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May 07, 2015 at 03:01 AM
It is Disability Insurance Awareness Month and the video below from Guardian got me thinking: Why is it that we always think that nothing will happen to us? That, maybe, we’ll be here, in this same physical condition and state, until we’re 90 years old?
The video says that when people hear the word “disability,” they associate the term as something that you are born with, rather than a life event that will impact your ability to work.
And it continues, “Disabilities are often caused by illness or injury at any age. One in four workers entering the workplace will be disabled before they retire,” Guardian’s video states.
Those are scary numbers. They’re meant to make viewers stop what they’re doing and think: Am I covered in case of an accident? And while I don’t believe myself to be an alarmist, it only took two seconds to remember a few stories from friends who have been partially “disabled” due to unexpected accidents. (So I guess the video worked.)
One of them went skiing and fell, then had problems with an injury to both a knee and coccyx. My friend had to work from home for about two full weeks because the knee had to be elevated at all times. Plus, my friend had to go on numerous occasions to acupuncturists, physical therapists, chiropractors and other doctors as part of the recovery.
My other friend slipped on ice and broke the left humerus. At the hospital, they had to insert a few screws. This was almost 10 years ago, but her arm was never the same. A few months ago, my friend started having a lot of pain where the screws were and went back to the hospital: they had to operate again because of an infection. My friend was hospitalized for about two weeks and spent another few days at home, recuperating.
