Thank you for all your wonderful comments about my Dad Update post from last week. I received a wide range of information and opinions. I value both!
When I published that post, I was VERY emotional and upset at Dad and the entire situation. Had I waited a day or even a few hours, the post would have been very different. As I said before, this blog is my place to vent, scream, curse and cry or post all my happy thoughts. I definitely posted what I wanted to last week. AND I gained a follower! lol
There is no way I could walk away from my father no matter his decision. I will be there at his death bed holding his hand and telling him that its okay to go, just as I was with my mother.
I work for an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment and prevention center and one of the programs that we offer is preventing tobacco use. We also refer people to the QuitCenter and the QuitLine. My agency cannot dispense medications and therefore did not qualify as a Quit Center. This funding (a grant I wrote!) came from the Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program, which our LOVELY, stupid, fat governor has taken all funding from in the new budget. This entire department will no longer exist in the government effective July 1st. That means that our funding as well as the funding for the QuitCenters and Quitline is GONE.
So if my Dad does choose to quit smoking our state will not be there to help him. He will have to do it with the help of the medical community and they typically don't have the time or the resources to monitor one person.
Again, thank you for your opinions, advice and support. It all was just what I needed.
oh man, that sucks about the funding...i do hope that he decides to quit...
ReplyDeleteHere in England, we get all these nicotine patches and other Quitting aids free through the N.H.S. and Quit Start clinics that are held at our local Doctors' Surgeries.
ReplyDeleteWe get to see a counsellor on a one to one basis, and this lasts as long as we need it.
It is so odd that our countries are so different in the most basic of needs.
I am so fascinated in how our medical systems work, and I was shocked to see all these "Tent Cities" springing up in places like Chicago and L.A. in a documentary I was watching last week.
Watching people queue up for a meal ticket was like watching from "The Grapes Of Wrath"! It was unbelievable in this day and age, so very sad!
Good luck with your dad! I hope he quits.
ReplyDeleteThat stinks! The support group was so helpful to me. Best of luck and hope you are coping. Hugs to you.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say sorry for my comment the other day. I think I was raw from going through the same thing and I should have just shut up.
ReplyDeleteI hope that he can understand that just one more day on this earth may not mean that much to him, but it means a hell of a lot to the people around him.
ReplyDeleteI've been there with the whole writing-about-stuff-too-soon-and-being-too-angry ... and suffered the backlash!! :-/ But I understand it's so easy to do, and I understand when things are written in the heat of the moment they can come out all wrong because of all the pent up emotion. I do hope your dad finds the will to quit, for his own sake as well as his family's, but I'm so glad he has a loving daughter to be by his side the whole way to the end no matter his decision. He's a lucky man to have you! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that you found just what you needed from the comments!
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