I appreciate my health.... and my intelligence

Spent the past 13 days in hospital, as most would be aware by now.  I'm home and i'm happy to be here.  Spending time with a lot of very ill people has made me appreciate my health.  Me healthy? Well compared to many other people i am bursting with good health!!  I have been surrounded by some very ill people. Mainly patients on dialysis for kidney failure, awaiting transplants that they know will most likely not happen.  90% of the dialysis patients will not be eligible for a kidney due to other health complications, age, or suprisingly because they REFUSE to make lifestyle changes that would benefit their health.

 I can't believe this. Why would someone choose to continue to keep themselves unwell?  Why would a 43yo mother of 3 choose to eat chips, chocolate, and pizza (delivered to her hospital bed) and drink copious amounts of coke on an almost daily basis, having been diagnosed with diabetes 12 months ago?  Not type 1 diabetes but type 2 - ie controlled by diet and exercise.  Why would this same person, when informed 7 months later that their diabetes had now progressed to type 1 due to their refusal to change their eating habits, again knock back any help with diet and exercise?  Why would this person again refuse assistance upon being told 2 months later that their kidneys were failing and that dialysis would now be required until they decided to take some action, or they died?  And last week, when the person was advised that they were to be discharged as an inpatient, unless they agreed to undertake a fully supported, holistic program to assist the return to better health, why did this person refuse to leave the hospital, when they again refused help???  Why?? I found out why...... and i cannot believe the stupidity. 

Here's a brief summary of the answer i received after asking  my roommate for her reasons for not undertaking the programs offered:

i like to eat what i want and when i want. 

No one tells me what i can and can't do.

I can't afford to eat the crap they want me to eat.

My kids wont eat fruit and vegetables.  I'm not making different meals for me.

I'm too sick to cook food like that.  Takeaway is easier. and cheaper.

I can't do the walking as my back hurts.

I'm not givin' up my smokes or my nights on the piss (drinks a bottle of bourbon a week)

BUT this person expected to be reviewed for the transplant list.  When advised that she did not meet the criteria, could not understand why .....

"if you bastards give me a new fucking kidney and pancreas then i'd be better and none of that crap you tell me i can't do would fucking matter"

"so u think my kids don't deserve a mum?"

"who gives you the right to say who deserves a kidney more?"

No matter how many times she was told that the transplant wouldn't work unless it had a healthy body to work with, she still refused to change her lifestyle.  She left the hospital escorted by security as she refused to be discharged.  She was drinking Coke and eating a tube of Pringles as she was loaded into a wheelchair by 4 security personnel.  She weighed 155kgs.  She wished me well on the way past and offered me a Pringle.....

The next person to take her bed was a transplant recipient.  12 years previously he'd undergone a kidney and pancreas transplant.  He would be dead if he had not received these gifts.  He was doing well and at only 41 had many years left ahead to enjoy living.  My 43 yo DUMBASS roomie will be dead in 5 years, if not sooner.  And whats the bet she asks for help when she's dying from toxicity???? 

This may be harsh but the world is full of ABSOLUTE MORONS like this person.  The hospital ward was full of them.... taking up space in our health system, using resources that could better help someone who is willing to take responsibility for their health and take action to improve it.  It made me angry.  It made me sad........

So i return home grateful for my intelligence and hence, for my health. 

Ohh and my headache is now back to normal!!