"I can't...."

My mother use to say, "I can't never could do anything." She was correct. I hate those words. I cringe when they come out of my children's mouths. You will see from this post that I am very adverse to speaking them myself and I don't even like the thought to rattle around in my own head. Lately I seem to hear "I can't" everywhere.

This morning "I can't walk down the hall!" came out of the mouth of a young patient with a wound infection. I do have some sympathy for this woman. She has a chronic disease and she has had a difficult pregnancy. Three difficult pregnancies to be exact. Yet, she refuses to do almost anything to help herself and I am beginning to feel that she will never be well enough to go home. She needs to be up moving to prevent blood clots and pneumonia.

"I can't never could do anything" is connected to my comments about entitlement programs and how they create entitled people. The unemployment rate is very high but it seems most of my clientele are trying not to work. We are in a state where it seems rather simple to qualify for Medicaid coverage, yet no one wants to make the effort to walk 2 blocks and turn in the paper work.

There are two clinics with in three blocks which will provide services for Medicaid recipients, but you have to have a photo ID and a Medicaid card. (The photo ID is because several individuals have been caught using the same card.) I realize this all takes time and a small amount of money for bus fare.

"I can't..." are not words heard in conjunction with "get my nails done" or "pay the cell phone bill."