Be Patient

It is inevitable. There will come a time when you cannot take care of yourself. How are you as a patient to another?

It maybe a sudden event like a heart attack or a car crash when you wake up and you are in someplace unfamiliar with lots of people staring at you. You will have tubes and electronic gizmos attached all over your body to the sounds of beeps and whirs and you are not in control.

It is nice of our society to pick us up and cart us off to a medical center before the buzzards arrive, but other than mumbling to weird questions and trying to apply to directions, you are totally under control of others who tell you when to sleep and what to wear and what to eat without your consent. If that wasn’t good enough, they will pump stuff into your veins and make you swallow pills and then record you followed instructions.

Not having been to visit with a medical professional in (mumble) years, but have had a history of being part of the naked prisons in the sterile environment, self-medication has been the best policy. Total control; for better or worse. “No one to blame but myself” is a mantra.

Still of sound mind (questionable) and ancient body, one day the commands from the brain will not operate the functions required. At that point, someone else will have to step in to provide the services of eating, drinking, motion and (best of all) pooping.

Normally this is the time for family to step in. Just having the same last name does not legally require taking responsibility for this impaired relative.

Again, our guilt against destroying other people and places provides social services for those disadvantaged. Who can pass up a red bucket these days?

Lucky for the rest of us, those kind souls will pick us up, push us around, show us how to fill our time with entertainment and exercise, then go home to wash it down with wine for a paycheck.

Change your wardrobe for paper gowns open in the back to show everyone your ass. Put away those fine French patent leather shoes for some Wal-Mart slippers. Is it cold? Climb on your thin pad squeaky bed with its roller frame and pull up your paper-thin covers. Drink your water through a straw when handed to you.

Learn how to maneuver into the crowd at meal time as if getting to the table early will get you an additional napkin or package of crackers to take back to your room. This is the best you got.

You are now depending on another.

If that other isn’t a blood relative and possibly written into your will, what the heck do they care if you are comfortable or not? They are paid to clean up after you and if the insurance you purchased for so many years pays the exorbitant prices charged by the medical professionals, they will still get minimum wage. Sort of puts you in a bind.

It is easy to look behind with the photos and the memories, but there is no telling what tomorrow holds. Where is the breaking point when suicide seems to be an alternative? Even that at some point will be beholding on another.

At this season of gatherings, we get to see those who are older and weaker without much more time left and wonder when we will be sitting there too. Always courteously hold the chair for the elderly. Give them an arm when walking downstairs. You may show others how to reward you later.