tube yes/tube no.....It is all about your quality of life
Loved Ones some of the finest individuals I know have little or no speech and are unable to manage their own saliva. Some of the most loving and beautiful persons I know are spastic quadriplegic and their entire body is one big knot. Some of my best friends have no eye balls and all of these persons ...every one of them has a healthy quality of life. These are really nice people... Loving intelligent people....no their life has not been easy...but they are very loving people.

Also loved ones I also know some individuals blessed with fully functional strong bodies who treat themselves and others in a judgmental way. I know individuals who were born with strong bodies that at present are struggling with self inflicted illnesses. I know persons who are in great shape that seem to be driven by greed.

The Quality of your life begins within you. That is your contract with God. Within and inside your heart chakra originate your desire, intent....your will power. This is your connection to the realm where you came from and will someday return...as you are a Spark of the Divine. These personality incarnational talents then resonate within this dimension of time and space creating the subatomic space around which the tiny bits of particles orbit creating your body. We are all but a resonance in this universe..that is why we all are one. What effects one effects all. The harmony of your will and our Divine Parents Will determines the level of spiritual awareness. Loved ones now is the time and place to determine the quality of your life and make active your will power, make active your ability to focus and make active your unconditional love for yourself and all persons....all living things....as we all are one...and I suggest for the quality of the life that you desire...... create a living will. You decide about your own tube.
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 7:20 PM 0 comments

 
Bush on a Tube?
Imagine for a moment President Bush has the exact same health coverage you do....imagine he becomes like Terri hung out on a tube 15 years. Now visualize George's buttocks having dead flesh being scrapped off every day. Imagine his once fat soft butt now with softball size stinking cavities of rotting flesh. Imagine our president, our leader, our mentor responding with blinks to bright lights and the flicking of hair on his precious forehead..... are you having a difficult time visualizing this....Then try this..imagine yourself in that position....not pretty is it.....

Excellent fodder for political grandstanding while deflecting attention from certain U.S. "police" actions around the globe. Michael Jackson, Terri, the guy that murdered his pregnant wife all are front and center in the news....You did not read or hear about Jesse Ventura setting up a new seat of government because he understands Washington D.C. is the center of the target for anthrax. No ! You did not get repeatedly exposed over and over to this thru the media...Do you think the rest of the world likes us? Have you traveled anywhere lately.....been to Spain, how about Canada, how about Germany, how about Italy, how about China.....we do not have friends anymore. Do we need friends anymore ?

Our government has created a "you are with us or you are against us" mentality. At present the WMD that is most effective here at home....in our country is the controlled media. Do you think the person reading the news on TV has a choice....or do you think the producer selects, scripts and plans what concepts are going to be stimulated based on what is good for you...which concepts will become your memories.....look closely at your news....one guy reads the exact temperature, another guy reads the exact conditions of the traffic, another good looker accurately reads the days top local stories...and then they slip in among these true stories a quickie about how our leaders,.... someone really cares about Terri. Lets look closer at what happened....you turned on the set and got a bunch of accurate facts....real events....real things...then in the middle of this truth is the plant.

The reason for these coordinated national and local broadcasts is to support the fabricated belief that a given group/individual you see on the tube has your best interests at heart.....You think I am full of it...then walk into your local Skilled Nursing Facility and see the people hung out on tubes....going nowhere but continuing to be very viable financial commodities. Now if they have health coverage and you can justify therapy then green light baby? However if you do not have coverage for speech pathology to train a safe swallow then you get hung out on a tube. No therapy you get tube...no coverage...no therapy. Puttie tubbie innne tommie never eat again for the rest of your life. Not only stuck in bed but no oral gratification....you get to click the clicker all you want...day and nite....with liquids coming in and liquids going out.....day and nite....

Empty beds mean loss of income....a full hospital with rich patients means "mo money mo money"....more of everything gets billed and purchased meaning more extreme profits squeezed from these now suffering persons..... individuals like you and me...regular joes. We all need proper medicine and health care...is there room for the unrivaled profiteering in our health care? No coverage=no health care

Do you think the drug companies really care about you or do they care about your money.....do you think the president has Secure Horizons or Kaiser ...do his daughters go to the emergency room because no one has any health coverage.....Now do you really think when you get hung out on a tube the government is going to race in and call a midnight congress so they can help you....I do not think so....you should be prepared to have the establishment remove all monies from you as quickly as possible....unless you have no monies then you can go on "comfort care" right away.

I have been there in the hospital rooms..A bed has coverage, B bed has coverage, C bed has no coverage so they get no therapy. All very simple. I also have visited and observed the response to some of our country's police actions around the globe. Loved ones the way you treat others is the way you will treat your self. Petition that all our leaders in Washington D. C. are protected and enclosed with the unconditional love, the White Light of the Holy Spirit...Petition that all their decisions are made with the purest intent...as each one of us is here to learn our lessons. I petition and ask that in our Divine Parents name.
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 4:44 PM 0 comments

 
Kiwi Prevention
As a permanent resident of New Zealand I spent some pleasurable months on Waiheke Island. A cozy spot 30 minutes outside Auckland perched in a blue blue pacific. It is like a little Carmel California without California....The Kiwi people are as beautiful as their country..in N.Z. each citizens health care is a civic right...it is much more cost effective for the government to promote and maintain good health and address health care issues long before the problems get worse when the eventual repair costs escalate. In America the system pushes, smoking habits, drinking habits, fast foods habits....and then our system pushes a private health care system to squeeze the money out of the now seriously ill population.

Example: A regular joe who earns less than 100 grand a year has a poor diet compounded with hours of stressful driving to and from a meat grinder of a job. He lives on heavily advertised fast foods while driving to and from his home he can barely afford which is miles from where he works.

Poor quality foods mean poor digestion and the resulting reduced health rapidly brings down his quality of life. Additional self inflicted tension and stress result with stomach problems which he now attempts to correct with the advertised antacid. His habit patterns do not change...rather the symptoms are addressed with short term fix. In the TV commercial the ill guy is still at the cheap food counter but NOW he takes is antacid to make it better. After the ulcers grow and all the off the shelf products have all been purchased then he is forced to pay for an expensive doctor to fix his now really broken tummy. These hypnotic media stimulated events result with his very limited monies now being spent in an attempt to stop his awful pain. The more the pain the more he will spend.

What is cheaper...a government flu shot or you being 3 days out of work with a temperature. Cheaper for who ? In the states it is cheaper for the government to let you get ill than provide free public health injections. Sorry about that U.S. citizens....also in the big picture the more older Americans with limited retirement monies who get sick and die sooner than later saves Uncle Sam a ton of money. We did have a flu vaccine shortage not long ago....strange...not a shortage of Buicks, or Condo's, or a shortage of TV shows, or a shortage of soft drinks.....only a shortage of Flu vaccines......strange.

When the profit factor is removed the health care decisions are made based only on your physical health...not your financial health. Rather than some connected profiteer making a bundle of cash by contracting all health care workers to all hospitals ....all the money is spent on health care....for example in New Zealand the local friendly dentist visits the school...and its all covered...no profit motivation. No need to pay for TV commercials to help you find a dentist. No need to pay for the HMO, no need to pay the 3rd party billers.....Imagine that.... a government helping maintain the health of its own citizens ! The entire system saves bajillions of dollars in health care costs. Much, much more money left to adapt persons homes when their need arises. Why blow a life time of savings in a few months while laying in a bed in a 99 bed holding station....when for far less money you could adapt your own home...maintain independence, get in-home therapy and retain the funds you have spent a life time earning.......Oh I miss New Zealand.....
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 3:59 PM 0 comments

 
Permanent Feeding tube ? What about YOU ?
Walking into the rehab room on the black board is a message for me:

Sam "RM 102 A Swallow eval &Tx".

(next to the nurse station I thought...probably serious...)

Loved one, many times I have met with the crying daughter, the weeping wife, the stoic husband, the confused and shocked son...In my speech pathology office down the hall from the hospital bed. We meet a few steps from their loved one who presently is heaped upon a plastic hospital mattress covered with a white clean sheet looking like she is deep asleep. Mom is not the boss here, mom is not doing anything. Mom has just been laying there like that with her right side looking funny for the last 6 days, since they found her on the kitchen floor.

Now is the time in their lives to focus on the ultimate health care of a very important loved one ....the entire family...dad and 3 boys all do not have their Loving Anchor anymore. Pandemonium maximus... family habit patterns break down mas rapido....A restructuring of the family happens. The group is without the old dependable primary leadership source. It is a learn as you go sorting out process... a lot of big spiritual lessons get learned all around really quickly.

After a brief meeting with the nurse on duty...and seeing if the doctor order is in the chart/diet texture/precautions....I go visit the nurses aide who has been directly attending to the new admit for the last 6 -12 hours. The picture becomes clearer as I also see that family and friends are spilling out into the hall with flowers and cards with pretty pictures. Everybody is dressed up.

Upon entering the room in bed I observe a short patient, about 86 pounds over weight, unconscious, feeding tube in her nose, saliva out the right side of her face, IV in her arm, I am told she responds to voices sometimes, at present no stimulable visual or auditory tracking, the chart reported a startle response during 3 am medications. Labored breathing, suctioning equipment bedside, Nurse reports patient exhibits inconsistent response to pain.

I wash my hands and say hello, hold her hands and introduce myself. Her communication may be a light finger movement, it may be ceasing of a motor movement, it could be a stare like none you have seen before....and where she is now is where we will start in the therapy of rehabilitation of her safe eating skills. Safe biting/chewing/swallowing mean no risk of aspiration, that is food/drink into the lungs. If oral motor rehabilitation can be done then safe swallow skills can be improved, in addition to specific accommodations of positioning/texture/thickness/distractions/food likes/and oral motor skills.

All her loved ones are standing around focused on the healing of their loved one...non stop stories about how loving and sharing she was echo against the walls....the skills of a speech pathologist are brought to bear.... It is amazing to watch when a (stand in the background type)wife rises to the occasion meets the Dir. of Nurses...gets a private room...steers the company her now disabled spouse started 40 years ago...and requests oral motor rehab, speech and language therapy 5 times / week..... Carry over activities with participation of private help can make a big difference.

Now the work really begins.

Thoughts fill my mind....
I begin to carve out a private spot to talk with the family...Usually I use the top of my brief case as a desk... I microwave water and bring my coffee kit and some tea/chocolate ...And try to help this responsible adult/family determine the answers to some immediate questions. What motivates mom? has she responded to you? Any thoughts about your loved ones and long term use of feeding tubes ? What were the specific wishes of your Mom/Dad/Daughter/Son who is at present learning that life can change in a second.... Awakening with a right side paralyzed, language whacked big time, Oral speech is broken....out of the question safe bite/chew/swallow for the moment... Requires suctioning....High Aspiration risk....History of smoking...Diabetic... I closed the door and starting chugging my coffee with 3 sugars ...A jillion memories of traumatic injury children, dirt bike accident young adults, memories of people, and their loved ones, hung out on tubes hailed my brain.....Bottom line is it is up to each individual as to the choice about their own tube.

Commandeering the Rehabilitation Office before we huddle to talk about strengthening the right side of moms tongue/jaw/protective cough... I continue to ponder ... did their loved one say "How" they desired to live the remainder of this incarnation. Any one thought about this quality of life stuff ?...Laying in bed a couple of years ? Did your mom ever talk about being kept alive in a skilled nursing facility 7 or more years......Battling bed sores, depression and constant pain....? Did anyone discuss it....Did anyone accept responsibility for this decision....? Possibly someone will need to decide to tube or not....Then if the decision is made to do the permanent tube...To keep alive that broken body....Will later that same someone be forced to option for "stop feeding & comfort care" when the bed sores are the size of grapefruits, when the severe discomfort is sustained and constant? When the consciousness of the individual is long gone...Is pain and life at all costs the way to go ? Well I am not saying any of this to the family of course, I am most aware certain lessons are being learned...I must be objective as to the instructions I receive. These are their lessons...Quality of life issues really only begin to have significant meaning when freedoms are diminished. Thank God for melita coffee filters and Peets coffee...

Some years ago I was with two grown adults, a daughter and son, both still fighting over the family monies/old beefs/ sibling stuff...Both stood together crying on either side of the stainless steel bed, next to Daddy as he was in the last hours of the very last day of end stage Parkinson Disease. The Dominate big sister had made the decision and demanded to tube Dad(6 years earlier) because she loved him and did not want him to die. That was years ago...Back when he could smile. She said her brother wanted to get rid of him so he could continue to live in the family home rather than liquidate and pay for health care...Back when papa could nod yes/no...Back when his body was flexible enough to sit up without terrible pain...Back when the family would visit every Sunday like clock work after church. That ended years ago...Now dad is in "C Bed, room 433" by the window...Alone big time...Alone in his room...The house has been sold to pay for bills and a new townhouse is at the old address... things change...time keeps going....alone most of the day without a loving family member... as the kids hurt too much when they visit....Dad now can only move his eyebrows in the center a wee bit when unbearable pain is felt while pressure sensitive wounds get cleaned and dressed....It is way too painful for the family to visit. Other than that nothing happens but... His body continues and now is one straight rigid mass of skin and bone. The flesh breaks down where moisture and pressure accumulate. He is there on the feeding tube kept alive.

The loving director of nurses knows him very well and visits daily, the nurse on duty( nursing him along with the other 5 or so patients) together with the minimum wage nurses aide wipes his red decomposing skin trying to not tear any more flesh. All Very, Very loving people...these are the real healers....the people who are with him each hour of every day as all his needs must be met by others. On occasion upon entering the room I will meet a younger nurses assistant who is crying her eyes out because their "Baby" is suffering.... and I also begin to cry....for her. There is a tangible living toll on everyone. Quality of life is what it is all about. I have special prayers and petitions for the hundreds of thousands of health care workers who at present are working in Intermediate Care, Skilled Nursing and SubAcute Care Hospital Settings with boundless unconditional love. For the most part these are Women and some men who with unconditional love burning within...these are the individuals who wil keep you alive after you get admitted. Your HMO or their representative will not be in the room helping you. Please include these direct care workers and their loved ones in your prayers. Next time you are in a health faciltiy notice all the nurses who will be wearing a little angel pin with pride. A Gold Star for all you nurses !

Meanwhile somewhere in the system... it is billable and the entire ordeal for some patients is funded. Not many winners....no winners anywhere really except the HMO and the hospital chain owners.... A tough story rewritten thousands of times every day here in the USA.

Now the feuding brother and sister were both crying and placing their hands on their fathers forehead and shoulders. He was going to expire in but a few more minutes. He could not phonate but you could read his lips. When asked what else they could do to comfort him he asked for a Dr. Pepper. His son now bursts into tears as his dad was known for always loving this soft drink.

I met with the Nurse and after a trip to the corner...with tender care a single tiny thickened drop of Dr. Pepper was given after great fanfare. The pop...the fiz...the feeling of the bubbles on his nose...the smell...feeling the cold bottle on his palm....old memories were awakened...and yes one tiny drop which vanished onto the end of his parched tongue tip, it never got past the middle of his tongue. You could tell he was really really enjoying his children and the memories. A very loving scene.

His daughter held him while his son prepared this simplest loving toast. That morning during his nap he exhaled his last breath, then he looked totally and completely relaxed, there was no more pain. All his muscles relaxed. After some prolonged silence the son gave me a hand shake then walked silently away, big sister gave me a hug while crying.....She said she was glad her daddy had gone home and was not suffering anymore. He died with his permanent feeding tube in place.... he looked very peaceful, no pain.... more peaceful than he had looked in a long long time.

I help the nurses aide position him for the morgue...and said a prayer.

I have seen dysphagia therapy change life for the better thousands of times. Each of us is in the end responsible for the health of ourselves and our loved ones. You and you alone have the obligation to let your loved ones know your wishes. Do not expect your HMO to rescue you from your physical difficulties. Do not expect your HMO to fund the therapy to retrain your swallow.

The chance of a speech pathologist attending to you and getting being paid a fair wage is mighty slim these days as there are just not enough qualified Speech Pathologists to keep up with the demand.

Your doctor will not put in an evaluation order and swallowing rehab if the facility cannot provide speech pathology services. The health care facility will get busted....Also 20 years ago the service was provided and billed by the person who actually did the work....today almost all speech pathology services provided in large facilities are contracted thru a intricate old boy system in addition to the entire 3rd party billing mess... I have been in situations where I get $55 for my professinal speech pathologist service before taxes and the hospital bills the patients trust account $656 ! It is legal for them to do that....did you know that ?

I placed my now empty warm coffee mug on the desk took a deep breath and walked down the hall ... introduced myself to her husband who looks like he himself can pass out at any moment...."would you like a cup of coffee ?" I ask.

" Are you here to fix her ?" he asks with hope in his voice.

Together he and I begin a long walk back down the hall towards the office and the course of events which will follow....there are many lessons to be learned loved ones. Take a moment and use your will power, your ability to focus and your unconditional love and enclose Terry Schiavo and all her loved ones with the White Light of the Holy Spirit. Also consider contacting the activity director at your local skilled facility and provide some civic volunteerism in the field of health care.
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 7:37 AM 0 comments

 
Healing Petitions
Your focused prayers and petitions are a morphic resonance factor that go back into ancient time. Your willpower directed petitions and prayers are today being demonstrated as effective agents in healing. Your focused thoughts when motivated by unconditional love cause a triad of synergy...A spiritual explosion of love producing.... 1.the unhealthy individual forgives everyone who has injured him . 2. The weakened mortal asks for forgiveness of those he has injured and then 3. The ill person forgives himself . At this point the petition has been delivered to our Divine Parents and now the matter of focus is released into Mother and Father Gods Hands. When you tune your prayers to the frequency of unconditional love...You are stepping into a powerful morphic field.... eons old.... Built up by repeated focusing of this divine essence. Do not under estimate a simple petition to our Parents motivated by unconditional love. When the spark within you is burning you are free from time and space limitations. Now.... as above, so below...and God made doctors. God made doctors for a reason. God made nurses. God made therapists. All of these professionals are there to help you. We all are one. Follow the instructions of your doctor and send your petitions home to Mother and Father God. Kiss the baby for me....
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 10:05 AM 0 comments

 
102 years old
Today I held the hand of a one hundred and two year old woman. She was a real sweet heart. Mary was her first name and we held hands and visited for a while. She enjoyed the sun on her back and together we relaxed. As we enjoyed the view I pondered....at present I am fifty six years old .... what the world would be like in 2051 ?
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 7:40 PM 0 comments