Murray Family Day 4 Thoughts
[A number of people at the United Way offices are taking the Hunger Challenge this week. The Murray family (mom, dad, and two kids) will be guest-blogging about their experience here. Today, we hear Peter Murray's perspective.]
Day 4 of the Hunger Challenge is nearly in the books, and my thoughts today have turned mainly to my health. As an insulin-dependent diabetic (I inject five times per day), this week has presented a unique set of…well, challenges beyond just trying not to think about being hungry. I’ve done pretty well on that front, actually. I feel like we’re still eating pretty well as a family. In fact, given all the planning we did leading up this week we may be eating a little bit better (or healthier, perhaps) than we would normally. Certainly, more thought has gone into portion control as tonight’s dinner will most likely be tomorrow’s lunch. One of the biggest realizations I’ve come to is just how much “grazing” happens in the workplace. I’m never really hungry because somebody usually has some sort of little snack at their desk, or there are some leftovers from a meeting that someone has left in the lunchroom. A perk of employment, I suppose – which leads me back to where I originally started.
Being employed affords me the relative luxury of healthcare. There are, of course, some out-of-pocket costs associated with healthcare, and as a diabetic these costs are fairly regular and budgeted for. Today I picked up 12 weeks worth of supplies. This includes: two types of insulin, two types of syringe, and blood-glucose monitoring test strips. Co-pay amount for these prescriptions – roughly $240 dollars. Or $20 for the week. Or 72% of my allowed food budget for the week. Now, I had already counted on adjusting my insulin intake this week because I knew I wasn’t going to be eating as much. We also didn’t factor in any emergency sugar supply (fancy term for LifeSavers) into the budget in case my blood sugar dropped drastically. That’s fine; I’m not going to put myself needlessly at risk for the sake of awareness, so if I need the sugar I’ll get it.
But what it really got me thinking about was the choices and sacrifices people have to make who are subsisting on this kind of budget. I honestly don’t know how they can make the choices they need to make on a daily basis if it comes down to buying food for themselves or family or paying for the medication to keep themselves alive. What choice do they have? I wish I had an answer.
[...] The Murray Family thought about their daily spending habits on necessities like health care and how it affects their overall budget: “I honestly don’t know how they can make the choices they need to make on a daily basis if it comes down to buying food for themselves or family or paying for the medication to keep themselves alive.” [...]
The Murray family makes a great point that the difficulty we have faced doing this hunger chappenge spills over into every other facet of life for those who live on this budget in reality. Taking this challenge does allow us a glimpse of the limitations and sacrifices that people all over the state are making, but we can never really undertand that difficulty that this type of budget presents in all areas of life.
As a mother of two small children, I can’t imagine having to choose between dinner or medication for my children or buying necessary clothes for one child over the other when they are both growing. My family is by no means wealthy, but I do take for granted that when someone in my family needs something I don’t hesitate to provide it.
Leave your response!
Join us for our Spirit of Caring Celebration!
Categories
Pages
Archives
Our Tweets
Our Videos
This inspirational video premiered at the 2010 Uni...
Komo News personality Brian Calvert talks about ta...
Give and ask 10 of your friends to do the same...
Our Flickr