Asset Protection – Being Proactive is Vital

Being proactive is so important.  This is more of a personal blog. I have spoken live to well over a million people, and many of my “seminar friends” know that I have spent many months of my life in the hospital. I did one 6 month stretch with much of it being in an isolation room. My 5 year old granddaughter was fine last Thursday, but by Friday late morning she was headed to the hospital with spinal meningitis. When I caught up with her after lunch she was being drug around in a wagon for tests.

Her mother had made the decision to get her to a doctor about 10am. She went to a family doctor that was covering for her normal family doctor. She had decided not to go to the pediatrician, because his answer had always been, “let’s wait and see.” There wasn’t much fever (only 102), but there was a bad headache and it hurt to move her head or sit up. My daughter, wife, and I decided being proactive was the best approach before the doctor was seen, and we suspected this wasn’t a “let’s wait and see” moment.

First the CT scan showed little brain swelling. The chest X-ray was normal. I held her on the scale while the anesthesiologist got an exact weight. She was in a lot of pain when I picked her up out of the wagon. She was mostly “out of it.” I was surprised the next day when she remembered me walking by the wagon through the emergency room to the scale. The lumbar puncture drew a lot of spinal fluid out of her spine. It was clear. The one hour examination showed no foreign proteins, and normal chemical levels. Then the 48 hour culture wait, being proactive was hard.

They immediately started her on intravenous antibiotics — Rocephin and Vancomycin, plus a new anti viral. The 64 dollar question was is it virus or bacterial? Bacterial is fatal in about 3% of 5 year olds, and does a lot of damage to a larger percentage. Blindness, deafness, paralysis, and you can use your imagination. Viral is just a let the body handle it, but almost never fatal and not many long term side effects. She started to respond to the treatments within hours. She could open her eyes and talk some. It was a telling moment when the Dr commented that our granddaughter’s best chance of survival came because our daughter was being proactive and had her immunized.

The health department showed up to ask lots of questions. It was Martin Luther King weekend, so there wasn’t any school Friday (teacher’s prep day, aka excuse for a 4 day weekend) or Monday, so the school just watched and prepared to close on Tuesday. Isolation procedures went into effect. (I know those procedures – mask, gown, gloves.)

By Sunday, the doctors said she was doing much better. The culture was not conclusive. Another viral test was done. It didn’t show a virus. The conclusion was it was bacterial. NOT GOOD! But, she was responding to antibiotics. She was getting better. We had been blessed. The worst seems to be over. At this point she has simply won a 2 week stay in the pediatric ward isolation unit, but it looks like it was caught early and no damage was done.

The moral of the experience is, hold tight to the kids, grandkids, parents, and spouses, because things can change real fast and they can be gone. I hate to put a legal slant on the experience, but for your sake, I will say it. “You can’t wait to get your asset protection in order.” Asset protection – being proactive is essential.  Obviously, if the granddaughter had died, it would have devastated us, especially grandpa. If the head of household dies, it is devastating to all of the family. The same emotional devastation we would have suffered with our granddaughter’s loss. But, with a head of household or even the spouse, there is a huge financial devastation. The financial, legal and a lot of the “worldly” devastation that comes with a disaster can be largely avoided with a little asset protection – being proactive. That’s why Legalees.com is dedicated to helping you get on top of it all. You’ve got to make your own diagnosis and not let the financial planners and attorneys take a “let’s wait and see” attitude. That means you have got to know enough to make your suspected diagnosis and then see to it that the professionals follow through.

With our granddaughter’s situation, we had to rely on the professionals to complete the diagnosis and treatment. With your legal and financial situation, you can be a lot more hands on, and you can even do most all of it yourself, if you are inclined to be a do it yourself person get my book Protecting Your Financial Future It will help.