Friday, June 11, 2010

Where There's A Will, There's A Headache!

It's terrible to realize I'm getting older. Sometimes my bones or muscles hurt more than they used to, but I just take my blood pressure medicine and a Tylenol and I'm on my way. I began to supplement my diet with some fish oil tablets, a vitamin (when I remember to take them) and lots of fresh veggies and fruits. That has paid off with a significant decrease in my cholesterol numbers based on lab work last week when I had all the normal yearly female tests and came through with flying colors. Then I went to the dentist today and it was "Look Mom, no cavities" for me. So, all in all I'm really quite blessed with good health other than lots of extra pounds to lose.

Joe on the other hand seems to be a magnet that attracts medical problems every time he turns around. Next week alone he has to go for an echo cardiogram for his heart on Monday, Wednesday it's a visit to the kidney specialist and then on Friday we go to Rapid City, ND for a visit with an eye specialist. It's been a hard thing to watch as he slowly evolves from the vibrant man I married to someone who just seems to have lost the excitement of life and the desire to make changes which would life so much better for him.

I've had lots of opportunities in the last few weeks to ponder on the meaning of living. My new boss at work had only been with us for a very short time when he was admitted to the hospital and found out he has lung cancer. He was a perfectly healthy man when he arrived in Wyoming, but within a matter of a few weeks his life changed dramatically. I also have a very good friend in the church whose husband was in the early stages of Alzheimer's when we first arrived and now he is at the point of dying any day. She has accepted his impending death and really been quite blessed to have had these many months to realize this day was coming.

Because of all these things happening to other people and because of the urging of Nikki, I've been working on our wills and our living wills. I finished them up today and we had them signed and notarized. All this was very stressful for me and literally caused me a giant headache. I know all of this was and is necessary especially with the unexpectedness and frequency of Joe's failing health. I know also that anything could always happen to me while I'm away every day and provisions needed to be made for Joe.

Our next step now is another visit to our insurance agent to finalize additional paperwork. All this is very uncomfortable and intimidating to me probably because of the unfamiliarity of all this. But, I know it's all necessary.

1 comment:

  1. Good for you. At least you won't haave to worry too much about updating it. We wrote our wills before Matt and Jed were ever born and haven't updated since. At least the kids can all pretty much take care of themselves if needed.

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