April 9 – “The forms”

Chris had her yearly Medicare Wellness Check-up yesterday.  That’s the one that is somewhat required by Medicare, in the sense that they call you three or four times a week until you agree to have it.  The bottom line, though, is that it is kind of a time-waster.  No medical interventions can occur.  In fact, if you mess up and actually report an ache or a pain, you are immediately referred to a doctor or physician’s assistant and you have to pay a co-pay. 

 

So it was Chris’ turn to sit through the agony of reviewing all medications and immunizations.  Apparently the nurse doing the screening didn’t have Chris’ entire chart, however.  She never once mentioned the heart attack.  In fact, when Chris brought it up, she almost fell out of her chair.  On a positive note, she said she would never have pegged Chris as a victim of heart disease.  Just didn’t look the part.  And then Chris responded to the exercise question: cardiac rehab currently and three-mile walks previously.  The lady just shook her head.  Yep, that wife of mine is quite special. 

 

One good thing did come from the meeting.  She gave us the forms for advanced directive (That’s the high dollar name for living will.  You know, the one where you say you don’t want any extraordinary measures taken that result in you being totally dependent on life support with no hope of recovery) and medical power of attorney.  She couldn’t believe that Chris had been in the hospital after a heart attack and hadn’t signed one of the forms while she was there. 

 

We discussed all the implications and filled out the forms when she got home.  Last night we asked several of our home group folks to sign them as witnesses to our signatures.  Guess we are officially all legal now.  We do still need to get a copy to the docs so they can scan them into our charts at UTMB.  Now all we need to do is update our wills.  They are seriously behind the times.  I think the ones we have were done back in the eighties.  The good thing is, they indicate who we want to raise our children if we die.  Have fun feeding a bottle to a forty year old.  And make sure you get them to soccer and basketball practice. 

 

1 John 1:5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

 

Father, thank you for the information Chris picked up at that wellness visit.  And I’m pretty proud of her for being in such good shape … “for a heart attack victim.”  Thank you for that, too.  Amen.