Throughout my life I had been hyper active especially when it came to sports. I started young at about 8 years old and seemingly never stopped until I was in my forties. From little league baseball to high school basketball, then recreation leagues for both softball and basketball. I even spent a few years as an assistant basketball coach at the community college level. Shout out to previously Bellevue Community College, now Bellevue College in the Seattle area. But that isn't the extent of my physical nature. I have worked at labor intensive jobs most of my life from being a rough building wood framer to a underground miner and on to being a tree logger. Everything from work to recreation has had an intensity to it where I had to put out physically to stay abreast of production and success.
Which brings me to my health. I could not afford health care for the majority of my life so if an emergency came up it was weighed with the thought of going to an emergency room or just toughing out whatever had happened. So many times I have broken, torn or otherwise mostly disabled bones, ligaments, squeezed discs, and tendons and been left with a decrease in physical function and it's attendant pains and aches. As I am now well into my 60's I can pretty much feel the effect of my physical life with each and every movement. Not to be left out are the dental procedures I surely needed but where not attended to because the cost was too high without any insurance.
All of this to say that the years have had a heavy toll on me and without being able to keep up with medical care I am now the guy who has to struggle to get out of his chair whenever he sits down. I still try to work at things as much as I can but my body quickly lets me know that if I don't stop it will! It is my great hope that our nation can find it's way to a medicare for all or some such program where everyone who has a physical life has a chance to keep from piling up the injuries so that when they do get older like me it isn't a curse as much as it is being satisfied for a life well lived. I am no perfect soul and neither is anyone else but our lives would be so much more than the pain and drudgery if we could at least go to a medical healer without having to worry about how we could pay the all too high cost of having no insurance.
Which brings me to my health. I could not afford health care for the majority of my life so if an emergency came up it was weighed with the thought of going to an emergency room or just toughing out whatever had happened. So many times I have broken, torn or otherwise mostly disabled bones, ligaments, squeezed discs, and tendons and been left with a decrease in physical function and it's attendant pains and aches. As I am now well into my 60's I can pretty much feel the effect of my physical life with each and every movement. Not to be left out are the dental procedures I surely needed but where not attended to because the cost was too high without any insurance.
All of this to say that the years have had a heavy toll on me and without being able to keep up with medical care I am now the guy who has to struggle to get out of his chair whenever he sits down. I still try to work at things as much as I can but my body quickly lets me know that if I don't stop it will! It is my great hope that our nation can find it's way to a medicare for all or some such program where everyone who has a physical life has a chance to keep from piling up the injuries so that when they do get older like me it isn't a curse as much as it is being satisfied for a life well lived. I am no perfect soul and neither is anyone else but our lives would be so much more than the pain and drudgery if we could at least go to a medical healer without having to worry about how we could pay the all too high cost of having no insurance.
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