Thursday, September 4, 2008

Louella Gets a Wake-Up Call

Louella's dad clicked off the Republican convention. "Enough of all that stuff!" he said, rising from his recliner chair with difficulty. "I already know who's got my vote anyhow!" He tottered a bit and steadied himself on the coffee table. "Oops! Easy does it!" he joked, as his face grew red.

"Dad!" said Louella, rousing herself from making "to do" lists for her planned run for the Baltimore City Council. "Are you okay? You look kind of strange."

"Nothing Medicare won't cover!" he said. "I've been having a little trouble lately, but I ’spect it'll clear up directly."

"Well, what kind of trouble? You can't let things go too long without going to the doctor. You know that! Mom would've wanted you to take care of yourself!"

"Yeah, yeah. But remember how long it took your mom to get herself looked at. She wouldn't have a lot of room to talk right now."

"Well, Dad, come on—what kind of symptoms are you having?"

"I don't rightly want to say. It's private." He stood up straight, hand against the small of his back. Boy, he's really gained a lot of weight, thought Louella. I should have noticed before!

"So come on, Dad. You can tell me. I've heard everything before."

Her father looked away, then looked back at her. "Well, I've been bleeding," he said, voice a little weak.

"Bleeding? From where?"

"You know."

"Well, since it's not something I can see, I can only think of two places. So which one is it?"

Pause. "The Number One."

"Well, tell you what, Dad! You're going to the emergency room right now!"

"No, no, no! It comes and goes. I'll deal with it in my own time. Let's go to bed now."

Boy, he's so lucky he has Medicare, thought Louella, mentally calculating how much treatment would cost if she, without health insurance, had the same symptoms. But does he have Part B, and that gap insurance? Suddenly she felt like a very bad daughter. I ought to know all this, she scolded herself. It's inexcusable for me to not know.

Then she thought, It's inexcusable that I don't have health insurance myself. That Sarah Palin, I bet she has health insurance, and her family too, and she gets it through the government, but I bet she has no use for the government when it comes to people like me! Hell, the whole state of Alaska's been on the dole forever. Louella stopped herself from fuming.

"Okay, Dad, we'll go there tomorrow. I'll take you, okay?"

"All right, Lou. If you say so." Louella knew immediately that her father was worried. Good thing I decided to take my week's vacation here with him, she thought. Not to mention I couldn't afford to go anywhere else.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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