It came out over the weekend that Hillary Clinton has pneumonia.
She has experienced some bad health days in recent weeks, nearly passed out at the 9/11 Memorial event, and then she finally got checked out, and this is what the doctors said she had.
I wish her a speedy recovery.
But I am going to tell you now, at her age, she has to be very careful with pneumonia, and her recovery will actually take months.
Based on the severity of what she has, the doctors will tell her that she has to have complete rest for several weeks, that she must follow a regimen of exercise, diet and yes, again, rest, and that she should be in bed, at least for the first couple of weeks after being diagnosed with the disease.
Kind of hard to do when you are supposedly campaigning for President of the United States.
But the alternative can be deadly, so she will pretty much have no choice in the matter.
I know all about this because her being diagnosed with pneumonia coincides with my father going back to work after several months recovery from pneumonia.
He goes back to being a New York City licensed medallion cab driver today, and has actually already gone back, as he starts his day early, about 1 a.m., so as I look at the clock, he has been back to work for about three and a half hours as I write this.
Let me tell you, the recovery was slow, but by paying 1,000 percent attention to the regimen that was prescribed to him, it took him about three-plus months to recover enough to be able to have the strength to go back to work.
He hasn't kicked pneumonia entirely; it is still in his system, and will probably be there for a few months more.
But he has felt better for a couple of weeks, and the doctors game his the OK to go back to work.
Look, there is a difference between an 85 year old man handling pneumonia and a 69 year old woman handling pneumonia, and it is no fun having pneumonia at any age.
But once a person is 65 and older, getting pneumonia--which is an airborne virus, by the way, and anyone can get it--handling the recovery, and actually recovering from having the disease--can be problematic, in particular for active people, like my father and Clinton.
They basically have to learn to sit still, follow doctors' orders to the T, and just wind down a bit, mixed in with diet and moderate exercise.
That is the only way to kick this thing, and Clinton must do these things in her road to recovery.
It will only become a campaign issue if, 1) she does not follow what her doctor tells her; and/or 2) the pneumonia she has is a real nasty one, and doesn't go away so quick.
In the meantime, her vice presidential running mate, Tim Kaine, and her daughter and husband, can stump for her, and you can bet that they will do just that.
But pneumonia should not be taken lightly. Older people can actually die from the disease.
How she balances these health concerns alongside running for the commander in chief position is anyone's guess at this point, but if she is smart, now is the time to rest. There are still many days to the actual election, and by the time of election day, with the proper rest, she will be well on the road to recovery.
Whether she does that or not depends on HER, and her alone.
And as I write this, I wish the best to my father. He did what he was supposed to do, and now is well on the road, literally, to kicking this thing.
Whether Clinton will follow in his footsteps is something that will have to play itself out, but again, it is up to HER to do this.
ReplyDeleteI am glad your father has recovered and is well enough to return to work.
My mother, also an octogenarian, spent 3 days in the hospital during the summer. Her diagnosis was pneumonia, but she was able to return home and resume normal activity within a few days. As per her doctor. Clearly my mother had a less severe case of pneumonia than your father had.
The advice you have given Secretary Clinton is clearly the advice that was given to your father, based on his doctor's evaluation of his age and condition. Some, but not all, applies to Clinton. She does need to listen to her doctors, as you point out.
But I have to wonder what they did and did not advise regarding her campaign schedule. With two weeks to go until the debate at Hofstra, from a political perspective she cannot sit home and rest. clearly she had a difficult day yesterday ... wearing Kelvar and a pantsuit in that heat obviously did her in, and in hindsight she would have done better to pick another way to publicly observe 9/11. The incident is giving fuel to the tin foil hat folks who think she's dying of some exotic disease.
I guess we will all have to wait and see.
I wish her no ill will, and the extent of the pneumonia she has is between her, her family, and her doctors. I was just talking about what my father had. I am sure she will follow what they tell her as best she can, but she really has to follow it 100 percent. If she doesn't, she will have more physical problems, and the conjecture will steamroll.
ReplyDelete"...The extent of the pneumonia she has is between her, her family, and her doctors." As one of the major candidates for POTUS her health is clearly an important public issue.
DeleteSo she's taking off for two days, cancelling her trip to California. We'll see how she does on Wednesday in Vegas.
ReplyDeleteWe shall see. If it is in fact something serious, the public needs to be told.
ReplyDelete