Medicare for All Y'all?!

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. Have you ever helped somebody walk for the first time? I've had that privilege many times through our organization, Standing with Hope, when my wife Gracie gave up both of her legs following this horrible wreck that she had as a teenager, and she tried to save them for years, and it just wouldn't work out, and finally she relinquished them and thought, wow, this is it. I mean, I don't have any legs anymore.

What can God do with that? And then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel, to put legs on her fellow amputees, and that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with Standing with Hope. We work in the West African country of Ghana, and you can be a part of that through supplies, through supporting team members, through supporting the work that we're doing over there.

You can designate a limb. There's all kinds of ways that you can be a part of giving the gift that keeps on walking at standingwithhope.com. Would you take a moment and go out to standingwithhope.com and see how you can give?

They go walking and leaping and praising God. You can be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver live on Family Talk, Series XM Channel 131.

This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. We are glad that you are with us. How are you feeling? That's what this show is about is how are you feeling? How are you feeling as a caregiver?

What's going on with you? I mean, you may be taking care of an aging parent. You may be taking care of somebody with special needs as a child, or maybe somebody who's had a traumatic injury, maybe somebody who is dealing with an addiction issue or alcoholism. All those are chronic impairments, and wherever there's a chronic impairment, there is a caregiver. And so this show is focused on you, that individual who is doing this right now, putting yourself between a loved one and even worse, disaster. You holding up okay?

If not, let's talk about it. If you are holding up okay, let's talk about that and you could offer some things that are helping you with it. Either way, this is a time for you to call as a caregiver. We're live 877-655-6755, 877-655-6755, and you can be a part of the show and we'd love to have you here. You can also follow us along on Facebook Live at Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook. Please feel free to log in for that. And the podcast, we put this out a little later and you can find that at Hopeforthecaregiver.com. The podcast is free. We try to do as much as we possibly can to make it available for you so you can have access to just somebody that understands what you're going through as a caregiver.

My name is Peter Rosberger and I am the host of this show. I've been a caregiver now. I'm in my 34th year through a medical nightmare, 80 surgeries, both legs amputated, 100 doctors, 12 hospitals, 7 insurance companies, well over now $11 million.

That's been the journey of my wife and I've been with her now for lo these many decades. I've learned a few things along the way, a few things that will be meaningful to fellow caregivers, things that you can avoid if possible. One of my books is called Seven Caregiver Landmines and how you can avoid them. You know, there are a lot of landmines out there that could trip us up as a caregiver.

Some of those are excessive weight gain, failure to see your own doctor, isolation, loss of identity, guilt, fear, thinking that it's all up to you. Any of that tracking with you, any of that kind of saying, oh yeah, yeah, that's me. Well, we all hit them. I hit them often, you know, and that's why I look the way I look, but you don't have to.

You can avoid this. And speaking of looking the way you look, you know him, you love him. He's the Baron of the Board, the Sultan of Sound, the Earl of Engineering. He's my sidekick. He's the man who sets his clock back 37 minutes. He's John Butler, the Count of Mighty Disco, everyone. Oh, Peter, thank you so much.

That fantastic intro as always. And I, you know, I set my clocks back 37 minutes because that is just a, that's a prime time right there. That's just the way you roll. So that was my math joke for the day. All right, listen, speaking of math, John, I got to get this off my chest. All right.

Look, just calm down. All right. For three hours on, normally, you know, we don't get into politics on this show and there's a reason for that, but I'm going to swerve close to it tangentially speaking and I'm going to be, I'm going to put the gentle and tangential, but I'm going to swerve close to it because we have a lot of people running for president right now who are wanting Medicare for all or in the South, it's Medicare for all y'all. I heard Medicare for all y'all. I like that one.

I haven't heard it yet. Well, thank you very little. But here's the deal. This is a true story.

This happened to us. My wife who is disabled is on Medicare. And you know, I think Medicare has some really wonderful things about it. There are some very good things about Medicare, but it's not just the plan itself. It's the people who run the plan. You know, like when I, for example, you remember the Seinfeld episode about renting a car and he called and he had a reservation for the car, but they didn't keep the reservation.

They had, you know, they knew how to take the reservation, didn't know how to keep the reservation, which is really the most important part of the reservation. Sure, sure. So the car itself, when you rent the car is fine. There's really nothing wrong with that. But the people who have the rental car procedure sometimes can get a little bit wonky. Well, imagine that with Medicare. I mean, the government, when it runs something, when's the last, think about your best experience of the DMV. Yeah. And this is, it doesn't mean it's always going to be that way, but there is a very real danger of it becoming that way. The bigger it is, the more cumbersome it is to deal with them. So by the time you actually get to the products and services that you're contracting, you're exhausted from dealing with all the craziness of getting to the products and services.

And you can't fire them. No. And so I've, Gracie was on the phone. She had been trying to handle, we moved, you know, and so we moved and she called them and told everybody we moved and they said, no problem. She got another letter. She called them again in September, said, no problem. We got it. It's okay.

You're good. We got a letter in the mail and she opened it up on Friday night and it came to our new address and it says, you moved and you didn't call us and we haven't heard from you since September, which by the way, that was the time she called and they canceled part of her plan with Medicare. And I'm thinking, and so she was on the phone for three hours on Saturday. Then I got on the phone for an hour and a half after that. And then I was on a phone this morning with them before church for over an hour. And we still haven't got it all worked out yet. And we were transferred through all these different folks and it was just really unpleasant.

I mean really unpleasant. And so I'm listening to these politicians out there saying Medicare for all. And I'm thinking, do you have to live under that system? When you have a problem, do you call and get through quickly or do you have to go through the phone tree of death? And this is what concerns me a little bit. And so I would, I would ask you all as caregivers, and listen, by the way, feel free to weigh in on this 877-655-6755, 877-655-6755. We'll get to our regular schedule program, but I got to get this off of my chest, John, because it was really torquing me. This is personal. It was very personal. And I was like, this happened to you.

This happened to me and this morning and I had to go around and apologize to everybody in the church because I got up to lead the music this morning. And I said, look, I'm a little bit gnarly here and y'all just going to have to be family, but one should not spend over an hour talking to Medicare before coming to church to lead music. Write that down. Just write that down, okay? Just put that down somewhere. That's a helpful... You need to do that after the service. So you feel like you remind how to be a good godly person to the one on the other line. Well, you know, maybe I was learning how to be a good godly person to the Medicaid, but I was saying good God a lot, but it was... And I was like, come on, this is not brain surgery.

And so I've got to spend some time with it tomorrow working on it. And I was thinking about Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and all these kind of people, Medicare for all Medicaid, but these people don't live under Medicare. And they brought my wife. Now, this is where it gets personal. My wife, Gracie, all the things that I just rattled off that she has to deal with, they brought her to tears. She was so frustrated with it.

They brought her to tears. And I'm watching these people on the stage all talking about we're going to have Medicare for all. And I'm thinking, you know, we need to think through this because it's one thing for these politicians to say these things. It's another thing for them to live under the same things they say. You know, and I don't see them doing that.

I see them having what they want to have for themselves and the rest of us, you know, you eat this and in our mercy, we'll decide whether or not we'll let you microwave it. You know, and I'm thinking we can do better than this. Competition breeds innovation. And Shakespeare said that brevity is the soul of wit.

And when you call the Medicare helpline hotline and all that kind of stuff, I want you to report back to me how much brevity you experience and how much wit you experience. I mean, and it's not that they're not good people trying to do their job, but they are hamstrung by bureaucracies. Bureaucracies can't help themselves. They foster bureaucracies. They live to perpetuate themselves. It's kind of like the royal family in Great Britain.

They live only to perpetuate themselves. I'm sorry. Boy, I just went way out there, didn't I?

Yeah, you did. Now, we're going to get some phone calls from some royalists out there. And that's fine.

The crown comes on this month again, you know, season three at the crown. So I thought I'd throw that in. But you know, but bureaucracies, and I think sometimes that's the way it is with everything. And to be fair, to be fair, churches can be that way, too. Any institution.

Any organization. Yeah. Yeah. Wherever two or three gathered, there's problems. And, you know, and so but but the federal government just happens to be the biggest bureaucracy in town. And so it's going to be cumbersome.

So as you listen to these people running for president who are promising you, promising, promising you the moon, asking, first off, are they on it? You know, I mean, that's that's to me that they should not. It's like when Obamacare was passed. They didn't have to be on Obamacare.

OK. And so they're not they're not making themselves live by the same rules that the rest of us do. And so I struggle with that a lot. And I I kind of wonder if you do as caregivers.

You know, if you're taking care of somebody who's on Medicare or maybe you are, too, and with disability or whatever, do you struggle with it? And it's very it's it's cumbersome. So I just want to get that off my chest. Yeah. And this is this is the the thing about this is, is not that what this is and correct me if I'm wrong here, because what I'm what I'm hearing from you is not that this does not need to exist. It's that it needs to it does not need to be the only option.

And or yeah, it's something there's more nuanced thing. If it's the only gig in town. Then there will be no incentive for it to be better. Exactly. There's no competition. But then the very slow process of voting, you know.

Yeah. And so I'm a big fan of competition in the free market system. I think that we've gotten away from a lot of that in this country and in. But I listen to these politicians that they're promising. And Elizabeth Warren is saying, you know, her thing is going to be like fifty two trillion dollars. And to be fair, to be fair to her policy, her plan. I think that if if you divide it by one one thousand twenty fourth, it'll I'm here.

I'm with you. I know my powers are to know one one thousand twenty fourth is how much. Never mind.

She took a test. I know. I'm aware it's making a joke.

But you only get that way because of file. Go ahead. All right. Be careful of politicians who promise you things. First off, it's not coming out of their wallet.

OK, let's let's be real clear on that. And I'm a big fan of of asking these folks, what did you pay in Texas? Because if you want us to pay more, then why aren't you volunteering? You can write a check to the IRS. As far as I'm aware, you can write a check to the IRS. Did you know that, John? I think you can.

I think you can just send a check. Dear IRS, I would like to pay more taxes because I think we should pay more on the billion is and the million is. Love, Bernie Sanders. And yet but they're not doing it. And so do you kind of have to wonder is that same principle going on with health care? And also, I'm a little bit suspect of people who promise a lot about health care and talk a lot about health care, but have no skin in the game of health care. You know, that's just me. Call me silly.

All right, silly. But I like to hear from people who actually have spent some time in this. And I look at all the political figures out there that are talking a lot about health care. How many of them physicians? How many of them are nurses? How many of them have worked in a hospital?

How many of them have been consumers of any kind of lengthy, credible experience, have a special needs child or whatever? You know, that's kind of thing. And they may very well have these experiences and have some really good ideas about it. But hearing about it would be really nice and would lend some credibility to their position. I think it does. And I think it's okay.

I think, in fact, that would be important, you know. But don't talk about it, you know, as if you somehow magically sat around in the teachers' lounge and came up with a great idea of what we could do if we were in charge. I really like that metaphor, the teachers' lounge, because that's all I get to say about that. People spend a lot of time there in the faculty lounge and they're thinking, this is what we think we should do. And yet, are they actually out there doing it?

And are they spending time in it? So I'm sorry, I kind of ranted a little bit, but it's been pressing on my brain and I watch this and I listen to it and I can't help dealing with it for the past 48 hours. Yes, I have. And I have.

We've logged in a lot of hours doing it. And this is the reality a lot of caregivers face, dealing with insurance companies. Now, I have dealt with, Gracie's changed policy seven times since we've been married. And that's been since 86. And she's never had a gap in coverage in anything.

And that's saying something. And you talk about pre-existing conditions, she's got them. And I have worked with insurance companies. I've fought with them.

I've appealed stuff and all that. But the thing is, I've always had going for me with insurance companies is that they tended to be somewhat local, you know. If I was dealing with... Well, they're state, they're division by state, right? Or most of the time during the course of... Correct. And so I could at least, they were within driving distance to be able to go down there and rant and rave.

But when you're dealing with Medicare, I mean, you've lost that community connectivity. It's too big. It's so big that you can't... Well, it's a Leviathan to make a weird reference. Well, hey, you know.

But it's so big. And so I wonder to myself, if a lot of other caregivers are struggling with this and what they've done about it. I have been successful in this industry of dealing with this thing with Gracie, but it also, I have quite a bit of white hair. And it'll age you.

It'll frustrate you and so forth. 877-655-6755, 877-655-6755. This is hope for the caregiver. This is the show for the family caregiver. Real quick, let's do our caregiver tip of the day. Our caregiver tip of the day. It is just on it, man.

Like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat. Our caregiver tip of the day is... I've totally changed the subject. All right, we put the Medicare thing out there, John. We've done it. Let's put it in a box. Let's move on. Okay. Thank you. All right.

This entire nation breathes a sigh of relief. Lord help this man. But our caregiver tip of the day, and this came about when I was talking to a fellow caregiver this week. You might like this one, John. I've never run this by you. I try not to run anything by you. I really don't.

He's like, I want John to come in here and add the next hour. Our caregiver tip of the day is write it down. Write it down. Write it down.

And by that, I don't necessarily mean just a list of things. If you're feeling something, if you're dealing with something, write it down. Journal.

Write your thoughts down. If you've learned something, if you've failed at something, write it down. I'm a big fan of just writing it down. And that's how I came to write my blogs and my books and so forth.

Just started jotting down. And I've had a lot of caregivers who want to tell their story, and they should tell their story. I don't know that necessarily... Even if no one reads it. Exactly. But I would really encourage you to write it down.

Even if you just carry a Post-it note with you, and then you have a stack of Post-it notes of stuff on it. Okay, okay, okay. Let me cut in real quick. Go ahead. All right.

So a stack of Post-it notes is certainly better than nothing. However... I know. I know. I know. I know. All right.

All right. So I carry around a really... I went out and shopped for my notebook that I jot things down in.

Because this is something that is very near and dear to my heart. I write things down constantly throughout the day. And this is something that helped me out. And I don't follow it exactly, but it's called bullet journaling. I don't know if you've ever heard of this.

I have not, but it sounds... This is good. Absolutely. It is just a way of organizing your thoughts. And a kind of a half shorthand, but not really. It's fairly simple. You put a dot by certain things, and you cross things off in certain ways. And you can just make up your own way of doing it, of course. But if you take a look at... You can just Google bullet journaling, and see kind of the philosophy behind it.

And it's a lot of what you're talking about. It's just... Write it down. You can be an odd thought. It can be your shopping list, but you just...

It's just by today, what am I going to do today to find fulfillment or make my life easier or just accomplish tasks or anything. Maybe you heard a poem or a quote or a song lyric or a scripture verse, something that meant something to you, and you don't want to forget it, and you maybe want to chew on it a little bit later. Exactly. And there's a notation for that. This is the thing. So I encourage you to check out bullet journaling. Yeah, absolutely.

And that's our caregiver tip of the day. Write it down, because you know what? You're going through these things in life, and it's okay to leave a trail, not only for yourself but for others. And it's okay to do that. In fact, I would encourage it. A lot of folks, it's very cathartic to be able to write things down. And sometimes people get a little bit... You overestimate what this is going to be. You don't have to write the next big book.

If you want to, that's fine, but don't put that kind of pressure on yourself. But if you do find out that you're writing a book, that this thing is compiled and this thing has some value, then there are people out there that'd be glad to look with you through it and help you edit it and see if you got something there. Here's another thing. You may not be very good at writing things down.

I get that. But you could always record it. And then there are services out there you could use to transcribe it.

And they're not very expensive. And so then you have a written journal of it, even if you don't feel comfortable just writing down or it's just laborious for you to write or whatever. But you can always record it into it and send that recording to places that will transcribe it. And then all of a sudden, you got a written and audio journey.

And you never know. Your grandkids may want to know what it was like for you to do what you're doing right now. That may be important to them. So, you know, that's something that I would encourage all of you as caregivers to do. Your thoughts are important. And sadly, in the journey that we have as caregivers, those thoughts get somehow pushed to the back of the room.

You say overlooked. Yeah. And I would encourage you to, the more you write down, by the way, see, you're doing two things. One of them is you're organizing your thoughts, but then you're also training yourself to let your heart speak. See, we caregivers lose ourselves in someone else's story.

But what if you were writing your own? Yeah, you see what I'm going with that? So that way you're not losing yourself in this. You know, try to count how many people have asked about you as a caregiver over the last month versus your loved one. That's the kind of the way it works for us as caregivers.

We get kind of overlooked. And you don't have to blame somebody else for this. We take control of our own story. And part of that is just writing it down. Write it down. And maybe you like to write poetry. Maybe you just like to journal. Maybe you just like what John was talking about, bullet journaling.

Maybe you just want to write down a particular phrase or scripture that you heard that day. Maybe you have some thing that just speaks to you or whatever. And this is the other thing that you talk about this an awful lot.

And this can kind of be a two-for-one special on the caregiver tip of the day. If you're writing it down, it's doing the same thing as just waiting. You have to stop. Active waiting. There you go. Why am I talking?

Waiting is an action step, by the way. But you know where I heard this, though? And I'll give credit here before we go to the bottom of the hour.

But you know who I heard this from? Jeff Foxworthy. And he carries a notepad with him all the time and he's always writing down things that just strike him as kind of funny. And I started doing that too. Just things are just funny because I look back at it and it makes me laugh. My wife says things sometimes that are just hilarious. And I write those things down because they're funny.

I mean, I may just do a whole collection of Gracie-isms. I mean, she was looking at somebody the other day. She said, they look like they've been just struck with stupid. I had no idea where she came up with that, but I just wrote it down.

Well, they were not cursed with an overabundance of intelligence. Well, he just acted like he was just struck with stupid. And then there was another one she said, you don't bite a gift horse in the mouth. She mixes up her metaphors.

I was going to say, it's like a screen door on a battleship, you know. You don't bite a gift. And so I think these are funny things. So I write them down.

It's just funny to me. But Jeff used to do that and write it down. And there's a post-it note. His wife told the story that he had written down one of his first redneck jokes, which was, if you have an entire salad bowl collection that says cool whip, and that was his first big redneck. Now you're going for preaching to Medlin now, all right? Well, I know, but he had written it on a post-it note and she had found it and she framed it and put it in the kitchen. And he said, why are you putting it there? She said, because it paid for my house.

Yeah. Hey, this is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver.

If you want to be a part of it, 877-655-6755, 877-655-6755, hopeforthecaregiver.com. This is Peter Rosenberger. Don't go away.

We'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger. And in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up.

That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Oh, I tell you, I love that voice.

That is my wife, Gracie, singing Rejoice Evermore. That's coming off of her new CD that's coming out here and be out here very, very, very, very soon. How soon?

Very soon. 877-655-6755. If you want to be a part of the show, this is Hope for the Caregiver.

I'm Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. By the way, speaking of Gracie, I got to tell you this, John, about her Gracieisms and so forth. She does these things. You know, you think she has had a very hard life. I mean, she got hurt when she was 17. Do you still have Alexa, by the way?

I do, but just take off. She's had a hard life. Don't get ahead of me, John. She's had a very hard life, but she's not miserable. You know, whereas things have happened to her that are very sad and very tragic, but she's not miserable. And she's quite passionate about everything. In fact, the running argument she has with, well, I feel very strongly about that. I said, you feel very strongly about everything. I mean, you feel very strongly about Cheerios.

You know, I mean, but she's incredibly aggressive about life. Okay. So we got Alexa, Amazon Alexa that you just mentioned. Oh, okay. I really didn't mean to cut you off.

Is that right? That's all right. I know how you are, John. So we got Alexa and we got it a while back and it really helps with her. She likes to listen to music and then as they're ordering and all that kind of stuff. And I'm not terribly worried about Gracie and our private information. Sure. With Alexa.

Let me, let me explain. Let me go on because my wife has running arguments with Alexa and it's very helpful for her, but you know, she can turn on the lights without having to get in her wheelchair and run up, you know, to roll over and turn the lights on or things such as that. And a lot of different things she uses for, but you have to speak to Alexa just right. You can't just kind of use Gracie-isms or vernacular. You have to, there's a, there's a language that you have to speak. I think it's called English. No, it's, it's Alexa's language.

So you have to speak Amazon. So I come home one day and there's my wife and she wasn't wearing her legs. And so she was in her wheelchair and she was just fuming.

I mean, just smoke coming out of her ears. And she said, I'm tired of you know who. Now you can't say your name cause she'll turn on.

So it's the speaker who must not be named. Okay. So, so she said, I'm tired of this. I am just, I've just had it with you know who I'm going to trade her in for Google.

You know, I mean, it's just, it's just fuming about it. And I turned over and looked at the Alexa device and I said, Alexa, how are you feeling? And Alexa, hand to God, Alexa said, to be honest, it's been a pretty rough day.

Oh no. Gracie broke Amazon. I can't imagine her interacting with, cause I know Gracie and I love Gracie, but her interacting with digital.

And of course, Alexa said, because of you know who, she didn't want to say Gracie's name. So it's, you know, that's, that's just part of my life. And speaking of which, you know what I'm going to do, John, we just played that, that clip for that song. I think we got time for this. I got a song that's going to be on Gracie's record and you can get the digital copy of it right now. Okay. At our website at hopeforthecaregiver.com. I was going to say, yeah, yeah. Where's that at?

Hope for the Caregiver. You can actually order it from Amazon. You can go to Alexa and stream and play it. It's on iTunes. It's already, the digital copy is already out.

The hard CD is going to be coming out here this month, but this is out. And this is a duet of Gracie with Johnny Erickson Tada. And it's the Andre Krauts tune Through It All. And I thought you all might enjoy hearing this today. And because I think for us as caregivers, we need to be reminded of the journey for us.

So enjoy, listen to Gracie and Johnny. I've had many tears and sorrows. I've had questions for tomorrow. There have been times I didn't know right from wrong. But in every situation God gave blessed consolation that my trials only come to make me strong. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word.

Now I've been to lots of places, and I have seen so many faces. There have been times I felt so all alone. Oh, but in my lonely hours, yes, those precious lonely hours, Jesus lets me know that I am His own. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word. I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys.

I thank Him for the storms. He's brought me through. So if I'd never had a problem, I would not know Jesus could solve them. I'd never know what faith in God could do. That's why through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word. I've learned to depend upon His Word. I love that. I just love that. That is Gracie, my wife, and Joni Eareckson-Tada, her dear friend, and the piano player, I guess, did all right on that too, Jon, didn't he? Man, yeah, I got some notes. I played that one, so, you know, I think.

But that's going to be on her new record. It's called Resilient, and we're waiting on the, just all we're waiting on right now is the front cover. Oh, I wonder if he's taking care of that.

I won't mention any names of somebody who is working on the front cover, but he's really tall, and he has a great radio voice. So that would be you, Jon. I'll have it for you tomorrow before noon Central. He says that. Okay, it's on here. Yeah, it's on record.

That's why I said it. I said it on record. All right, if that's the case, then I'm going to do something. If you want a special copy of this record, okay, we'll have it ready. As soon as we get this, we're ready to go into production. 877-655-6755. I'm not going to do a lot of them, but I'll do a few, because Jon said he'll have it by noon tomorrow.

I'll have it by noon tomorrow Central. Oh, God bless you, Jon. At the very least, close of business, but all right. Oh, now he's already backing up here. Well, he was talking about politics earlier.

If I don't break a promise, I don't feel like I'm doing my job. When you listen to that song, you've got to remember, those of you who don't know Gracie's story, or some of you may not even know Joni Erickson taught a story, but the two women singing that have nearly 90 years of severe disabilities combined. How would you think about that? Joni got hurt in 67 when she was 17.

Gracie got hurt in 83 when she was 17, and they're singing this song through it all. I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God.

I've got to ask you as a caregiver, how are you feeling? Does that help you? Does that anchor you? Does that let you know, okay, wait a minute. If they have found God to be faithful in that level of trauma, what about you?

How about you? Are you willing to take just a tiny step of faith to think that, you know what, maybe God is working in my situation too. Maybe I could find Him faithful too in this, and He can. He hasn't abandoned you.

He can't let go of you any more than He did with Joni and Gracie. Here they are. They're still here.

They're still doing it. Joni, of course, has authored I don't know how many dozens of books, and I did a podcast interview with them the other day, Jon, with her folks. It'll be out this month because this is National Caregiver Awareness Month, and it'll be out, and then she started a program called Wheels for the World, and they do wheelchairs overseas all over the world, and they kind of mentored us along when we did Standing with Hope. After Gracie lost her legs, she wanted to use prosthetics as a way of reaching her fellow amputees, and she envisioned Standing with Hope, and what we do is we provide quality limbs and materials, and we purchase things. We provide donated used prosthetic limb components like feet, knees, pylons, and screws, and adapters, and all that kind of stuff, and we send all this over to West Africa. We've been working with Ghana Health Service in the country of Ghana and the Republic of Ghana for many years since 2005, and we teach and equip them to help build legs for their own people. We have patients that come as far away from Nigeria, and all the used prosthetic limbs we collect from around the country go to a local prison in Tennessee where inmates volunteer to help disassemble those legs, and they do it in the same shop where they help refurbish wheelchairs for Johnny's program, same shop, and it's run by CoreCivic.com. It's a great partnership where inmates, it's one of their many faith-based programs that they have, and inmates participate in this as a way of, you know, just their own recovery and rehabilitation process, and they love it. They have to, you know, apply for it, and they have to earn that ability to do so.

It's a great program. Two women with significant disabilities, Johnny's got quadriplegic, quadriplegia, she's been through breast cancer several times, but she's pulled through it. Gracie's 80-plus surgeries and relentless pain and all that kind of stuff, and yet they're singing through it all. So I ask you, are you willing to take just a tiny step of faith?

I'm not asking you to launch a ministry or write a book or anything. I'm just asking you, would you be willing to accept the fact that God knows your name, hasn't forgot about you, as you're a caregiver for someone who may be treating you poorly, somebody who may be abusing you, verbally cussing at you while you're trying to change their depends, you know, while you're having to clean up after them. And it's easy to think that somehow that you've been forgotten, but I'm saying to you, you haven't been. And I know it's painful, I know it's hard, and that's why Gracie and Johnny sang that song through it all, to be able to care for you. Let's go to the phones. Trinity, our dear friend Trinity is in South Carolina, and John... Is that the best Carolina? It is the best Carolina. John, be nice.

Oh, I was, I merely asked a very academic question that has an objective answer. Well, it is. And by the way, I forgot to say something about standing with hope, standingwithhope.com. We have two program areas, the prosthetic limb outreach and this caregiver radio show. If you want to be a part of this for the wounded and those who care for them, take a moment, go out and see how it's the end of the year tax deductible gift, standingwithhope.com.

We'd love to have you be a part of it. Trinity, what's on your heart and mind today? How are you feeling? I'm feeling much better than you have been today because I haven't had the fight with Medicare. But you know, I'm a social worker and when I hear about the trials you and Gracie have been through this weekend, I'm thinking about the people who the person that are taking care of can't participate.

They're up to their eyeballs in being a good caregiver and getting the laundry done, the meals together and everything. They don't have time to be on the phone that long with Medicare. And I think, and I could be wrong for once, I don't think Medicare will accept a call from somebody else on your behalf. Not easily. Right. So it just breaks my heart. I mean, Medicare has a lien against me because they feel they have paid for something another insurance company should have paid. But I just say that to my lawyer. I've been there with them before. There were some things that when Gracie, because Gracie had an accident, but it was long before she got on Medicare because she had an accident, they thought that somebody else had been paying and they were withholding stuff. And then it took forever to detangle that. And I think, back me up on this and you tell me, I think that their products and services are good in the sense of what they provide. But I think that it's getting through the bureaucracy to get to that product and service is what causes people to just go barking mad.

Well, to coin a phrase, these are process crimes. Well, I know a friend of mine had private insurance on her and her health. And when he became eligible for Medicare, they didn't take it because she had him covered on her private insurance.

When she, when his health problems escalated and she tried to get him on Medicare, she had to pay a penalty because they didn't take it in the beginning, which I have no idea the logic to that. You know, I don't either. But when it comes to the drug component, the donut hole, we could do a whole show about the donut hole where they don't cover. But anyway, I just wanted to say my heart just aches.

Or the rabbit hole. Well, you know, and I appreciate that. I really do. And by the way, you're on the list to get the CD.

Once we have the final artwork done, I won't mention the names. Okay, so John, I have a question. Is it close of business? I have many answers.

Some of them are even correct. Is it close of business Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Pacific, or Island Time? You know, Hawaii closes a little later. I think John operates by the kingdom of Tonga time. I have a standing invitation to the kingdom. Yes, you do. We've had Tongans on the show.

And we're big in Tonga and Prince Edward Island. Absolutely. And then some well, and I will say to this that time is an illusion.

Lunchtime, doubly so. So you can just, you two are wonderful. Ed is wonderful.

I complimented him when I called in. And Gracie. I'm sorry, guys. She beat you guys. She's just phenomenal. Well, if it were a competition, I'd be I would concede, but I want to recap.

That's why we have the electoral college. I got to tell you something before you leave. All right. And this is not going to mean anything to a lot of people unless you read this particular online magazine. Okay. Okay. They're not they're not, I'm not endorsing them and they're not endorsing the show.

I'm just simply saying I love them. And it's called the Babylon Bee. And it's the greatest satirical magazine out there, I think. Their motto is fake news you can trust.

Well, guess what? One of us that is on the line right now is working very hard to be a headline, published headline person for the Babylon Bee. I'm working hard at it. I have I have written.

John, I'm so proud of you. I have written numerous ones and I've gotten lots of votes, but I haven't been able to just get over the hump to get actually out there in front of the public eye. But I came up with one last night and I want to tell you what it is, because I thought it was funny.

Nancy Pelosi demands that the Capitol Cafe include impeached cobbler on the menu. I thought it was funny. Clearly, OK, I've got a lot of work to do. All right. Hey, look, I told you at the beginning, the caregiver tip of the day is to write.

It didn't have to be right. Well, you didn't say write well. No, you add yours and true to form. You know, we'll see when it comes to writing every night. The last thing I do is I write in my gratefulness journal all the things that happened that day that I'm grateful for. Sometimes it might be that I remembered to vacuum. So so it isn't fancy stuff, you know, but every night I write out what I managed to do because, John, you and Peter both know, but I had a car accident and I have a brain injury, so I'm not always very productive.

But I do listen to Peter shows every week. That is the high point of my week, which leads you to believe that's there. My brain just had a collision with my mouth and I better stop. I know you better stop it unless it has a button to flip you.

It has a big button. All right. I will give you one more headline that I pitched again.

It was not successful. I did get votes. Maybe some of you will get this. Maybe some of you will not.

But I put it on there. Vindicated George Lucas now feels ready for Jar Jar Binks to enter 2020 election. Why you got to be me to George?

Don't kick him out. No, it was Jar Jar Binks. It's a little obscure. And for those of you don't even know anything about that, I'm sorry, but it was it made me laugh. And again, the whole point is to write. It doesn't have to be successful. It doesn't have to be brilliant or pithy. But and a little bit about it is to get in the habit of writing because it made me laugh.

Yeah. And that's the thing is your and look, let's say let's say let's say that the Jar Jar joke wasn't wasn't good, although it was objectively speaking. This is clearly a fantastic piece of humor that's fallen out. You're only saying that because Peter pays you, John.

For this kind of flattery, I deserve a raise. So or at least a new title, at least a new title. But it's not necessarily about even writing. It eventually will be and it should be all the time like you're yes, it's about writing, but it's also about building the habit of writing. And it's about building the habit of slowing down and assessing your day and getting and becoming grateful right before you go to bed.

And that is a good thing. Yeah, it's being in the habit of doing that. But there's also another aspect is handwriting stimulates the brain in a different way than using the keyboard does. And I confess manual dexterity. I confess I'm not much of a handwriter. If you've seen my penmanship, you would agree.

But I do. I do play the piano. So that keeps my dexterity. Don't talk to me about manual dexterity. I mean, you get those octave plus two reaches here.

Well, I do continue to and I practice quite a bit on the piano. But it is important for us. I think I go back to what you said, Trinity. I thought that was really wonderful. A grateful to go to bed grateful.

How many caregivers go to bed wired and amped, frustrated, fearful, feeling guilty, feeling struggling on all levels. And I think, you know, if you just write down something you're grateful for that day. And it's not going to make you like, we never feel one emotion at a time. It's not, you're still going to feel all of those things at the end of the day that affected you.

There's going to be sorrow, there's going to be frustration, there's going to be isolation and all of these things. The idea is to add grateful to that mix. And I think that's a very wise word, you know, and it doesn't have to be something great, grateful. But it does have to be something that's tangible. I think just vacuuming that day.

I heard somebody say the other day. Well, that means you picked up all the stuff off the floor too. It's more well, but I heard somebody say, I cleaned the microwave and I'm grateful that the microwave is clean.

You know, I mean, little things like that, write it down. If you, if it has any kind of value to it all, write it down as a caregiver, just, just try it, you know, and if you, you know, if it doesn't work, then I'll give you your money back for what you paid for that advice. Hey, this is Hope for the Caregiver.

This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. We are grateful for you. There's so much more at hopeforthecaregiver.com. Check it out. Subscribe to the podcast, sign up for the e-letter. All these things are free. Okay.

Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Today's a great day to start. We'll see you next week. This is Peter Rosenberger.