Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? So asks the genie within my brain. Tomorrow I am committed to giving a short program to a neighboring Lions Club. Two months ago, I wrote a speech that I would use to give to fellow Lions to awaken them to blindness which is one of our pillars of service. I posted the speech on this blog, but no one has read it. That told me that the speech was not very good. Or else the title put people off. I thought it was rather catchy, “How Many Ways Can You Go Blind?” It turns out that there are so many ways that ophthalmologists have lost count. No one is interested into why some people go blind until that person is you. Then it becomes the number one priority on your list.
My job today, immediately after this post, is to rewrite my speech to eight minutes down from fifteen. Why am I procrastinating? I didn’t become a Lion to write and give speeches. I joined to serve my community, and giving speeches has become that service. So, I must put my mind into gear and rewrite what I thought was a perfect speech.
When I asked my friend and fellow Lion that question, Optometrist Dr. Smith replied, “Probably 500, but I’m guessing it’s more like 1000.” That gives us a huge opportunity to serve the blind. As the blind-and-deaf Helen Keller challenged us in 1926 to become Knights of the Blind, she gave us something to work on. Back then, she was so far ahead of us in this topic that it was scary. Thankfully, the Lions Club International decided to adopt blindness as a pillar of service. We have been striving to help blind people ever since.
Statistically, there are over 12 million people over the age of 40 in America who are classified with visual impairment. Out of that 12 million, over 1 million are legally blind.
Lions have been supportive since Helen Keller presented her challenge to us. For instance, we invented guide dogs and the white cane.
The World Health Organization (WHO) cites five causes of vision impairment and blindness:
1. refractive errors
2. cataract
3. diabetic retinopathy
4. glaucoma
5. age-related macular degeneration
Many more reasons are apparent, like accidents and disease, but there are too many to discuss now.
I am proposing a new way to serve the blind to Lions Clubs. Many newly diagnosed blind people are above the age of sixty. When they are struck with the diagnosis, they are devastated as they would be if they heard they had cancer. Older people have trouble adapting to the condition. The loss of independence is devastating. The loss of mobility combined with losing independence makes living stressful. Yet, people adapt, but often with a significant loss of personal dignity.
About thirty years ago, a young couple from the south suburbs of Chicago, both blind, decided to do something positive with their lives and formed a support group they called OASIS. They worked hard to turn their handicap into something positive. They figured they could help people get back into life even with the lemon they were handed. They met with a handful of vision-impaired individuals and led them in prayer and discussions about handling things that were hard for them. They used their personal experiences as a positive motivation to lead others to do the same thing: leading everyday life as good one can lead without sight.
Five years ago, the Frankfort Lions became aware of OASIS through our neighboring Mokena Lions Club. Together, we joined them by sending money to help them with their work. Since then, Kim and Joe Kuster, the originators of OASIS, have retired and moved to Tennessee to be near their grandchildren. This left the two clubs with a more significant opportunity to keep the organization going and self-supportive. It has been a full year since the Kusters left, and we are still in business and are growing in numbers.
We have learned that people with visual impairment, especially older ones, enjoy the company of people with the same affinity. They feel comfortable with each other, knowing they are not standing out as being different.
OASIS brings together a community of people in similar situations. They come with someone who can drive them and sit around a table with people they can talk to and share experiences with. A facilitator leads them in prayer and motivates them with ways to overcome hardships. Often, they lead the group to share how they handle situations. The leader introduces them to items that make life easier, like large print calendars, talking clocks, and magnifiers. Every meeting is different from the one before. Lions serve a snack and kibitz with the attendees. They clean up and assist with a game if one is played. A favorite is bingo.
I am telling you this because OASIS is an instrumental and helpful organization within this community. I am sure you also have many people within your realm who could benefit from a vision-impaired support group. We would be happy to help you start a chapter within your club. If you wish to help but are not ambitious enough to begin your own OASIS chapter, you may want to assist OASIS in several ways. Our most urgent need is for volunteer drivers who can adopt a visually impaired person to take them to and from OASIS meetings once each month. Our second largest need is money to run the meetings and expand services.
You can donate to OASIS (a not-for-profit 501c3 organization) by clicking the OASIS website link below.
A scene as it might be viewed by a person with diabetic retinopathy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On 30 June 1925, blind and deaf Helen Keller charged Lions to be “Knights of the Blind.”
Frankfort Lions have a tradition of focus on service projects related to supporting the blind. Among them is the Sights and Sounds raffle in April, the Candy Day collection on street corners around town in October. Another is STRIDES: Lions and Lincoln Way Walk for Diabetes Awareness.
Why support STRIDES, and why make people aware of diabetes? Before answering that question here are some statistics from the American Diabetes Association. The answer follows.
Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet (released Jan. 26, 2011)
Total prevalence of diabetes
Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.
Diagnosed: 18.8 million people
Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people
Prediabetes: 79 million people*
New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.
* In contrast to the 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, which used fasting glucose data to estimate undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet uses both fasting glucose and A1C levels to derive estimates for undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. These tests were chosen because they are most frequently used in clinical practice.
Under 20 years of age
215,000, or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes
About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has diabetes
Age 20 years or older
25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes
Age 65 years or older
10.9 million, or 26.9% of all people in this age group have diabetes
Men
13.0 million, or 11.8% of all men aged 20 years or older have diabetes
Women
12.6 million, or 10.8% of all women aged 20 years or older have diabetes
Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20–74 years.
In 2005-2008, 4.2 million (28.5%) people with diabetes aged 40 years or older had diabetic retinopathy, and of these, almost 0.7 million (4.4% of those with diabetes) had advanced diabetic retinopathy that could lead to severe vision loss.
Thank you, Dan Rather. You gave me this inspirational idea. Do you ever really know what you are getting when you purchase a watermelon? It has a very thick skin that is very solid and green. It can look very tasty from the outside, but are you ever sure of how ripe it is on the inside? The watermelon is a perfect example to explain the current healthcare plan that Congress is pouring down our throats for our own good. Who knows what evil lurks inside the two thousand plus pages of the gobble-de-gook language of a Harvard lawyer. It may be the best thing ever presented to the American people, or it can be the worst. How do we know? How will we know? When will we know? I guess we will have to believe just like the followers of one Jim Jones, and swallow the cool-aid to find out.
This morning, I got a rude awakening from a health care provider. It is no secret that I have Medicare as my primary insurance. Ii carry a secondary private policy to cover what the wonderful Medicare does not. I would prefer to buy my own healthcare insurance, but when a person turns sixty-five in the USA, it is his obligation to swallow Medicare. That is wrong, I am not obligated to take Medicare, but since I pay for it with my taxes, I feel that I am entitled to get it. I am not rich enough to buy it on my own.
I called the healthcare provider to order diabetic testing supplies. I have some experience with diabetes, having raised a child from the age of five who had type-one diabetes. I know the value of testing blood to determine where the sugar level is. Also for years, I preached to my son on the value of knowing his blood sugar so he could adjust his insulin level appropriately. When I became diabetic, I decided I had better walk the talk. For the past five years, I have tested myself three to four times a day. I use my sugar level to decide when to eat, how much to eat, and what to eat. I have maintained a normal A1C level (long-term blood sugar level) for five years.
Why do I do this? I do it because diabetes is the scourge of the human body. It is the number one reason for new blindness in the United States. It is the number one reason for the amputation of a person’s foot. It is a cause for kidney failure. Diabetics are almost guaranteed to suffer a stroke or heart attack. The list of body damage and collateral diseases is long. I figure that it is much healthier to live with testing and adjusting my diet than it is to let the disease go rampant. My quality of life is much better also.
So, this morning when my provider told me that Medicare only pays for a single blood test every day, I became incensed. What will happen when Obama care cuts another five hundred billion dollars out of the Medicare budget? I shudder to think of what will happen if you are a type-one diabetic and Obama care dictates to you how often you can test. It is my prediction, that with universal health care and the shortage of doctors it will create, and treatments it will dictate we get, that diabetes will be a death sentence like it was before the invention of insulin.
There is nothing like moving backward a hundred years in the name of CHANGE and improvement.
Wanna buy a rotten watermelon for a hundred bucks?
Join us at the 28th Annual Frankfort Lions Charities Sweepstakes Dance on Thursday September 3, 2009. Purchase a sweepstakes ticket and get a chance to win $10,000.00, as well as entry to the dance for two people. Dance the night away to the music of Brother John.
Tickets are $20.00 each. We limit ticket sales to 2000. Your odds of winning are very good. There are six other cash prizes as well.
Send a check made out to the Frankfort Lions Club for 20.00 and I will send you a ticket. Contact me via e-mail jsr@mortyangel.com
