20. I am not a catastrophist.

My son says I am a catastrophist.  I can’t be a word I can hardly spell, can I? Since this week was a light week, filled with some “good news”, we have no really big updates. Roger  met his therapy goals for OT, PT, and speech, so he was let loose to do these exercises on his own.  This means he has built up strength and flexibility in those specific areas.  A big shout out to his rockstar team of ladies for their positive support!  They really are a bright, positive light for him within his "team". We also learned we are on the "urgent" list for our referral to be reviewed at the HSP specialist and we are waiting on a surgery date for one of our children. If anyone questions it, we typically hit our out of pocket medical deductible by the end of January each year.

Since we don’t have big updates, let's look at the realities of some of the things we have learned, or some of the facts.  Catastrophist?  No, just a realist and slightly over organized. Some of you mock my need for order. At least I don’t color code my paper clips anymore. This won't be a fun blog post, but instead an eye opening one.

Long term care is needed for disability, cognitive impairment, or chronic illness.  12-18% of people over age 60 will have mild cognitive impairment. 41% of long term care users are under the age of 65.  70% of people age 65 can expect to use long term care at some point.  Long term care users are predominantly women.  42% of this care is provided in the home, with most of this care being provided unpaid by family.  While we are nowhere near this stage, when you look at some of the diagnoses that people have been throwing our way, anyone, including a catastrophist, would have to start thinking long term.  The low ball figure of these costs per year are $44,000 for in home care and $43,000 for assisted living care.  73% of all people cannot afford more than 3 months of care.  These, my friends, are on the LOW end of the figures.  I thought daycare was expensive.

Now, let's throw out terms such as will, irrevocable trusts, critical care coverage, long term care coverage….it all makes my head spin. I wonder two things. One, who has time to sit down and figure out and organize everything, including all the policies and coverages you have? We have many different policies that we’ve purchased through the years that provide different coverages. Two, I’m organized, educated and struggling to make sense of it all. How do those who don’t have trusted people in their circle to ask or a background in all of this do this without losing their "shorts" or their sanity?  Certainly in my short prep time during the day, I’m not getting the list of places to call completed.

My sister has a friend who brought up that we are getting to the age that we need to consider the “easy button”.  All of this definitely isn’t the "easy button".  A lot of wonderful people have reached out to ask what we need. Beyond medical answers and prayers, the "easy button" for all of this would be a great solution. That, and "Alice" from the "Brady Bunch" living with me would be the dream.