Thankful for the precious gift of life

Thanksgiving is a feast in celebration of the harvest. It is a day of gathering together, not only for food, but to enjoy the fellowship of family and friends. It is a day to give thanks for another year of life. That last thought and others have been going through my mind lately. This year has been one of great changes in my life — some good, some life-threatening. Yet somehow I am still among the living.

With every heartbeat and breath taken I’m very thankful to be alive. I got a reminder how much I love life this summer when I nearly had both taken away from me. I had a heart attack that landed me in the hospital for nearly a month. Open-heart surgery with a quintuple bypass twist saved my life.

So, obviously, I’m very, very thankful to the medical staffs of Mat-Su Regional and Alaska Regional hospitals. Hey, without their help we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Another item on my thankful list is actually a side effect of that heart attack. I was a smoker for more than 30 years. Well, being cooped up in a hospital, on a non-smoking campus, wired up the kazoo for 17 days cured me of that problem. (I couldn’t leave the floor I was on without lighting up alarms.) No fooling. I have been smoke-free since Aug. 5. It took me a week to air out and wash everything I own and wear to get rid of the stench of cigarette smoke. Not the best way to quit that habit. Believe me, there are much better methods around to quit than the path I took.

This next item of interest is sort of related to the first two: my eyesight. It was being affected by age, type 2 diabetes, and that pesky heart attack. I am now the proud owner of. The glasses have restored my vision to something like I had 20 years ago. I can see clearly now, just like that song from the ’70s.

Now, thanks must go out to the Veterans Administration for funding and support of my medical needs. They did the job they are supposed to do. There were a couple of glitches to be honest. It helps to have a U.S. Senator on speed dial. Over all they did a good job supporting this veteran, and continue to do so in my recovery.

This got me thinking about what would have happened if I didn’t have that VA support. Since I don’t have insurance it would have been a disaster and most likely a lethal one. If I did survive, I would have enormous debt for the rest of my life. That is happening to far too many Americans and that is so wrong. Life-saving medical care should be a basic human right and not a privilege.

Medical care should not force the patient into life-long debt seeking treatment. And yet I know of close friends and family who are reeling from astronomical medical bills because they had no insurance or poor coverage to cover their needs. And they were not rich by any means.

Some people shy away from doctors because of this and end up paying with their lives from diseases that could have been treated. This is taking place in one of the greatest countries on this earth.

It is a known fact that when it comes to medical care on the world scale, we are far from No. 1. We rate down there in the double digits. That has got to change. And it is changing, slowly. The Affordable Care Act is a good first step. It does have flaws and they do need to be addressed. We need to look at how some of those other countries take care of their citizens. Take some lessons from the top rated countries and apply them here.

I know there is opposition to anything about this act and there has been since day one. Sadly, I have heard absolutely no suggestions for a replacement plan coming from the opposition who want to repeal the ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare. They just keeping repeating the same thing over and over; “repeal Obamacare.” That won’t resolve any of the problems we are facing. Come up with a viable option, a real working plan, and put it out there for discussion and debate. Who knows? Maybe this will yield a good solution.

As for Thanksgiving itself? I am going to celebrate it with my family; enjoy some turkey, stuffing and gravy along with the rest of the holiday fixings. I will savor the day, take in a football game on the tube, call up some family members down in the Lower 48 and swap stories. This is the start of the holiday season and I’m raring to go. Life is a precious gift and I’m very thankful to be alive.

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.