英语高级口语eLsson27.docVIP

Lesson 27???????????????? Is the Prospect of Growing Old a Bleak One???????????????????????????????????????? Text????????????????? The Prospect of Growing OId Is Horrifying??? My father has an organic brain disease. Its Parkinsons disease, and in his case it has led to the additional trauma of Parkinsonian dementia. He is in and out of reality. At times, he is as clever as can be--until he sees snakes or space stations or trucks in his room.??? My mother and I together could no longer handle him at home. He required physical assistance for every move and his behavior became too unpredictable. At home, he never slept and neither did we. He also suffers from a narrowing of his spinal column, which pinches the nerves in his back and leaves him unable to find a painless position in bed. ??? We brought him to the hospital, where he stayed for seven weeks, until its utilization review board decided he no longer needed hospital care. They kicked him out.??? We put him in a nursing home, recommended as top of the line, with one nursing aide for every 15 patients(if everyone shows up for work). My father cannot feed himself nor get to and from the bathroom. One nurses aide with 15 patients cannot attend to his needs. ??? So my mother spends seven to eight hours each day at the nursing home. My father cries, yells and does all he knows to keep her there. He thinks he is home and cant understand why she leaves him each evening. He thinks she has other men.??? He tells her she is boring a hole in his heart. She cries. The nursing home costs $ 45, 000 per year. My father is lucky: Unlike most Americans, he has a decent union pension. But his pension, added to his Social Security paymet, puts him over the income eligibility levei for Medicaid in Florida. Not only is he disqualified from receiving Medicaid itself, his insurance only pays for claims certified by Medicaid. ??? None of the diseases afflicting my father are fatal. He is 69 years old, and both his parents