I spent a week in the hospital this month! No, it was not planned. I went to bed fine and woke up with a bad stomach ache that wouldn’t go away. Since I still had my appendix, I thought that might be the culprit. My wife took me to the ER at Grandview and after a CT scan, they confirmed my suspicions. I was admitted to the hospital about 3 AM and at 3 PM I went into surgery. That was where the real problems began!
After I woke up, I learned that my appendix had perforated and that I would need to stay in the hospital “awhile”, so I could receive IV antibiotics. I also learned that because my intestines had been disturbed during surgery, they shut down and now I would have to contend with an “N/G” tube for a few days to give my innards time to recover. I couldn’t eat or drink anything for six days. I was on IV fluids and IV antibiotics the entire time I was there. Luckily everything started back up once the tube was removed and I was discharged minus an appendix and 10 lbs
I didn’t need anyway.
In my job as an attorney, I meet people more often than I would like to admit, who have the attitude that “they don’t want to sign a Will or a Power of Attorney now- they will wait until they need them to sign everything”.
I can tell you right now that I was in no mood or state of mind to sign a Will or Power of Attorney while I was in the hospital! Lucky for me mine is done and in my office already. But it occurred to me that people who assume they will have advance warning are deluding themselves. We can go to bed fine and then a few hours later find ourselves in the hospital, hooked up to machines and basically bedridden. Good luck getting a lawyer to make a hospital call on short-notice!
For those of you who are deluded enough to think you have the time to get your affairs in order at the last minute, let me be the voice of reason: You don’t! No one truly knows when crisis might occur. What possible harm does it do to already have your affairs in order? None, that’s the harm it does. Meanwhile, NOT having your affairs in order puts additional strain on your family, both emotional and financial. Why would you take that risk?
Do your loved ones a favor- go ahead and finalize your Will, Power of Attorney and all the healthcare documents now, while you have your mental and physical capacity. You can always change them as circumstances change but at least you have them in place if you are unfortunate and have a crisis occur. No one will fault you for having your plans in place but I can guarantee you that if you don’t, people will wonder why you waited too long.
Call us to learn more. Having a Will in place saves your family a lot of money. Having a Power of Attorney in place saves your family literally thousands of dollars down the road, depending upon your condition. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you are saving money by not having these documents. You aren’t. You are exposing your family to needless legal expense and delays. If that is how you want to be remembered, don’t do anything. If, on the other hand, you want to be remembered as someone who took care of their loved ones, I encourage you to take action now while you still can.
- 2023 The Alabama Elder Care Law Firm, LLC
205/390-0101 www.ElderLawAlabama.com