Oral History Interview with Tommy Farthing

MEGAN FARTHING: My name is Megan Farthing and today I'm going to be conducting an interview with Tommy Farthing for the Kentucky Oral History Commission. We're going to be talking to him about his disability and how it affects his life on a daily basis.

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay, before we begin talking about your disability, I would like to ask you a few questions about your childhood like where you grew up and your brothers and sisters, activities that you did in school.

TOMMY FARTHING: Okay, I grew up in Irvine, Kentucky which is Estill County. I had one brother, Dale Farthing, one sister, Rosemary Farthing. Uh we growed up very poor because my father uh was on disability for blindness. My mother worked 1:00at uh at first at uh Begley's Drugstore in Main Street Irvine. It had a drugstore and a restaurant. When that closed, she went to work for Westinghouse Corporation in Richmond, Kentucky. And then during the, during all that time, she uh helped my father get a job at Westinghouse Corporation through the disability uh program that they had there. And my dad qualified and they hired em and he give up his disability, social security and everything to go to work at Westinghouse to try to make a better life for his kids.

MEGAN FARTHING: Is there any activities that you liked to do like any games you liked to play or sports while you were in school?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes. It was football. I played football. They had they had just started the football program in Estill County when I went to school, and at the 2:00seventh grade level I started playin. I started playin at the seventh grade level. We didn't have uniforms. We had pads and uh guards. We wore uh shorts and t-shirts over our pads because that's all the school system had at that time. And I played football all the way through my junior year. And uh I think I done quite well at it. But uh I had a friend that, in my junior year, was a senior and he was gettin ready to get drafted to the Marines to go to Vietnam and he got to talkin to me and talked me into to joinin the Navy with him on the buddy program and we both joined the Navy. And uh duh the only way the U.S. Navy system would take me .I had to take the GED equivalency test at Eastern Kentucky University. And onced I took that, they allowed me to come into the uh 3:00the armed forces with him on the buddy program.

MEGAN FARTHING: How long were you in the Navy?

TOMMY FARTHING: About 17 months. Uh when we uh we both went to boot camp and Alfred Estes was his name. He uh he failed to tell me he couldn't swim. So when we got to boot camp, they asked for everybody that could swim and everybody that couldn't swim. That was in Orlando, Florida. At that time it was supposed to be an uh an eleven week boot camp. But they was uh so drastic and hard up for troops and support people that we went through a seven week program. When they asked for uh people who could swim and couldn't swim, uh Alfred couldn't swim 4:00so they pulled him out of my uh I guess formation as you would call it then because we hadn't been assigned companies or anything and uh they put him in a different formation. And he had to go into another company so they could teach em to swim. And uh I never saw him again for uh seven weeks no six weeks, six weeks. And then when we graduated from boot camp, we both was assigned to a storekeeper's school in San Diego, California which was a 3 month program. That was the people that uh ordered everything that the ship needed to survive and do their job. You ordered it and you went to this big humongous at that time, there was no such thing as a shoppin center but that's what you went to and you would drive through there on golf carts and tell em I want ten thousand of 5:00these, five thousand of these, one thousand of these. You had to provide different keep everything in stores on that ship to take care of every man on that ship. But oncet we graduated from that school, they assigned Alfred to a aircraft carrier in Long Beach, California, and they assigned me to uh the USS Goldsborough Destroyer which was already on tour in Vietnam. So they flew me to Vietnam and Alfred went to the aircraft carrier in Los Angeles. But about four weeks after that uh Alfred Estes' father worked at Southeast Coal Company in Irvine but he had a uh excavating business on the side, and he was tryin to blast some rock out. He was buildin a road for someone I don't have a I don't know who he was but he had uh five blastin caps went off in his hand and blowed three of his fingers off on his hand so they give Alfred a hardship discharge to 6:00come home and help his father deal with his disability and run his father's business. So I went on to Vietnam and I pulled uh my tour there til my ship was uh let go and someone took our place. And we they we went back uh to Suvic Bay, as far as Suvic Bay which was about 1500 miles away which was in Guam. And uh as we got there the ship, the destroyer that had took our place against the for for the armed forces had got been hit with a missile and it just so happened when it got hit with the missile, that they was takin on supplies from a supply ship and they have cranes on em what we call gippo cranes. So they hooked onto the ship and uh they hit the back end of it which was called a pan 7:00tail. And to keep it from sinkin they hooked onto it and stayed beside of it. When we got there to take they called us back there to take their place and when we got back there to take their place, we have to pull 10 and a half more months. So when got done with that, we got back to my home port which was Pearl Harbor where my ship, my destroyer, was assigned, everybody that had we had done pulled one completed tour and had to go back to take a second tour because the ship had got hit that took our place. But at that time, the Pentagon and and and the United States decided that anybody that had pulled two tours in Vietnam was automatic discharged if they wanted it. So they was 68 men on my destroyer and when once we got back to Pearl Harbor, they had to offer ever one of us one at a time in person with the captain and the ocean's mate if we wanted to stay 8:00or if we wanted a discharge, and I said, Yes please give me a discharge and send me home. I wanna go home. So, I got a automatic discharge because I had pulled two complete tours in Vietnam. That's why I got out early.

MEGAN FARTHING: What did you do after you got out of the Navy? Did you just come home or did you go to work somewhere?

TOMMY FARTHING: Well, I come home and uh in less than two weeks I, I started uh tryin to find a job automatically as soon as I got home and I signed up on unemployment because onced you get hon discharged from the the the armed forces, you are eligible for unemployment. So I started immediately filing applications and I got an interview at Parka Hannath and Seal in uh Winchester, Kentucky. And two to three weeks later, I went to work for them. I only drawed one unemployment check and I went to work for Parka Hannath and Seal and I worked 9:00there til, oh I think it was about uh seventy, no it was yeah, it was about seventy-eight seventy-nine. Somethin like that.

MEGAN FARTHING: So, you came back to live in Irvine then?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes I did.

MEGAN FARTHING: And did you live with your parents or did you have your own family by that time?

TOMMY FARTHING: Well I was married to my first wife at the time and yes we had my oldest daughter, Tonya Farthing. And uh but when I came home, I had enough money saved from um my armed forces service, I bought a mobile home and moved it on my mother and father's farm.

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay. Now we're going to start talking more about um your disability. How would you describe your to someone and when were you diagnosed?

TOMMY FARTHING: Well, I've been diagnosed with diabetes, type 2. Uh I don't 10:00understand why in this country, our government doesn't recognize type 2 diabetes more than they do because for anyone that's never had diabetes I don't think they can really understand the effect of it. Because theys days, mornings I get up that I am totally blind. I can't see nothin. I take nine pills every mornin and two pills every night. You know I take even uh diabetes medicine to back up my diabetes medicine. But theys mornins I get up and like I said I was I'm totally blind and I feel so bad that I can't hardly pick one I have to force myself to pick one leg up and then place it down and pick the other one up. And 11:00I just feel totally exhausted all the time. But everyone I talk to even my doctor that I go to which is Doctor Herbert Long, tells me that type 2 diabetes is a just a working disability. But my my my question is is why is it a working disability because I have such a hard time coping with life and copin with everyday life to survive and try to work and do my job. And it has caused me many problems at my job. I've been at this company for 24 years. I am a ironworker rigger and mach for Duncan Machinery Movers out of Lexington, Kentucky, and when I can't come to work, and and I am a foreman. When I can't come to work, they do not understand why I'm not there. And it's caused me many 12:00problems at my job because I don't show up sometimes. Even though I call my boss and say hey look I I cain't see to drive or hey I feel so bad I I cain't uh I cain't come to work today. And they don't understand it as an employer and it's not supposed to be a disabiliting disease but it is a very disabiliting disease and nobody I I feel like nobody understands that. Maybe 20, 30 years down the road they'll understand that when they do more tests and find out more stuff. It's uh it's very hard for me to cope with life and I hope that one day that by doing that will help someone else later in life.

MEGAN FARTHING: Is your sight the only thing you have trouble with or do you 13:00have problems with like circulation or

TOMMY FARTHING: Yeah, I have problems with both legs. I have what they call neuropathy. And my doctor sent me for a test because I have so much leg problems and leg aches and pains. They sent me for tests that uh they shoot dye into your groin area and test your all your nerves and x-ray em and everything from your waist down and I have what's called neuropathy. All the never endins in my legs have died from the diabetes and they send false impulses to the to my brain that I'm havin leg cramps and and all that and my brain cain't distinct that uh the nerve endins are dead so they automatically send a message back to my muscles or whatever they can get to that yes, you're havin leg cramps. And I mean my legs cramp up so bad that I I I wake up in the middle of the night 14:00with leg cramps that I shouldn't have or cramps in my feet cramps in my toes. And I have to jump outta bed and try to walk cause that's the only way I can get em out. And I this happens to me on the job daily. And uh it's uh and I have uh I have uh a problem with my eyes now because the diabetes have effected the, the nerve endins behind my eyes. Uh before I came down with diabetes, I had 20/20 vision. Now I have to wear bifocals because I cain't see anything close. I can see it if it's four feet away from me I can see it fine but if it's anything that's closer than four feet I cain't unless I got my eyes my glasses on because my eyes are, are bad.

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay, other than your work habits, uh what other kind of things in life have you had to change like uh have you have to change your diet, the way that you um rest at night, or the amount of sleep that you get? Have you 15:00had to change anything like that?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes, I have to have more sleep now to cope with everyday life. I have problems sleepin so sometimes I have to take a pill that's a muscle relaxer and a sleeping pill mixed. When I take that, then I have a hard problem wakin up the next morning and goin to work. Uh it's changed my diet completely. At first they don't me not to drink any sodas, only drink diet sodas and I did. Then about uh four years into this they found out due to studies they found out that the diet sodas was worse than the regular sodas because all the artificial sweeteners that was in the diet sodas. If you're a diabetic your, your body can't get rid of it, it just stores it. I am overweight. I cannot lose no weight 16:00according to my doctor because I'm takin all this diabetic medicine and he told me if I drink water I would still stay the same as I am. I I've tried and I cain't lose any weight. And uh it's a, it's a very bad situation.

MEGAN FARTHING: Even if you drink the water, does he say that that problem like um cause you retain water?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yeah. I retain water. I retain anything I drink. I retain anything I eat. My body cain't get rid of it no more. They cain't break it down into sugars and that's why I have to take the medicine because my body does not break the sugars down anymore and feed my whole, my body system.

MEGAN FARTHING: How did your family react to the news when they first found out you were diagnosed with diabetes?

TOMMY FARTHING: Well, everybody was concerned. But uh just like my wife she 17:00does she does everything she can to try to fix foods for me that will not hurt my diabetes or make my sugar go higher. And she tries to fix foods for me and cook it in a way that would make my sugars lower but because of the medicine I take, it it doesn't seem to work. And my numbers are very high. For a normal person, the ideal numbers for sugars is anywhere between 90 anyone with diabetes, let me correct that is between 90 and 120. Right now, ever since when I came down with diabetes my number was 555. The doctor did not even understand how I was even able to walk. And I said, I told him that well I don't walk sometimes, I just have to sit down because I cain't see and the whole world is 18:00spinning to me. So I took off to work to to find out what the problem was and it took about a little bit less than a week to find out what my problem was. Once they found, when they found out what my problem was, it took my doctor about a month and a half to get my numbers down to where I could survive and try to go back to work and which I did. But right now, my numbers are stayin around 200 to 200-250, which is more than double what is the ideal numbers. And I cannot get it down no less. It doesn't matter what I eat, what I drink, what I uh soft drinks I drink or anything else I cain't get that number down. So to try to combat that I like I said previously, I have to take diabetes medicine and then 19:00he doubled that and then he, he give me two more pills that is a what he calls a kicker for the diabetic medicine to try to make em work harder. And uh all the tests they've done, I have kidney damage. I have liver damage, I have pancreas damage, and uh but uh yet, yet I supposed to keep workin everyday and it's a workin disability. And I don't I do not understand it. Until the day I die, I won't understand it because I feel like they's no person I'm 54 years old, I served my country twiced, and I do not understand why that anybody will be forced by our government and our, this wonderful country of we live in would 20:00have a disability, I consider it a disability, disease, but our own government won't recognize it. But yet I still have to try to work everyday to provide for my wife and my children and take care of my family which makes it very hard.

MEGAN FARTHING: And how old did you say you were when you first found out you had it?

TOMMY FARTHING: I was 49 years old. And I'm 54 now. I thought I was just feelin really bad because uh as a ironworker forman machinery mover, we rig uh we rig stuff and move stuff that weighs anywhere uh I'm gonna say a thousand pounds the biggest load I've picked up and moved weighed 489, 000 pounds. But uh and I 21:00talked to uh all these, I growed up through the ranks. I've been with Duncan Machinery Movers for 24 years now, but all durin that time, as I worked with these guys, I listened to em talk about when I was young about their aches and pains and what they could do and what they couldn't do, what was slowin em down, what wouldn't slowin em down, and I thought in my mind that I was just getting older and I was havin the same problems they was but come to find out, that wouldn't what that it was it was the diabetes. And my doctor actually done a urine analysis when they found out I had diabetes and the urine analysis showed that I had diabetes seven years previous to that. Durin that time I had probably went to five or six or seven different doctors and told em how I felt. One 22:00doctor told me all that was wrong with me, I need to quit drinkin milk products, intakin milk products. Another doctor told me all was wrong with me that I need to quit smokin. All the and uh uh it just goes on and on and all these were so I'm gonna say this because it makes me mad, these doctors have been in business so long, that they didn't recognize what my symptoms was. They just come up with these off the wall reasons I was feelin the way I was. But come to find out in the end, I had had diabetes all along and none of em knowed how to test me and but you know they does diabetes tests by blood and urine. All these doctors had took uh urine tests and blood tests and none of em found out I had diabetes. When I when I had the major problem the da, the diabetes, I was workin at the 23:00BMW plant in Grier, South Carolina. I would walk across the floor, the factory floor, we was doin an expansion, and I, Duncan was settin the machinery unloadin and settin it. I'd walk across the floor to some of my crew to tell em what to do and I, I'd just pass out and fall in the floor. I woke up one day in a hospital in South Carolina. That hospital and two doctors done $12, 800 worth of tests on me, and told me they had no idea what was wrong with me. I was so sick, I lost 51 pounds in thirty days. When it was time, the job was over and it was time for me to come home, I was so sick and so dizzy and so blind that I could not even drive my truck home. So Duncan sent a truck and a trailer, a lowboy 24:00trailer down there to load my truck on and haul me home. When I got home, I had been tellin em for a month of how sick I was and they when I walked in, they all, I though they's gonna pass out because I looked so bad. And they told me, they said Tommy you need to find out what's wrong with you. And at that time, AIDS was a full blown thing, I thought maybe I had AIDS or somethin. I I was really questionin my life, my previous life and stuff. But uh they told to take as much time as you need and find out what's wrong with you. And um it, it was very bad.

MEGAN FARTHING: Do you test yourself now like do you test your sugar throughout the day?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes, I test my sugar in the mornins, uh onced you, you have to 25:00test your sugar onced you get up before you eat or have any intake of anything and then in the evenins like when I've had supper, I test it again because everything you eat durin the day effects you sugar and changes your numbers.

MEGAN FARTHING: Is that somethin that kinda gets in the way during the day like is it sort of like a nuisance to do that or?

TOMMY FARTHING: It used to be but it become such a nuisance and everybody, everybody that works for me as as a supervisor would wanna know what I was doin. I'd have to stand there and have this ten minute conversation with them about what I was doin and why I was doin it that I uh I just quit doin it in the middle of the day to keep my people workin and doin their jobs.

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay, and about your medications did you um always have insurance from the time you were diagnosed?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes.

MEGAN FARTHING: And have they been pretty good about payin for your tests and medications or have you had some problems with it?

TOMMY FARTHING: I've had problems. It it, they've don't, they don't wanna pay sometimes what they should pay and which I understand that they're a private corporations too but the insurance companies will do anything they can to keep from payin for somethin. And that's not right because that's why you pay for that, your insurance. My union pays $4.75 an hour for my insurance. And uh it wouldn't payin nothin hardly. We was havin to foot the bill for two thirds of it. Then my wife gets this job at the company she works for which is a small company compared to my company and she has insurance that pays 90 % of it. But then I got to checkin in to it, but then I come to find out her insurance company that her company pays for and my insurance company is the same insurance 27:00company. So we couldn't bill her insurance company and most people I work with, they have a job and then their wives have a job but they both have different insurance companies, so when the men has somethin with a doctor or medical problem, he bills his insurance company and then they'll turn around and bill her insurance company to keep the co-pay down, what the the the patient has to pay. But because mine was the main carrier and hers was the main carrier, same insurance company, her insurance that her company was payin for and she was payin for out of her check every week didn't have to pay a dime on nothin. And that wouldn't right. But come to find out, her insurance paid more than double what mine paid, so I called the insurance company and told em that wouldn't was why couldn't we bill em and they said well that was fraud and that was they was 28:00a law that you couldn't double bill the same company. And I said no, I'm gonna tell you what's fraud is when you're, her company and she pays for somethin that don't ever pay a dime on it. So she, that woman said well you know said you're right, I'm gonna talk to my supervisor, you call me back tomorrow and I did, so now her her insurance is the main provider and I don't understand that neither. Just you know, they say that uh anybody, a man and wife works in this country and just because the husband is worker is working and the wife is working, they say the man's insurance is the main provider and I don't understand that. It shouldn't be that it that because a man's workin and a woman's workin and they both got insurance, it shouldn't be the man's insurance that's the main provider, the main provider should be which one pays the most because both of em 29:00is workin for somebody. Somebody's payin for that insurance plan and the insurance companies should stand up and be responsible. That's not right. (Sniff)

MEGAN FARTHING: Are there any things that you would like to do like travel or um just any kind of activities that you would like to do that your diabetes kind of keeps you from doin?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yeah, a lot of stuff. I had a Harley Davidson, a 1980 shovel head and I sold it last, back about a year ago. The only reason I sold it was cause I cain't stand to ride it anymore cause legs hurts so bad. So I just went ahead and sold it. I got tired of lookin at it down there, somethin that I always wanted and I found my dream one day and was able to afford it but yet my 30:00health, my diabetes got me where I couldn't ride it no more cause it hurt me too bad. I couldn't stand to sit in the seat and put my feet down on it and ride it for 30 minutes. I was achin and hurtin, I had to stop and get off of it. So it just why have it? Uh theys, I used to like to do uh autobody work and paintin. I cain't do that anymore because it hurts me to do all that squatin and getting up and gettin down. I cain't move the way I used to move when I painted. My whole life is changed because of diabetes. My life's not changed for the better, it's changed for the worst, but nobody seems to understand that, it's a workin disability again. You like my doctor tells me, you just have to learn how to deal with it son and that's not a good answer. Not in my mind, not in anybody's mind. There's no doctor that should be able to tell you or any 31:00insurance company see that's another thing too. My doctor gives me these medicines that he gets on the internet and goes to all these uh classes at colleges that tells him what to do with diabetes, what medicines to prescribe for a patient but when he prescribes these medicines, my insurance won't pay for em because they say that there's somethin out there cheaper. Well, that's not what they find in their studies that uh it helps the patient more, and like my doctor said, he said I get so mad at the insurance companies cause they call me and wanna know why I prescribed this. Well I went to these classes, to these new courses and took em and this is what helps my patients more. They said yeah, but you can you can prescribe a generic. And they's no way a generic can be 32:00sometimes as good as the original. And he, my doctor tells em, he says look you're a insurance company, I'm a doctor. Since when has you as a insurance company can tell me that you're a medical doctor and know what better to prescribe for my patients than I do but you're sittin there dictatin to me what my patient can afford and what my patient can take. That's what's wrong with the insurance program in this country. The insurance companies are out to make money any way they can. They gonna cut your medicine anyway they can, every everything I started out takin diabetes worked better but now everything I take is generic and it don't work as good. I've noticed the difference in myself. They's nobody on this face of the earth can tell me that any generic drug is just as good as 33:00the original because the original's the one that had all this testin done and somebody else brought this generic drug down here and just because it's done some things as good, they got it passed by the FDA. (sniff)

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay, you mentioned things that you um used to do that you can't do anymore, what kind of hobbies do you do now?

TOMMY FARTHING: I have no hobbies no more. I cain't do em no more. I used to love to hunt but I cain't walk to do the huntin. I used to love to fish. You know, a lot of people think well fishin you just bait your line and sit there but no, that's not what it's all about. You gotta walk to your fishin hole, you gotta walk back from your fishin hole, you gotta be able to carry the fish you caught, you gotta carry your pole and your bait and your tackle and a lot of 34:00places I used to fish, you cain't just drive up to, you gotta walk mile a mile and a half. I cain't do that no more. I used to love to ride horses. I cain't sit in the saddle on a horse no more. It hurts me too bad in my lower extremities. You know, and I used to love ridin Harleys, I cain't do that no more. I used to love to ride four wheelers, I cain't do that no more. All my problems is from my waist down. But it's a workin disability again. You should just be able to cope with that son. I cain't, my doctor tells me I cain't help you get social security, I cain't help you get dosa disability cause the government says this is a workin disability, it's not a disabling disease. But anytime you have somethin that's a disease and it costs you, okay out of my income, in the last five years I have lost 40 to 50, 000 dollars a year because 35:00this working disability keeps me from going to work. Now how can you call that a workin disability? Most people in this country don't make that kind of money a year. I lose, I'm losin that much money a year. My lifestyle and my my livelihood is based on what I used to make before I came down with this disease. But now I'm havin to deal with it just like my doctor said I just have to deal with it. But it does cost me 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year of my income because I'm not capable to going to work like I used to. I'm not capable of doin the things I used to do.

MEGAN FARTHING: Is there anybody else in your family that has diabetes or that has any sugar related problems?

TOMMY FARTHING: Uh I've lost 2 grandmothers with diabetes, I've lost 2, 3 36:00uncles with diabetes. I've lost 2 nephews with diabetes. Diabetes runs on both sides of my family very strong, diabetes and cancer.

MEGAN FARTHING: Do you plan to retire within the near future or are you still gonna be tryin to get disability? What are your plans with that?

TOMMY FARTHING: Well, I haven't been tryin to get disability but yes I would love to retire, whether it be on disability or on regular retirement. But my, I belong to an ironworker union out of Louisville, Kentucky. It's called 37:00Ironworkers of America local 70. I cannot retire. I'm only 54 years old. I cannot do regular retirement til I'm 62, or I lose, I can only draw 70% of my retirement and munity. And I cannot get disability because the doctors will not give me disability because they say it's a working disease, working disability. And the government won't recognize it so I don't got no way out. I gotta work til I'm 62 in some way, shape, or form which is not right.

MEGAN FARTHING: Even though it can cause you to lose function in your legs, they still won't?

TOMMY FARTHING: No.

MEGAN FARTHING: But if it caused you to lose a leg, they would?

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes.

MEGAN FARTHING: But they won't do anything before it?

TOMMY FARTHING: But if I get up on an iron hangin iron and I fall off the iron and kill myself, aww well, we'll pay his death benefits which is $5,000. What's 38:00$5,000 gonna do for my wife or my children. nothing! But yes, if I cut my leg off or cut my arm off or had a heart attack because my diabetes, they'd give me at the snap of your fingers give me my disability but because I can go to work I cannot get it. They will not allow it and that's our United States' government which makes me very mad because I fought for this country, I've done everything as an outstanding citizen can do for his country in my lifetime. But they's no help out there. They act like it's nothing, everybody acts like diabetes is nothing. And it makes me mad and it makes me pray to God sometimes that when I'm 39:00hurtin so bad and I cain't survive and I cain't work that I wished everyone of them in their lifetime would come down to with it and they would understand what it is to have to cope with it everyday. They's many many unforgiven people in this world. They have no compassion for anyone. All they think about is me, me, me.

MEGAN FARTHING: And I know we talked about your childhood and your family before diabetes and I just kinda wanna touch your family now. I'm sure you have grandkids.

TOMMY FARTHING: Yes mam I do. I have 4 beautiful grandkids. I have to granddaughters by my first, my oldest daughter. I have a grandson and a granddaughter by my second oldest daughter. The grandchildren are very active. I 40:00know that sometimes when they come to visit, they don't understand why papaw is not as active as they would like him to be but uh there you go again, it's my diabetes. When I do get off, you know I'm so tired and I'm hurtin so bad I, I don't feel like doin nothin. But I would love to get out and enjoy my grandchildren more than I do. Do things with them, show em things like my grandfather showed me but due to my diabetes and my disease, when I do get to sit down, I don't wanna get up. I don't have the junction, the strength and the energy to do it.

MEGAN FARTHING: Okay, it looks like we touched on a lot of interesting topics 41:00today, and a lot of your hostilities toward your disability, and what things you would do to change the uh system (cough) and how things are managed, and I would just like to thank you for your time and for your answers today.

TOMMY FARTHING: Well I appreciate you askin me these questions and givin me the opportunity to voice my opinion because I'm just like every other American citizen in this country, I would like my opinion, I feel like I should be able to voice my opinion because we fought wars to be able to do that.