Introduction & Early Stages

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July 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

This morning a friend called to say she had given up on her insurance company. She was down and out, and they kicked her in the gut.

How did it get this way? How has the state of health insurance gotten so out of hand? How many people have to go without care -- care they badly need -- before the system makes an about face? It’s so bad now that we think twice before we take care of ourselves. Why tell the doctor about that pain, when we know it’ll result in an extra $200 test? If we can go without that pill for one, two, three days in a week, that means a few extra days until we have to pay for the refill. “Screw the consequences, that’s money for gas or food or a movie” we tell ourselves. The thoughts form in our heads so quickly that the damage is done almost without fail.

Does anyone out there -- who can make a difference -- care?

We’ve gone out of business -- out of the business of being healthy. And it makes me sad.

I don’t know what to even say.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It dawned on me last night that I have been a part of the arthritis club for a very long time. It has been a club I was kind of put into by default, around age 13, that I’ve stayed with right up through today. And probably will be with for a long time to come.

It’s not such a bad club, and it certainly is diverse. This arthritis club is the group of kids – there are more out there than you think – sidelined from Little League. Or the college students accommodated by student housing for a more accessible dorm room. It’s the we-can’t-cook-using-ingredients-in-a-jar-today club, unless of course your friend or lover is there in the kitchen to lend a helping hand. Hopefully your friend is your lover. But I digress.

This is the club of water aerobic participants that I look forward to joining. (My mom has a head start on me, she has jumped in – feet first – to water aerobics regularly.)(And still keeps her hair dry.)

The club that has good days and bad days, and usually nothing to prove either, except a smile or a grimace.

But boy I’ll tell you what – we are damn lucky to be a part of this club, and not others out there. My goodness, if you think about the hand we’ve been dealt, it is worth playing and enjoying. The dealer is showing a 4 and we’ve got a pair of jacks.