abijann

[Guest guest]

Hi...hope you and your husband are doing well. I well appreciate

your frustration with medical insurance. When I was in college, I

worked in the industry during the summer and part-time while in

school. I am not a wild-eyed crazy socialist, but it seems to me

that we need a system that will make available medical care for

everyone. We are the last " western " country to not provide medical

care for all. To do so, could make everything less expensive for all

of us in the long run.

I guess you and I and a few others here on the site come across

as " lecturing " when, in fact, we're just trying to help. You,like I,

never had liver problems, but had " problems " of your own, as have I.

We both were caregivers to a spouse with very serious medical

problems. I'm not sure that Kjersten could have gone through a

transplant. She was very much worn down by her illness and while her

wit and sense of humor stayed with her until the last night...I sat

in her hospital room and we told stories and made each other laugh

until well past midnight...while her mind was still strong, her body

was too weak to survive. One of the causes of death was " failure to

thrive. " At death, she barely weighed 75 pounds.

A friend of mine once sent me an e-mail that said, " Life is a

terminal condition. It always results in death. "

Of course, that's true. My great grandfather lived to be 99 in

Inverness, Scotland; my mother is currently 85 here in Vero Beach (my

Dad fell down two flights of concrete steps at age 85 and died from

internal bleeding but, according to the coroner, was in " otherwise "

excellent health....go figure).

In looking through Kjersten's journals and notebooks I am struck by

her realization that she was " lucky to be alive " at any age. A

premature baby born to older parents (mid-forties), she had every

illness you could imagine. When Kjersten was almost eight, her

sister Kathi died in a terrible car crash. Her old brother was

driving the car; her father, in the back seat, broke his back in the

accident.

Kathi was a blonde Nordic " beauty, " if you will. Kjersten, who took

after the brown haired German side of the family, tucked her long

hair under her baseball cap (she was a Pirates fan courtesy of

summers with her Uncle Joe in suburban Pittsburg), and played with

the boys.

Even when she was in her forties and fifties, one of her fondest

memories was waiting after school (elementary school mainly) for the

boys to come out and then she would race them home. She always won.

When we had family reunions and the ineveitable softball game, she

was the most competitive of all.

Her operation for diverticulosus left her " an inch away " from a bag

on her hip. Several years before her death, she was told by her GI

doctor that she would be lucky to live another year. So, she changed

doctors.

I sat out on my back porch today (it's screened in) and watched the

squirrels and rabbits as well as the fat robins and doves as well as

the smaller than expected ,but brilliantly scarlet, cardinals. It's

a kind of bonus for living in Florida.

My three cats sat out there with me and watched. There is something

very calming about stroking a cat who is sitting in your lap. B.C.

also likes to " knead " my chest. I walk away with some puncture marks

in my chest, but, as I recall, the medical info is that petting a

purring cat lowers your blood pressure by ten points.

Most of us on this site are dealing with life and death

situations...whether we recognize it or not. Still, there are

moments of silence and reflection which make us more than we are.

Peace and love.....Dennis

dhtaylor4@...