I sit across the room, feeling the maddening energy that comes from him as I too, feel that it is ridiculous that even though he has a confirmation number the "system cannot complete his request at this time." That to me is just plain insanity. Insanity is probably the word for the last month. In my last post I mentioned that dad had just gotten his new hearing aides. Well, that lasted for 4 days before he dropped one and stepped on it crushing it into a million pieces, ok, maybe not a million, but geesh, what the hell. He almost did not tell J about it because, he was dumbfounded about what to do. To make a long story short, I got home and looked at it, asked him if he was going to take it in, he said in a few days. So for the next few days, there was stress upon stress because of the cost of them. How do we do this? I even phoned the credit card company to see if we could claim it on the card. Few days later, I had an appointment so I booked him in. Good thing too, that we brought all of the pieces, as they informed us that, stuff like this happens and because we had most of the pieces they would send it off for repair. Seriously!! No one explained to him that he would not have to claim them. Only if we didn't bring the pieces in. So I got a short lesson in what to do in case of ....
So now on to Father's Day. All I can say is..... Blow up!! Clear up!! Things got put out into the open and I think a better understanding of Father and Son happened to the duo and I am glad it did. Dad was ready to walk away but instead we all talked it out and I think a new understanding and appreciation happened for all.
Now onto this past week. Health insurance for his trip to the coast created nothing but stress. So the final decision was to end his trip early and come home instead of waiting for me to come out to the coast and take him to the Island to see his sister. Stress about the fact that he would not be covered because of the use of oxygen, having COPD and the fact that he had lung cancer in the last 2 years, nevermind the cost to him, for all the other things that could happen and they could claim that it was because of his health. Mind boggling, Insane, Crazy or as The Bachelorette quoted on her show recently, things went " Backwoods, Virgina Red Neck" around here. Well, I am about ready to do that too. Until next time.....BooYah!
Friday, 22 June 2012
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Kobe Beef or Ground Beef
So I find myself wondering what kind of sandwich I would be able to label the following event and one that comes to mind is a "Kobe Beef Burger, " cost 140.00$ per burger. Why you might ask, well when it comes to seniors health care, it seems like you are told you have to have the best for your health but it's going to cost you.
I find it absolutely amazing how our world works for those who are disabled. In my opinion, there are not enough options for people who have multiple disabilites, to access proper care and maintain their human dignity along the way. In our household, Jeff's dad has mulitiple disablities, blindness, being the most debilitating, although he will tell you otherwise. So in respect to getting his hearing aides, because he was suffering from age related hearing loss, he brought the hearing aides home and to our surprise, we couldn't believe how many instructions came along with it. For instance, batteries, who knew he would have to change them once a week and they are the size of baby aspirin, so for a blind man, "practical impossibility" comes to mind as a new term that I just made up. So Dad came up in the morning with his little bag of goodies to give us a lesson on his new hearing aides. It is quite cute, his attention to detail and making sure to get it right. His biggest concern at this time is not the fact that he has to turn them off every night by finding the little switch, but how long the batteries will last and how does he change them. So he went through the instructions and Jeff and I listened and asked questions. Overall, it went fine. A sidenote here, Ryan came up to his grampa and asked a question and dad heard him quite clearly for the first time ever. I made reference to this and dad commented back, "I guess they really are working."
You see, dad is not thoroughly convinced that he needed to spend the money for his hearing (4G's). Well, it so far has paid off and this became evident to him, in the van on our grocery trip outting for the day. There was a lot of background noise in the back of the van and Ryan began talking to grampa and grampa heard him and answered him back. So I asked dad what he thought about the hearing aides in the van, and he again replied, "they are really working." So time will tell if he really truly feels that way.
On another health note, the same week that dad went to get his hearing aides he also made a trip to his dentist only to be told that he will need teeth and bridge work and implants that in the end could cost up to 10,000.00$ for one side. So I ask, where is the assistance for our seniors. Hello, they are not working anymore and how are they supposed to acquire that kind of money on the pension that is provided to them. Their pension does not allow for these kinds of extravagant costs and even if they have a blue cross program that they pay for it does not allow for such work to be done. So here in lies the dilemma of a senior...live without the tooth, or have all of this work done, pay for it and then have the dentist tell you that your other teeth have rotted because of age and now all of that work is for not! Simply amazing. As dad said at the breakfast table, I think I would rather go without, because who knows I could die the day after and all that money would have gone down the drain. I understand his comment, but I have a hard time with the government not chipping in a portion or having regulations with our dentists for seniors. In my opinion, by not having the work done, we are opening ourselves to new medical issues and possible hospital trips due to possible gum disease and heart issues. In the end potentially costing the health care system even more money than if it had a formula to contribute to maintaining seniors health.
So I come back to the sandwich choice: Choosing a Kobe Beef Burger gives you hearing aides and new teeth. Choosing a regular ground beef burger gives you no hearing assistance and changing your diet to soft foods because you no longer have teeth. Hmmmmmm......
I find it absolutely amazing how our world works for those who are disabled. In my opinion, there are not enough options for people who have multiple disabilites, to access proper care and maintain their human dignity along the way. In our household, Jeff's dad has mulitiple disablities, blindness, being the most debilitating, although he will tell you otherwise. So in respect to getting his hearing aides, because he was suffering from age related hearing loss, he brought the hearing aides home and to our surprise, we couldn't believe how many instructions came along with it. For instance, batteries, who knew he would have to change them once a week and they are the size of baby aspirin, so for a blind man, "practical impossibility" comes to mind as a new term that I just made up. So Dad came up in the morning with his little bag of goodies to give us a lesson on his new hearing aides. It is quite cute, his attention to detail and making sure to get it right. His biggest concern at this time is not the fact that he has to turn them off every night by finding the little switch, but how long the batteries will last and how does he change them. So he went through the instructions and Jeff and I listened and asked questions. Overall, it went fine. A sidenote here, Ryan came up to his grampa and asked a question and dad heard him quite clearly for the first time ever. I made reference to this and dad commented back, "I guess they really are working."
You see, dad is not thoroughly convinced that he needed to spend the money for his hearing (4G's). Well, it so far has paid off and this became evident to him, in the van on our grocery trip outting for the day. There was a lot of background noise in the back of the van and Ryan began talking to grampa and grampa heard him and answered him back. So I asked dad what he thought about the hearing aides in the van, and he again replied, "they are really working." So time will tell if he really truly feels that way.
On another health note, the same week that dad went to get his hearing aides he also made a trip to his dentist only to be told that he will need teeth and bridge work and implants that in the end could cost up to 10,000.00$ for one side. So I ask, where is the assistance for our seniors. Hello, they are not working anymore and how are they supposed to acquire that kind of money on the pension that is provided to them. Their pension does not allow for these kinds of extravagant costs and even if they have a blue cross program that they pay for it does not allow for such work to be done. So here in lies the dilemma of a senior...live without the tooth, or have all of this work done, pay for it and then have the dentist tell you that your other teeth have rotted because of age and now all of that work is for not! Simply amazing. As dad said at the breakfast table, I think I would rather go without, because who knows I could die the day after and all that money would have gone down the drain. I understand his comment, but I have a hard time with the government not chipping in a portion or having regulations with our dentists for seniors. In my opinion, by not having the work done, we are opening ourselves to new medical issues and possible hospital trips due to possible gum disease and heart issues. In the end potentially costing the health care system even more money than if it had a formula to contribute to maintaining seniors health.
So I come back to the sandwich choice: Choosing a Kobe Beef Burger gives you hearing aides and new teeth. Choosing a regular ground beef burger gives you no hearing assistance and changing your diet to soft foods because you no longer have teeth. Hmmmmmm......
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