When Governor Whitmer signed executive order 2020-17 on March 21st, 2020 it changed my families lives forever. She put my Mom in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
My family has been forever affected by Covid-19. We, however, are not a statistic. Currently, none of us have had Covid-19. We’re not a case or a death. We don’t fit into a chart. We’re a story that’s not being talked about.
Mom had three intensive surgeries from March 2017 to March 2019 removing meningiomas (non-cancerous tumors) that kept growing around her spine.
After returning home from each surgery she went to an outpatient physical therapy facility twice a week, massages once a week, and acupuncture every other week. Those were vital to her staying out of a wheelchair. Five months after rehabbing from the March 2019 surgery she could scoot around with a walker and drive again.
That Woman From Michigan Shows Up
When Governor Whitmer closed all outpatient occupational therapy, physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture facilities with the executive order it put a halt on Moms recovery.
Three weeks after the order in mid April Mom calls saying she was not getting around well. I went to see her. It was evident as soon as I walked in.
Her Dr. and surgeon tell her to get an MRI. The tumor wasn’t back but vertebrae in her upper back had shifted forward which were now pressing on the spinal cord. Mom was losing feeling in her feet.
Her surgeon wanted to do surgery immediately and fix the hardware he put in a year ago to get Mom’s vertebrae off her spine.
Per Governor Whitmers orders, the board of surgeons had to decide what was and what was not an essential surgery to stay in compliance. Since Mom wasn’t dying she was deemed a non-essential surgery.
Three more weeks went by and the order had not been lifted. It was early May. Mom really started to hunch over. She lost feeling in her feet. Eventually, her surgeon told her to admit herself to the ER as it was the only way to get around Governor Whitmer’s executive order as it was now an emergency. We dropped her off on May 8th. Surgery was done May 10th.
Each surgery elevated the risk of Mom being paralyzed. Mom’s surgeon was hesitant about doing more. If she did nothing, this would kill her.
Surgery went as well as it could. Mom could move her right leg but not her left.
After recovering, she went to the inpatient rehab facility to start all over again. Unfortunately, she started losing feeling in her right leg just a few days later. Her surgeon ordered another test.
On May 28th Mom was back in surgery again to remove the hardware just put in and to add even more.
Mom hasn’t walked since.
Seven total weeks without therapy with three of those weeks waiting for surgery.
Mom believes if she had surgery three weeks earlier when the surgeon was ready but couldn’t operate because of the executive order she would not be in a wheelchair. Nor would the second surgery have been necessary.
Those three weeks made all the difference.
I don’t know if RIM undersold how much our lives were going to change when Mom left rehab but it has not been easy.
Mom had two 24 hour care options when leaving RIM.
Assisted Living – $7,000 a month. Would have to quarantine her first two weeks and two weeks every time she left the place. No visitors. It would be a prison for her.
Homecare – $18,000 a month. One company available. Visitors allowed.
At 69 years of age she went with the “not prison” option. Medicare does not pay for this. Health insurance does not pay for this. Mom’s been paying out of pocket.
We’re $120,000 into this so far. At this rate Mom will be broke within a few years. A lifetime of saving and doing the right things. POOF. GONE.
We’ve had to buy a wheelchair van. Get a medical bed. Build ramps around the house. The stress this has caused for our family is immense. We are extremely fortunate to have my aunts, uncles, and Moms neighbors help out.
And then someone, we still don’t know who, stole her wedding ring. Out of all the things someone could have stolen from the house they had to choose the one thing that still connected Mom to Dad since he passed.
All because of Governor Whitmers executive order. ALL OF IT.
Mom knew paralysis could be in her future. Her chances of getting around with a walker the rest of her life was around 30%. That 30%, however, was stolen from her.
Governor Whitmer sacrificed Mom for the “greater good” or whatever other bullshit lines we’re being fed by Politicians. None of those things are welcomed in a free society. Which we, are not. We are living on the inheritance of freedom.
Every time I see Mom in the wheelchair I think about the executive order. The sequence of events that followed for her. And how it stole all hope from Mom to walk and be independent.
I will be forever bitter to Governor Whitmer.
She has done a terrible job with Covid-19. All that Governor Whitmer should have said back in March when Covid-19 hit is “Its not the role of Government to save you.”
That’s it. And not closed anything. Let businesses decide how they wanted to do things. Let people decide if they want to stay home. Let people decide if they want to wear a mask. Its really that simple.
This would be a completely different story if the physical therapists, masseuse, and acupuncturists said they weren’t seeing anyone because of Covid-19. Or even the surgeon. We would have had to accept it.
Their voices were silenced because of the Governor. They wanted to work but couldn’t due to the threat of losing their licenses and a misdemeanor.
Mom has been rushed to the hospital two times in an ambulance in the middle of the night as her blood pressure is all over the place since she can’t move. Every time she called to tell me she was being picked up I didn’t know if it was going to be the last time we spoke.
If Governor Whitmer would have done her job and protected freedom I wouldn’t be writing this. The story could have still been the same. But she got in the middle of it when she didn’t need to. It will be in my mind forever.
You know what’s embarrassing about me sharing this story?
Its that I’m gonna have to defend everything I said about a politician putting my Mom in a wheelchair for the rest of her life in the comment section. To save us some time I’ve thought about the most common responses I’ve heard about Covid-19 these past nine months.
If We Would Have Only Listened To…
If the lockdowns, quarantines, and executive orders worked then why is my Mom in a wheelchair? Its because they didn’t work.
You may be thinking they were needed because of the stupid people. Remember, you’re a people.
Here’s some people who have been wrong about Covid-19 since day 1.
Me. You. School Board. Fauci. Whitmer. Trump. Biden. CDC. FDA. All Media.
This desire to be right is destroying our country. I’m watching friends of mine act like assholes on social media telling others how right they are and how wrong others are. I don’t even want to call them. All for the desire to be right.
Let me help you. You’re wrong. All the time. Constantly. Me too.
The politicians you are defending do not care about you.
Want to know why? Its because there are no consequences for being wrong.
Do you think Governor Whitmer would have locked anything down if she knew that if just one person died from Covid-19 during lockdown that she would have to suffer the consequences of killing someone?
No. She wouldn’t. Nor would you.
We Had To Keep People Safe
“The society that chooses safety over freedom shall get neither. The society that chooses freedom over safety shall get both.”
How is the Government going to keep you safe when they can’t fix the roads.
The Hospitals Would Have Been Overrun With Covid-19
Do you remember that? This was the main justification for the lockdowns, right?
I knew from the get go I was going to have a hard time accepting the lockdowns on face value.
Its because over the past 14 years I’ve challenged my political beliefs, the media, and societal norms by seeking out opposing views. I’ve read thousands of articles, many books, watched debates and documentaries about economic, social, and political freedom from the Government. I do that for fun.
Within all of that fun there has been a lot about the medical field.
How 50,000 qualified people apply for medical school every year but only 20,000 are taken. How there’s been a nursing shortage since before I graduated college in 2003. How the AMA via the AAMC limits the amount of credited medical schools which keeps tuition high and competition low. How four out of the top six lobby groups are medical field related. There’s so much more.
Of course the hospitals are going to be overrun. You turned away 300,000 people in the last decade who wanted to learn how to be a Doctor. Because less Doctors equals higher salaries.
Of course the Doctors, Nurses, and hospital staff are burning out during Covid-19 from being overworked. There is no one to come off the bench. Could the AMA have spent the $224,000,000 they paid to lobbyists this past decade hiring and training people instead?
Of course there’s not going to be enough beds, gowns, masks, etc. when the American Hospital Association gave $223,000,000 to lobbyists this past decade instead of buying those supplies.
The healthcare industry spent $467,000,000 lobbying Congress in 2020.
THEY ARE THE LARGEST LOBBYIST SECTOR BY FAR!!
Do you see the problem I’m having with any of this?
The healthcare industry is telling us they can’t make the mortgage payment when I know they have a gambling problem. The Casino is covering for them because they are a high roller.
You keep telling us to follow the Science but not to follow the Political Science game you’re also playing.
When you buy lobbyists and play politics you leave yourself up for scrutiny. And because of that I can say the following.
380,000 Americans are dead from Covid-19 because the healthcare industry got caught with their pants down banging politicians.
Including some of your own.
I’m not going down some conspiracy theory rabbit hole. You left the receipts on the desk. I’m merely reading them back to you and asking “Can you explain this?”.
I could also say because we locked down for you that every event that happened from March to today is on you. Schools closing. Millions of people unemployed. Summer riots. Capitol Building shooting. Trump not getting re-elected. Its the Butterfly Effect.
The USA forgot why we locked down. I haven’t. My mind has been stuck in March because I’ve been busy helping my MOM IN A WHEELCHAIR.
Here is the USA. The most prosperous nation in the world. We would have Doctors, Nurses, masks, beds, medicines, and gowns falling out of our assholes like the one million Amazon boxes laying on porches right now filled with shit we don’t need prior to Covid-19 if it weren’t for the links I posted above. And theres so much more.
But we don’t. We’re rationing Doctors. We’re rationing supplies. We’ve been doing it for decades. Rationing happens in socialized medicine. There would be zero reason for any shutdowns if our healthcare industry wasn’t already (not officially) socialized.
(Notice the line item for health insurance on your paycheck that your basically forced to buy. That’s conditioning you to be ok with paying it before some politician (I wonder who) tries to nationalize it.)
I’m watching people complain about our “capitalist” healthcare system in favor of a nationalized one when the thing they are complaining about is the thing they want more of.
Do you see how easy it is to question the justification for lockdowns when I know the healthcare industry and Government are banging. Or to say there would be zero chance of the hospitals being overrun from Covid-19 if they had kept that lobbying money they’ve spent these last 30 years and invested in themselves.
Why does an industry that is going to get $1000s or $100,000s from every US Citizen at some point need to lobby Congress?
Its because they want more for them. Its that simple.
I know I’ll need a Doctor or Nurse at some point. They are invaluable. I know my healthcare worker friends are exhausted. Mom’s surgeon was an artist.
But we need some truth talking up in here. You have the most political baggage of any industry. You just get to hide behind the good deeds you do without question.
It would be comforting to know that when my Doctor gently caresses my nut sack the next time I go in for a physical that his hands are politically clean. Thats all I want.
The decades long politicizing of medicine made Covid-19 a cluster fuck.
All the healthcare industry needs to do to shut idiots like me up is to get that lobbying spending down to $0 and remove those internal regulations.
Are healthcare workers gonna challenge the officers of that patch on their shoulder and demand they stop buying lobbyists? Lets hope so.
If the healthcare industry does not massively overhaul themselves from medical school to the top of the AMA after this is over than they might as well jam a white dick with a red cross on it up every Americans asshole the next time we go in for a physical.
Hundreds of millions of Americans were forced to give up their livelihoods for you and lost their minds. Its not too much to ask.
Trump Needed To Do More
He did travel restrictions. Stopped the export of masks. Fast tracked vaccine development. What more did you want President Trump to do?
Did you want him to round up the Chinese Americans and throw them into concentration camps like we did to the Japanese since Covid-19 came from China?
I’ve been to Auschwitz. I stood in the last remaining gas chamber where over 1 million people were killed. I saw a building full of shoes and suitcases. I saw the jail within the jail.
You never want a politician to do more. Always less. Closer to nothing is best.
That experience is why I vote No on everything and for the candidates who represent maximum freedom for everyone.
I watched Governor Whitmer and her many executive orders take a gigantic step towards the gas chamber with almost zero pushback and massive support.
You may not be inside of those figurative gates yet. My family is. Mom was PUT INTO A WHEELCHAIR because of politics. We’re burning money. Stress levels have never been higher.
What Trump is at fault for is not saying in March that “It isn’t the role of the Government to save you”.
Full Disclosure – I voted Libertarian Jo Jorgensen for President. I’m really into maximum freedom for everyone. And I will continue to stand alone if need be.
My D/R friends both say “That’s cute. But this isn’t the year to vote Libertarian Brad.”
It seems it’s never the year to vote for freedom.
Joe Biden’s Covid-19 Plan Is Better Than Trumps
His thousands of words long plan blows. Remember, closer to zero words is best.
Everything besides “establish and manage a permanent…public health…system” and “spend whatever it takes” has been accomplished by Trump.
He is blatantly telling us he wants to use Covid-19 as a reason to setup Nationalized Healthcare. Read about my cab ride in Northern Ireland as to why you don’t want that.
If Joe Biden says “Mandatory _______” after being sworn in as President that equals a step closer to the gas chamber.
Be careful what you ask for.
“Mama Always Said Death Is Apart Of Life. I Wish It Wasn’t”. – Forrest Gump
When Dad died in 2016 from Pneumonia and the Swine Flu (H1N1) the world didn’t stop.
Nor should it.
People went to work the next day. Kids went to school. No one posted on social media they knew someone who died of a virus that had been around for a decade (H1N1) and the other (pneumonia) for centuries. The world moved on.
Dad had Idiopathic Pulminory Fibrosis. A incurable lung disease. Was given 3 to 5 years to live. He knew he could not afford to get sick due to his weakened lungs. He made it 18 months.
You know what Dad did after being given his death sentence?
He lived.
He played in his old man softball league. He played in his golf league with Mom. He went to Cancun. He played golf with his sons. He drank beers with his brothers. Two days before he went into the hospital he played in his old man volleyball league.
A day later he was on a ventilator. I was there nine out of ten days sitting by his side.
Occasionally his eyes would open and we would make eye contact for fifteen seconds. He couldn’t speak because of the ventilator. Four years later I think Dad’s eyes were telling me he knew it was his time. I was there when he passed.
The hospital didn’t ask us once to wear masks in the ICU. I can only remember a few times seeing a Dr. making the rounds wearing one.
The flu and pneumonia vaccines he took didn’t stop him from getting both.
Mom thinks Dad had been battling pneumonia for a month. Did he catch it from us? A friend? Family member? Did he catch pneumonia outside of the hospital and the swine flu in the hospital? Or vice versa?
Would Dad quarantining himself or wearing a mask give him a few more months? Or years?
Maybe.
What would of happened for sure is he would have missed out on life if he did any of those.
And now I’m watching half of the country be perfectly ok with giving up nine months (and counting) of their lives and blaming the other half. Its sad.
Joe Biden boasts in his plan to combat Covid-19 that “He helped lead the Obama-Biden Administration’s effective response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.”
One of the viruses Dad died from was H1N1.
That makes two politicians who failed my parents with their virus response.
Putting Things Into Perspective
I know eight people who contracted Covid-19 that were 37 to 68 years old. Symptoms ranged from sniffles to everything. Three went to the hospital and stayed til their fevers broke a day or two later. One stayed for five. Covid-19 kicked some of their asses.
I’m 40. Most of my aunts, uncles, and friends parents are nearing 70. There is a real possibility one of them could get sick and we’d lose one of them. It could be Mom. That happens to people around 70 who get sick. Dad was 65. It sucks.
Death is sad. I miss Dad terribly. I occasionally cry when a memory of him pops into my head. I could use him more now than ever to just sit in a chair and listen to my struggles of being a Dad. But mostly, to take care of Mom.
Watching her body fall apart while raising babies in that time period has me running on emotional fumes. Knowing how a politician put Mom in a wheelchair is not helping.
Covid-19 could take me.
Losing Dad forced me to come to terms with my own mortality. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
And I would still be against everything Governor Whitmer has done.
I’ve been exposed to it by now. I was at the Garth Brooks concert at Ford Field on February 22nd, 2020 with 74,000 other people. There is no possible way Covid-19 wasn’t floating around that evening.
What if one of us gave Covid-19 to Mom? Or her caregivers? Social distancing doesn’t work when it comes to Mom. She needs whatever help we can give her.
This is why I keep coming back to freedom. If Governor Whitmer would not have signed the executive orders Mom could be scooting around with a walker right now. We will never know.
Covid-19 is not a hoax. Its real. People get sick. People have died.
This, however, does not give the Government free reigns to shut down life. At least, not if you want to live in a free society.
It concerns me to see how easily a large portion of the USA just gave up their freedoms in the hope of getting it back. I’m sorry, but every history book ever written will tell you that when a society “bends the knee” as easily as we have they never get it back.
That is, unless there is violence.
Wear a mask. Don’t wear a mask. Take a vaccine. Don’t take a vaccine. I don’t care.
Maximum freedom first. Everything else second. Only after zero people are having their freedoms restrained from Government is Science allowed a seat at the table.
Political Science used regular Science as a political weapon against us. If you do not see it that way by now I highly encourage you to start.
Tell me what I wrote about the Healthcare industry is bullshit. Tell me my eyes are lying to me. But do not tell me my Mom is not essential.
***Update 12-1-22***
Mom passed away on 11-9-22. The last two years were hell for her. Especially the last two months as her body fell apart and the disease progressed.
I think about Governor Whitmer’s executive order all the time. And how it robbed Mom of any chance to walk again. Or another year or two of ok health. I’ll never forget it.
The Costs
Mom spent over $200,000 out of pocket for 24 hour care.
Many Dr. visits. Over a dozen trips to the ER. Many in ambulances. Three separate week long stays in the ICU. Two procedures.
Tricare/Medicare expenses exceeding $300,000.
Medication (pills) prescribed were incredible. She must have been taking 8 different pills a day. I could not believe they call that “Healthcare”.
Even though Mom had 24 hour live in care I had to help the helpers. I really haven’t been able to work as I’ve had to get involved with her finances, the house, going to appointments, etc.
It’s cost me over $100,000 in lost earnings.
Between our family and Taxpayers we are at $600,000 in costs and lost income in two years.
I’ve had family members and friends see the stress this has caused me and say “this would have happened anyways” and to let it go. Each time I asked them for evidence.
There is no evidence because Governor Whitmer destroyed the evidence.
I’ve been asked to give Whitmer a pass. I give her nothing. She’s terrible.
If you want to leave a comment and tell me she’s done a good job there is an ante to play that game with me.
You only need to chop off your legs and write a check to my Mom’s estate for $200,000.
THEN I will listen to you. But not until that time. This is the tragedy of the situation.