The High Cost of Health?

Its 7:08AM. I have been waking up since 6:30. Everyday I am getting up slightly earlier. I don't know if this is because my body is not intoxicated by sugars or if its with excitement to see the class that I've been tutoring in.

Last night a friend and I were talking about the cost of eating healthily. He was saying that, while he wanted to have a healthier diet, it was just too costly. In the immediate sense, this is true. I've been to the grocery store already several times this week, though that is probably due to lack of planning more than necessity. However, I think about the experience of my dad, who was hospitalized for more than a month with iaschemic colitis, and I know that this is not true.

In June, the effects of poorly controlled diabetes, and the effects of smoking cigarettes (though he quit 13 years ago) caught up with my dad. His got a blood clot in his veins, (which constrict more easily due to poorly controlled diabetes and arteriosclerosis, which came from smoking) and that clot caused parts of his small intestines to die. Ouch. After being in the hospital for more than a month without knowing what was wrong, and enduring numerous CT Scans, colonoscopies and intense drugging, he underwent 2 surgeries. After being released he returned 3 times from surgery complications and affects of diabetes. He spent about 2 months in the hospital and has a 6 month recovery ahead of him.

How does this relate to cost? Well this hospital experience would've cost him about $1,000 a day-- and he was there for over a month. Then there is the cost of the two surgeries (he's yet to open these bills). Then there is the cost of the home care nurse that he needed for at least 2 hours of round the clock care, which cost at least $100 a day. There's the cost that my aunt paid to fly out from Kansas to CA to stay with him. There's the cost of the 14 pills that he must take daily. There's the cost of not being able to work for 6 months--- thank God for Sick Leave.

While insurance in fact covered many of the costs of the hospitalization and surgery (i guess they send you bills as a cautionary tale) still there was a great financial cost to my father, and to my relatives, which all stemmed from his poor health. So while he may have saved a couple of dollars on fruits and veggies, look at the way he'll be paying.

I love my dad, and his recovery is priceless to me, but everyday he tells me to live better than he did. Then he sends me to Golden Bird. :)

Happy Trails