Archive for October, 2008
Rock ‘n’ Roll
After our Asheville rally, a couple of young men came up and told me they’re in a rock band and they’d like to get together with a couple other bands and put on a concert to raise awareness of health care issues. I didn’t think much more about it until I got a call from [...]
Be nice, dammit!
Sarah Palin came to town tonight and I was the “live blogger” in the office. People called in vignettes and scene setters to me and I posted them and monitored the comments. Since I was in charge of which comments got posted, I laid down the ground rules pretty early. I told people I would not [...]
Making plans
Janet and I started talking today about the next rally. I think Rob had hoped we’d take a little time off, but I can’t stop. There’s this huge, gaping hole in my life and the only way to fill it up is to try to right the wrong that killed Mike. It gets harder as [...]
The economic crash and health care
The Associated Press had a story this week about how the economic meltdown has more people putting off health care. In part, it said: The numbers show Americans are increasingly putting their health at risk: — More and more are postponing needed care, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Tuesday. The portion who [...]
Held hostage by our jobs
The movie “Sicko” gave Michael Moore’s dramatic perspective of our healthcare crisis. My perspective is more limited, but equally real, for any Sarah Palin fans out there. I had not had much reason to think about the situation until I moved three years ago. Until then, I had been fortunate; I had always had health [...]
Our second rally
We had about 125 people, and if you count the people who came and went, we got the message out to a couple hundred people. Bryan Brooks happened by Pritchard Park as we were talking about how Mike died, and he came to the microphone to talk about his own fear that he has stomach [...]
James is here
My niece, Christina, flew in last night and we called James at lunchtime today. He’s had a really hard time with Mike’s death and I’ve been letting him find his own way to deal it. Christina thought otherwise. Being a Boyd woman, she decided James has had enough time to deal with his emotions. “The hell [...]
Gary’s story
Gary Mitchell is a musician — a gifted choral director and tenor. He’s the music director at my church, which is a part-time job and doesn’t carry insurance. Gary’s spouse is a minister and has insurance, but the policy doesn’t cover domestic partners, and in North Carolina, Gary can’t marry his domestic partner, the Rev. [...]
Cornering politicians
I know a lot of politicians, and I like a lot of them personally. I don’t agree with all of them of course. Lately, though — since Mike died, to be specific, I’ve had some interesting discussions with them. I was in an editorial board meeting week before last with our Congressman, Heath Shuler, a [...]
Check us out on Ashevegas!
The blogger here, an anonymous guy named Jason Sandford (he was outed a couple years ago), worked with me when Mike got sick. He saw how shabbily Mike was treated, and he agrees that people should have access to preventive care. We like Ashevegas. http://ashvegas.squarespace.com/journal/2008/10/7/life-o-mike-wants-to-hear-your-stories-about-lack-of-health.html
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.