Thursday, December 19, 2019

Family news

below I posted about trouble in getting on to the OPM site to assure them I am still here.

I exchanged some emails with them, and finally found the problem: when I used Firefox, I couldn't sign into the site, but no problem when I used Chrome.

So I changed my password as required and presumably they will be happy until another year has passed and they remind me I have to sign in now and then to assure them I am still here.

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Joy's mom is still in the hospital with a small subdural: The docs want to keep her there but she seems okay: walking, gesturing, and eating is the same as before her fall. 

The doctors even suggest taking out the clot, but without any obvious symptoms I told Joy to take her home, because the stress of surgery might kill her, and that we need to treat the patient, not the CT scan. If a repeat CT scan shows more bleeding, or if she develops weakness, then she can always return to the hospital.

She has had trouble speaking for over a year, and her falls are because she has Parkinson's disease. But essentially she is doing okay with her family to care for her.
Family breakfast Nov 2019 @ Himlayan, QC


It's becoming like the US here: the docs feel they have to do everything, (in the USA, not doing everything would get you sued). But a lot of the time, minimal care is better, especially for the elderly with many other medical problems.

Alas, with the push for euthanasia, a lot of the tradCatholic sites are seeing comfort care and minimal intervention as stealth euthanasia: which it sometimes is. But often the outcome is just as good (and a lot better for the patient). 


And Catholic medical ethics in the past has always said you only are required to get ordinary care, not extraordinary care.

So essentially the euthanasia push is destroying the trust between people and their doctors here: which is the dirty little secret on why minorities in the USA already refuse to sign "living wills": they don't trust the doctor.

and no, I'm not exaggerating: SenseOfEvents blog links to an article by one famous bioethicist who says life after 75 is not worth living.


" These people who live a vigorous life to 70, 80, 90 years of age—when I look at what those people “do,” almost all of it is what I classify as play. It’s not meaningful work. They’re riding motorcycles; they’re hiking. Which can all have value—don’t get me wrong. But if it’s the main thing in your life? Ummm, that’s not probably a meaningful life.
One wonders where he lives. He sees "elderly" folks as playing at life, or maybe isolated in a nursing home.

He doesn't see elders like Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi as representing the elderly.


Or maybe his problem is he doesn't live with ordinary folks who see the elderly as part of their family, and who rely on their love and wisdom, and who see their lives meaningful even when they are sick.

One reason Lolo and I moved to the Philippines to retire was because here elders are respected, and part of the extended family, not as a burden to discard.

This "family oriented" idea is strong here: Nor is it missing in the USA, where 43 million people care for their elderly or disabled family members without being paid, despite a society that is hostile to this.

So Joy's mom, who for 80 years cared for and imparted her wisdom to her family, is still loved and will be cared for by her extended family at home, just as my neice Emie was cared for, or Lolo was cared for, when they needed help.



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Kuya is still busy at the harvest, and Joy is commuting between her mom's place and Manila, where she is supervising the booth at the trade fair.

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