Living with Chronic Illness and Disease

My Dad and I live together. After his recent hospital stay, his doctor sent him home with oxygen therapy. I’m not sure for how long. We’ve got a concentrator, compressor, two small tanks, and a humongous emergency tank in case the power goes out. My...

About 5 days before my birthday, I received a letter from my health insurance company. They raised my rates because, gosh, they really need to maintain my level of good quality coverage. No matter that I have not used my health insurance in several years because I can’t afford to use it. ...

We all know disabled people. Some of us are disabled ourselves. However, folks still hold many steretypes about the disabled. Weid, different, stupid, unworthy…those are just a few words that come to mind. For the most part disabled people are invisible on TV. ...

I found myself in a strange predicament when my Dad returned home. I was happy to see that he felt good. In fact, he was one happy customer. You wouldn’t have even known he’d spent five days in the hospital. He felt better than he had for two months. I,...

The Monday after my Dad came home, I hadn’t heard back from the hospital doctor. I took matters into my own hands. Since we had no clue what was going on with my Dad’s treatment, I called his GP. It...

The day after my Dad came home, I was utterly and completely exhausted. I was emotionally drained from a week of worry and I had to deal with the ramifications of my Dad being on oxygen...

The day before my Dad’s release, I spent time washing clothes and blankets. I got everything ready for him. When he called to say he was coming home, I prepared a bag of clothes so he could get changed. ...

My Dad was sent home five days after he was admitted to the hospital. What a confusing day that was! The doctor had informed me that my Dad might be home that day if he did well on his hospital walk. Boy, was I surprised when my Dad called at noon (he hates the phone) and told me he was coming home...

One of the most frustration things about having a loved one in the hospital is conveying all the information that needs to be conveyed to the hospital staff and making sure that it’s followed. Things can get confused and mistakes can happen. Doctors and nurses aren’t always on the same page. I ...

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had to experience some things I’ve never gone through before. I’m going to blog about them in hopes that it might helps someone else. My Dad contracted a respiratory infection in November. He was put on antibiotics and things were improving by the end of November. But,...

I must apologize to all my readers for the lack of blog entries since December. I’d like to say that I’ve been off on some wild world tour. Instead, a family member was ill and it ate up all my time. Things are starting to get back to normal and I hope that my blogging will as well. Ho...

Wishing the visitors to this blog a very happy holiday season! Merry Christmas to all!

I tried to get all my chores done by December 21st. I left the last 3 days to recuperate. Things didn’t quite work out that way. I had to make a trip to make a trip to Target and pick up a couple little things we need for Christmas morning. ...

If you suffer from chronic illness, chances are you are going to run out of energy before you get through your list. Is there anyone in the family you can enlist to help you through your chores? If you have the money, can you hire someone to clean house or run errands...