. . . the political blather then America has the best health care system in the World! Gentle reader, you know that I won't lie to you or for you. But Politicians will and do it without regard to your concerns. We as a people are expendable.
My wife Marti has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. M.E. It is an injury to the Central Nervous System. usually triggered by an infectious disease process, e.g. a virus, or by chemicals over stimulating the immune system. It is a multi-system disease, affecting not only the neurological system but also the immune, musculoskeletal, endocrine (hormonal) and cardiovascular systems. There is no cure as we would understand it. But at least we have a name for it. She was misdiagnosed by doctors 15 years ago which did damage to her health and will kill her . But our Heavenly Father is sufficient.
So here is our story and maybe your or someone you know but haven't seen recently a mother, father son or daughter.
Marti and I met in Ireland and I followed her back to America (she claims that she ask her parents "He followed me home can I keep him"?) My story is that I was going on a whirlwind speaking engagement through sixteen states in a month and she followed me (because I was a fascinating personality with a wee bit of brogue with blarney attached). We were married and settled down with me speaking 4-5 times a week and as many times on a weekend and Marti working on her M.B.A. and taking care of our 35 Parrots and dogs who followed her around the same as I did.
One day when I came home I found her in bed with a high temperature and violently sick at her stomach. My mother had taken her to the E.R. and was told Marti had a strep throat. She lay in bed for two week and we went to more than a dozen doctors., who told us that she had every thing from M.S. to Lupus and Chronic Fatigue . Some even told her that there was nothing wrong but it was "all in her head".
Gentle Reader, we went to internist, neurologists, psychiatrists, M.D.'s, D.O.'s only to be told "Nothing wrong with you, here take this pill or drink this liquid." I watched as Marti was getting weaker and weaker and was moving less and less.
I was frantic, Gentle reader, I gave up my traveling and speaking engagements, confined myself to writing and tending my love of my life. I started a writing campaign asking for someone to step forward and help. Family and friends turned away! I wrote the Indiana Representatives in congress Lugar and Pence (Now Governor) they ignored me I wrote the Surgeon General, no help I even wrote President George Bush (need I tell you how we were ignored. And as we Irish have dual citizenship I served in the U.S. Air Force during the Viet Nam conflict and in Korea).
To make this story shorter we spent all of our money ( my retirement to go back to Ireland) lost our home and my secular job due to my health issues and we are reduced to my Veterans pension and living in subsidised housing.
I tell all of this to you Gentle reader, because we need to take care of those wee children and adults who are subject to the whims of uncaring politicians, unfeeling pharmaceutical companies, grasping Insurances groups. You are not your own Gentle reader. And those who would tell you that Christians care need to look at those who would restrict the equal rights of an other while all the time claiming their rights are being violated.
Gentle Reader, there are exceptional people in this country who do care, but many a politicians who claim American exceptional ism need to look at those "Real Americans" (not the Sara Palin kind) struggling to make the American dream come true not only for their family but for those around them.
To bring you up to date: Marti my love of my life, with a education second to none (Ed.D., Ph.D., MBA) is now too weak to lift her head up off of her pillow and I sit by her side never leaving except to take care of her needs and our two service dogs Chi Chi and Bailey.
Now Gentle reader, you know why I don't write as much as I use to. And before you think I am seeking sympathy or something else I am no saint (except in the sight of our Heavenly Father) I want to leave you with this one thought.
This is my own practice, and I frequently speak about it to others. Imagine that in front of you on one side is your old, selfish I and that on the other side is a group of poor, needy people. And you yourself are in the middle as a neutral person, a third party. Then, judge which is more important - whether you should join this one selfish, self-centred, stupid person or these poor, needy, helpless people. If you have a human heart, naturally you will be drawn to the side of the needy beings.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Mat 22:37-39 KJV)
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