A Tired Daughter’s Rant About Health Care and an Ailing Registered Nurse

My family is fully immersed in realizing the medical/dental bill implications piling up for husband and daughters from a simply amazingly medically chaotic month – wondering can we afford some mental health care for myself as caregiver in all this? 

Daughter strep throat, then a what we were told was sprained but now is broken ankle healing in a cast for 6 weeks. 

Junior high age Daughter who fell accidentally, bit through her lip, and broke/chipped the bottom parts of her two front teeth. 

Husband who had surgery for and recovery from removal of gallbladder filled with nasty gall stones. 

And also this week we’ve been waiting days (almost a week!) for Medicare insurance to decide whether or not they’ll help pay for a transfer for my upper-60s father to move from the hospital to a skilled care center for recovery – because it would be a dignified safe option for him rather than releasing him home mostly alone to potentially have another fall as he is still feeling physically weak. 

Here is my rant of a tired caregiving daughter of a Registered Nurse (two actually!):

I’m wondering why my dad who was a military medic and registered nurse for many many years and whose body has essentially degraded because he spent those years caregiving for so many others in physical, emotional, and spiritual ways – why must he be treated as a pawn in a $$ game between medical facilities and insurance companies? His disabilities and ailments come because he put some serious time in helping others and sacrificing time with family to do so – don’t tell me he needed to work harder. There really is something we owe to those who care for us in such a way. It seriously upsets me. 

I wish I had the energy to put into polictical lobbying for the health care votes our law makers are placing – for now my family is potentially merely a casualty and we (at least my immediate family) aren’t even the ones who will be the worse off for it, it will be hard but we’ll hopefully have access to resources and figure it out – I really pray we are able anyways. 
Someone told me the other day in a devotedly Christian manner – and not knowing my full situation – society is not responsible for cleaning up the mistakes of others by providing Medicare and Medicaid – it is the responsibility of the person to figure it out and help themselves or end themselves. (I humbly disagreed on many levels). Also my internal reaction: Come on now – my dad killed his back lifting people like you when you were in your most vulnerable moments medically and held tight images of people like you that he tried his damnest to help heal – and now you’re telling me that his pain taken on to help you is considered cleaning up after people’s mistakes and choices? Too bad his choice was a career helping heal people’s bodies – too bad for him he didn’t choose something that would treat his body and maybe health care insurance wallet better – it definitely would not have been healthy to his dignity to not use the gifts he was given in care for others in their medically vulnerable moments. 

Oh man, I guess I have some feelings about this. Time to go maybe attempt a nap.