The system's not broken - well, not completely

   In this time of political divisiveness, when everyone is sticking to their ideology and Hell-bent against any compromise, when the reds are evermore redder and the blues keep getting more blue, when nobody can agree on anything – except that they can’t agree on anything! – there is one thing that everyone loves to say and that is that government doesn’t work. 

   It has always been popular to say this.  You always hear people grumbling about nothing getting done and taxpayers’ money being wasted and pledging to “throw the bums out.” This, in fact, is why, either because people got fed-up and decided once and for all to really throw the bums out and try something completely new or because people got fed-up and gave up, Donald Trump was, to everyone’s shock, including his, elected president. 

   Well, I’m here to tell you that government does – or can – work. At least when you take baby steps or, more to the point, deal with (or start off with) little, local stuff. 

   I have written recently about going out in my chair on my own after two years of not being able to do so. In venturing out, I have found a route that is safer and more practical with my decreased ability.  However, there were two rather significant bumps along this route that were difficult or impossible to negotiate in my chair.  One was an uneven sidewalk path between the end of a cul-de-sac and another street.  The other was a lip on a curb-cut that rendered the curb-cut barely a curb-cut. 

   I decided to send out an e-mail to the city and point out these problems.  I did this on a whim, wondering if I’d get a response, much let get them remedied. 

   Guess what?  Within a week or so, I got a response, not only thanking me for my e-mail – about all I was hoping for – but also saying that at least one bump would be paved over until there could be a more permanent fix.  What’s more, the guy asked if he could meet with me so that I could point out the insufficient curb-cut.  This turned out to be unnecessary, and, on subsequent trips along the route, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find both bumps paved over for now. 

   Wow!  Not bad for the no-good, do-nothing government! When I asked for something to be done – even if something could be done – something was done.  With a promise that more would be done.  What’s more, I was offered a meeting. 

   Yes, it was little stuff, baby steps – literally, two small (not-so-small) bumps – but I was heard.  And I was actually helped. 

   I felt like I was getting something done. It was empowering.  Kind of like what our democratic form of government is supposed to do.

My balancing act

   I have gone to the hospital four times in the first four months of this year.  Three of these visits were only to the emergency room, and one, when it turned out I had sepis stemming from an urinary tract infection, resulted in a week-long stay.  Two had to do with my g-tube, and two were occasioned when my urine wasn’t draining through my catheter. 

   No matter how you parse the numbers, this is a sobering, even dubious, record, a lot of visits in not a lot of time.  Indeed, it averages once a month.  I have joked to friends that there should be a room reserved for me in the E.R. 

   It makes sense, then, that I’m struggling more and more with balancing what I call my “medical life” and my “social life.” My medical life include these visits to the hospital as well as various doctor appointments, therapy sessions, having to be turned every 2-3 hours when I’m in bed and to be given water and medications through my g-tube at certain times throughout the day and night and other such things directly pertaining to my body and health.  My social life includes just about everything else and pertains, one might say, to or more to my mind and likely my soul. 

   As I get more and more active, staying up longer in my chair and going out more and doing more things like posting here after 2 years, my medical life feels more and more of a bother, intruding on my social life.  Increasingly, I feel I’m balancing these 2 lives I have, and, increasingly, it’s a real trick.