I cannot get Rachel from Credit Card Services to stop calling me. She has such a lovely voice, and she always tells me that there is no problem with my credit card. But then she continues on, encouraging me to talk to one of her colleagues about lowering credit card interest rates. Moreover, it will … Continue reading
Posted by Marti Weston …
Hospitals in Cleveland Introduce ER’s Focused on Senior Care
This Cleveland.com article, University Hospital’s Bedford, Richmond ERs Focus on Senior Care, shares important changes at yet another medical center, changes that focus on the needs of seniors when they go a hospital’s emergency facility. How wonderful that the first senior-friendly emergency room, at Holy Cross Hospital in suburban Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC … Continue reading
When Family Members Accompany an Aging Parent to the Doctor
Visiting the doctor’s office with an aging parent can be one the most puzzling situations for adult children as they provide increasing support. The dynamics of the situation can be confusing, especially in a time when family roles and responsibilities are changing. My husband visited the doctor with his 90-year-old mother on several occasions. At … Continue reading
What is a Meta-Analysis and How Does It Help Find Better Information?
If you are researching a course of treatment or a cause of disease for an aging parent, family member, or friend, the chances are that you will read scientific studies. Perhaps you will check PubMed, the National Institutes of Health site that has abstracts of all published scientific research. You can visit the National Library … Continue reading
How Long Before We Focus on the Need for Clear Conversations About the End-of-Life?
How sad is this? I guess it is not surprising that conversations with families about end-of-life and time left to a sick person still are not direct and clear for everyone. Click on the image below and read the November 16, 2011 New York Times New Old Age blog post by Paula Spann. One of … Continue reading
Figuring Out How to Adjust a Much-loved Thanksgiving Recipe, Low Sodium Diet, VIII
Recap: My dad has congestive heart failure, so he is on a low sodium diet. My husband and I decided that we too could join my parents’ adventure with low-sodium eating. I’ve been posting occasional updates about our experiences (read my first low-sodium post in the series). My Thanksgiving 2011 stuffing experiment is working! We … Continue reading
Thanksgiving Stuffing: Low Sodium Diet # VII
I am aiming to prepare a low-sodium Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve just read an article, Experts Warn: Thanksgiving Poses Hidden Sodium Dangers, describing the dangers of stealth sodium in Thanksgiving foods. The Associated Press article, which appeared in NJ.com points out that people can reach and exceed the appropriate daily sodium intake just in the one … Continue reading
End-of-Life Documents — Don’t Mess Around
Many years ago, shortly after my daughter was born, my parents asked my husband and me about our will. It turned out, however, that they were less concerned about a will than they were about whether we had signed medical directives or health care proxies that defined what should be done is case one of us, … Continue reading
U.S. Adults Use Social Media: As American as Apple Pie
The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published new social media data, this time asking why American adults use social networks. From my point of view, keeping in touch with people is a grand old American tradition, as traditional as apple pie. Over the years whether it’s over the backyard fence, via snail mail … Continue reading
The Spirit Catches You: Medical and Cultural Misperceptions
For several months I’ve listed Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, as my current read. While the story describes a struggle between a refugee Hmong family with a sick child and the medical world, the book, with its emphasis on cultural assumptions and misperceptions, is well worth the attention of … Continue reading
More Automotive Changes for Aging Adults
A while back I wrote a post about the Ford Motor Company’s plans to increase the font size on dashboards, starting with car models in 2012. The other day, via Dr. Bill Thomas’ Changing Aging blog, I read an article with more information about automotive changes. The piece was published on the SmartMoney.com Encore blog. In A Stethoscope … Continue reading
Another Article on the Geriatrician Shortage
Read the Associated Press article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, about the the shortage of geriatricians. In Boomers’ Aging Casts Light on Geriatrics Shortage, reporter Matt Sedensky describes the increasing shortage of geriatricians –physicians who are trained to treat aging seniors. For those of us who are moving toward retirement, this is a serious problem. Given … Continue reading
What it Takes to Write Good Remembrance
Late in 2009, soon after I began writing this blog, my husband’s mother was dying, and we were making lots of notes about her long life. Before we sat down to write a remembrance, however, we looked around on the web for ideas, hoping to find some examples to read. Not much was available. There were … Continue reading
When an Aging Parent is Sick: Where to Get Reliable Information
So your parent is in the hospital or just returned from a big deal medical appointment. Or maybe it’s you, the adult child, in this situation. Physicians have diagnosed a new condition, they are prescribing medications and tests, and you are hearing — and trying to absorb — lots of unfamiliar medical information. Where does one … Continue reading
iPad for Dad, #20: Battery Life
If you are still thinking about purchasing an iPad, either for yourself or for a senior parent, read the excellent, and very entertaining, iPad battery tribute over at Paul’s iPad blog. iPad batteries last a long time. Even when a person is working on heavy-duty projects, charging on a daily basis is rarely required. Best … Continue reading
Read More on Green House® Homes
I’ve just read the post, Two New Green House Stories, over at Allen Power’s blog. His post tells a story that illustrates how Green House® “at home” expectations and environment make an enormous qualitative difference for an aging senior. And be sure to read far enough along to get to the mattress anecdote — it ‘s a hoot. … Continue reading
The Palliative Care Tent: How to Invite People In?
The Los Angeles Times published an October 24, 2011 article, The Promise and Pitfalls of Palliative Care, by Melissa Healy. In her article Healy describes how palliative care helps people who are very ill and need to manage everything from their pain to living their lives with quality. These programs also support families. The author also … Continue reading
Still Learning at Age 88: Reading the Language of Life
My dad is an ardent lifelong learner. Here’s recent post from his private family blog. At the Eastern Mennonite University bookstore students and faculty have exclusive access for the first two weeks of the semester. Shortly thereafter, the store’s stacks are opened up to the public. So several of us from the retirement community next door, … Continue reading
Peer-to-Peer Aging Parent Info in the Digital Age
Again and again over the past five years, I’ve chatted with other adult children who are beginning to help out aging parents in a variety of ways. In each conversation I am struck by the degree of information sharing about issues such as medical care, chronic diseases, aging in place, technology, and so much more. Collaboration … Continue reading
How Does One Decide to Stop Getting Medical Tests?
I am astonished at the number of diagnostic tests prescribed for older seniors. When my husband’s mother was 90, she had a gynecological exam — we suggested it and the doctor carried it out — and though I knew the doctor was gentle, Mother cried out because of the discomfort. Afterward we wondered why we put … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 