Claims And Issues

THE INVALUABLE CAPACITY: TO BE SURPRISED.

If you have kept your capacity to be surprised, cherish it.  Maintain it.  Do whatever it takes to keep it alive.

    If you have lost your capacity to be surprised, do whatever it takes to get it back.

    It's when we are surprised that we learn the most, that we live the fullest life, whether we know it at the time or not (and most often we know it at the time).

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IT'S YOUR CHOICE.

(Shutterstock via Thomson Reuters; Cover Photo of Dennis J. Wall, Insurance Claims And Issues)

Some people seem to need to comment on everything they are ever asked about.  Even if nobody else listens, making comments seems to matter a lot to them, almost as if they don't have a choice about it.

    You don't have to say something about everything.  You can choose when to comment, and whether to hold your tongue.

    It's your choice.

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NEEDING HELP IS NOT WEAKNESS. NOT ASKING FOR HELP, IS.

Needing help is not a weakness.

    It takes courage to admit you need help, to ask for help.

    Act rightly.  Act with courage.  Ask for help whenever you need it.

    And the flip side of that coin applies as well:  Be ready to help whenever someone else needs your help.

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Vulnerable "high-risk" people ....

"Vulnerable 'high-risk' people are some of the strongest, most interdependent, and most resilient people around."--Alice Wong

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Can you see me now?

Treating COVID in the E.R.  (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press )

 

"I have COVID."

Can you see me now?

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"I HAVE COVID."

COVID Vaccine.  (Bryan Anselm / Redux)

"I have COVID."

Can you see me?

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OR SUDDEN DESTRUCTIVE FATIGUE.

There are a couple of ways to describe the overwhelming fatigue that overtakes survivors of long COVID and of Polio without warning, for two examples.

    One way is the clinical term, "post-exertional malaise."

    Another way is to call it by its true name.  Some survivors call it Sudden Destructive Fatigue.  Other survivors call it Sudden Debilitating Fatigue.

    Whether you call it by its true name or by its clinical name, this is not the "fatigue" that able-bodied people experience.  It is sudden and it is destructive.

    Once you know that, such as if you or anyone else in your life experiences it, you will never call it "malaise" or simple "fatigue" again.

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I'M DISABLED.

Disabled Access.  (Guillern Casasus / New York Times)

 

I'm disabled.

Can you see me?

 

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TAKE THE HIGH ROAD.

Take the high road.  Not only will you "get into Scotland afore ye," as the song says, but you will feel better about it, too.

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I'M OLD.

I'm old.

Can you hear me?

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VISITS WITH MY FORMER SELF.

When I spend time with people from my past, I tend to act like I used to act with them, not like my present self.

    It's involuntary.  It happens subconsciously, even though while it's happening, I know it's happening.

    Now that I know it, I can address it.  

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SUDDEN DEBILITATING FATIGUE.

"Post-exertional malaise" doesn't cover the sudden debilitating fatigue that many survivors of COVID and of Polio encounter, for two examples.

    What these people experience is sudden.  Further, it is not tied to exertion but can happen any time without warning.  It is unexpected.  And it is more than the fatigue that able-bodied people might envision when they hear the word, "fatigue."  It is debilitating.

    Instead of a misleading term, why not call it by its true name?  Certainly survivors should call it by its true name; leave the diagnostic words to the clinicians (who generally never have to experience anything like it).

    Call it something like Sudden Debilitating Fatigue, to take account of its main features:  It is sudden and it is debilitating.  Adding these adjectives to the word "fatigue" will bring it out of the realm of able-bodied people who think it means the same thing as 'tired.'

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THE THINGS WE SAY AND DO.

The things we say and do affect others.  I would like to think more often about the effects my own words and actions have on others before I do them.

    It seems we all need to keep trying.  I do.

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1,500 COVID PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED EVERY DAY IS NOT "GOOD."

Virgin Mary and medicine supplies.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers record that nearly 10,000 people were hospitalized due to COVID in one week.

    That breaks down into nearly 1,500 people hospitalized every day because of COVID.

    We can stop looking but COVID keeps taking tolls.  The worst kind of delusion, perhaps, is self-delusion.

    Open your eyes and look around you.  You cannot fix anything if you pretend that it does not exist.

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FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Current Health Law Announcement (CPLC Oct. 2020)

 

Fifteen minutes.  That is all the time that doctors can spend with you, or so doctors are told who want to get paid.

    Take the time you need with your doctor.  (Within reason of course.  All day is too much time, for example!)  Get your concerns addressed.  You are there for you, not for the physician.

    And if your doctor can't spend the time with you that you reasonably need, get another doctor.

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LEARNED HELPLESSNESS ISN'T REAL.

You can.  You may fail at first or even at second, but you will succeed before it's all over.  If you never try to succeed, you never will.

    Learned helplessness is the stuff of cable media.  It's not real life, and it's certainly not your life.

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RETURN CALLS.

Never say never.

    Never say always.

    All that said, I learned a lesson well, and early on:  Return all your calls.  It's what professionals do.

    Ghosting was not in the cards back in the day.  Oh what a day.

    This is a new day.  Always return your calls.

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TAKE THEM ONE AT A TIME.

When things are lining up for you, they can be hard to address, there are so many of them and they all insist on having your attention.  Here is good advice I received long ago, and I am glad to share it with you now (and remind myself):

    Break them down.  Take them one at a time.

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"THEN THE QUESTION IS WHAT CAN WE BUILD INSTEAD?"

"When something can't be fixed then the question is what can we build instead?"

                    --Mariame Kaba, quoted by Alice Wong in her book, Year Of The Tiger (2022).

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100 DEATHS A DAY. AND THAT'S JUST IN THE U.S.

COVID deaths will run between 350 and 400 people dying every day between now and next Spring.

 

    That's across the world.  In the United States, about 100 people are dying.  And will die, every day.

    Next time you're told that "there's nothing to see here," remember that there usually is.

(Photo of a COVID Death in Los Angeles.  Jay Clendinen/Los Angeles Times)

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PERFECTION IS NOT REQUIRED: PART TWO.

We are all imperfect.  Whatever your imperfections, you're still you.  You have a track record of doing good things, not just being imperfect.

    Put thoughts and memories of the good alongside any negative thoughts and memories of the past.

    Be balanced.  And positive.

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PERFECTION IS NOT REQUIRED. TRYING IS GOOD. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.

(Photo by Dennis Wall)

You are not going to solve every problem.

    Solve the problems you can.

    Try.

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AP PSYCHOLOGY IS STILL TAUGHT IN FLORIDA.

The Miami-Dade School District reportedly is going ahead to teach AP Psychology.  You might not know that from cable media.

    Courage in the face of attempted intimidation.  

    Remember Ohio from 08.08 and remember Miami-Dade from 08.09.  Those are the actual news leads.  Those are our actual leads as well.

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DESPAIR? REMEMBER WHAT OHIO DID ON 08.08.

Next time you are in despair, remember what Ohio did on 08.08.23.

    They went to the polls and did what some said couldn't be done:  They rejected a law that would take away some of their rights.  The people of Ohio overcame despair.  They were told including by the cable media once again to be afraid, to be very afraid.

    They weren't afraid.  They were determined.

    Remember what Ohio did on 08.08.23 the next time you despair that anything good will happen, whether in your personal life or in the life of the nation.  Remember Ohio.

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WHO NAMES THESE THINGS? KEEP/TAKE BACK YOUR "NAMING RIGHTS"!

(Guillern Casaus via New York Times)

In yesterday's article I lifted the thought up that IF YOU NAME IT, YOU OWN IT.  Specifically, I wrote about the condition of totally obliterated energy that many disabled people experience and that able-bodied people, not knowing any better, simply call "fatigue."  What disabled people experience is not simple fatigue.

    It's a devastating destruction of the ability to move, let alone obliteration of the ability to perform the ordinary tasks of daily life for most of the people.

    Let's come up with better words to describe what we are looking at here. 

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IF YOU NAME IT, YOU OWN IT.

Many people experience debilitating results from what for other people are simple actions.  Any kind of exertion can leave many people with the experience of nightmares:  They are unable to move and they often have crippling pain to boot.  It's like being strapped into a bed of nails except sometimes there's no avoiding it.

    The people who experience these things are disabled in various ways, but they are all disabled to begin with:  Muscular Dystrophy, Post-Polio Syndrome, COVID long haul.  For these people and all other disabled people in the same boat, someone unknown has come up with an acronym, PEM, which stands for "post-exertional malaise."  The person who thought this one up has to be able-bodied.  No disabled person would ever call the experience by this name.

    Start with "post-exertional," meaning after exertion.  Who does not feel tired after exercise or other exertions?  That is most decidedly NOT what "PEM" is supposed to describe, yet there it is.

    Continue with "malaise."  That sounds like you want to tell someone to snap out of it; if they only come to their senses, it seems, they will leave their 'malaise' behind and be 'normal' again.

    This is like the old Civil Rights saw about telling a person to pull herself or himself up by their boot straps:  It's a cruel thing to say to someone who has no boots.  In the same way, it's a cruel thing to tell a person to "snap out" of a complete lack of energy, to leave malaise behind and inject life into their otherwise dead bodies or at least into their bodies that to them, feel dead.

    Whatever ableist named this condition never experienced it.  It is up to the disabled to take it back and own it.  Call it Bodily Destruction Syndrome or Complete Shutdown Experience.  Call it whatever, but call it by its true name:  It's not malaise, and it's not fatigue, it's bigger and much, much more destructive than either one of those things.

    Call it by its true name.  If you name a thing, you own it.  

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THERE WILL BE TIMES ....

Chalked on a driveway in Winter Springs, Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic.  (Photo by Dennis Wall)

 

"There will be things that fall by the wayside or things you will forget.  It's inevitable and do not beat yourself up over it."

--Alice Wong

U.S. SENATE RULES ARE UNDEMOCRATIC. AND THEY ARE UNSAFE.

The rules of the United States Senate are anti-democratic.  And unsafe.

    One senator can stop military officers from being promoted, even to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Even when that one senator has never served in the military, like Tommy Tuberville.

    One senator can also endanger the national security by putting a block on the appointment of diplomats from the United States to any other country.  That senator -- Rand Paul -- was never a diplomat, any more than Tuberville was ever a soldier, sailor, marine, or airman but he too is allowed to endanger the security of the United States because of the rules of the United States Senate.

    If the current Majority Leader of the United States Senate does not have the votes to change this rule, he should at least denounce this rule and call a vote to make it public even if he loses.

    If the current Leader cannot even call a vote, he should step aside and let someone else do the work.  Senator Chuck Schumer, leave the job to someone else if you can't do it.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"I'd LIKE TO IMAGINE A TIME ..."

... when disabled people do not have to prove their humanity and defend their right to exist."

--Alice Wong

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ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.

In at least two of the Zoom meetings I have attended, one or more participants worked hard to get access for another member who was having a hard time getting into the meeting.  I am sure that many people have experienced times when a person, maybe you have been that person once or more, cannot get into a Zoom meeting due to some technological difficulty beyond the control of ordinary humans. 

   It takes time to fix these tech problems, time that would ordinarily go to the length of the meeting but which is spent on "a tech issue" that probably is not the reason for the meeting in the first place.  Both times that I am thinking of when someone already in the meeting took the time to make sure the missing member could participate, the previously missing member ended up contributing in ways that none of the rest of us had said or even thought of. 

     If the time had not been taken by a few for the one, then the many would have been less.  In more concrete terms:  Be the person that takes the time to help another person get into the meeting.  Having them there can make all the difference.   Having you there can make all the difference.

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P.S.

I mention Zoom here in particular because it's the only audiovisual assistive tool I recall using.  I have used others and I am aware of still others.  Zoom is very good.  But as everyone I know knows, nobody's perfect.  Including the others, from what I hear.  We do the best we can.--Dennis Wall