The University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging has a superb website, filled with information and resources on aging and supplemented with links that can help people solve problems and better understand medical conditions. The site is easy for seniors, families, and caregivers to navigate. Many of the resources are Pennsylvania specific, however others, like the … Continue reading
Filed under aging parents …
Signing Up for Medicare Online #1: Getting Started
A member of my family is about to turn 65, so he applied online for Medicare a few weeks ago. He learned about the online application process because we happened upon this Medicare public service video with people from the distant past — the Patty Duke Show cast (including both identical cousins — Patty and … Continue reading
Mayo Clinic Medical Edge Radio
This morning I discovered a terrific and educational weekly radio program, Medical Edge Radio Weekend, a Saturday morning broadcast from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The program is easily accessible on the web. From a Twitter post I learned that the today’s (February 12, 2011) broadcast featured cardiologist, Dr. Rekha Mankad. For nearly an hour, Dr. … Continue reading
For the Person Who Remembers: Dementia’s Unbearable Pain
Many of us write about the grief, the burdens, the frustrations, and the unending pain of caring for a spouse or a parent with dementia, but rarely do we read an article that articulately expresses the confusion and torment that accompanies the disease as it incrementally destroys the essence of a beloved partner. In her … Continue reading
Facebook Privacy Settings Guide from Techlicious
Check out the Techlicious Facebook Privacy Guide, posted by Josh Kirschner on February 8, 2011 over at the Techlicious website. Maintaining control over privacy settings is a required and critical technology task for each Facebook user. Since sharing information is one of Facebook’s primary missions, the company wants to collect and share as much personal … Continue reading
Communication is Critical in Aging Adult Health Care
A friend’s 85-year-old mother had surgery requiring two different types of cardiologists. Besides the primary care physician (PCP), her parent was seeing the two heart physicians and two additional specialists for other reasons. When my friend, on a visit to the primary care physician with her mom, asked a question about dizziness and the possibility that … Continue reading
Seeking Better Things to Buy as We Age…
A must-read article, In A Graying Population, Business Opportunity, appeared in the February 5, 2011 New York Times. Reporter Natasha Singer describes her visit to the MIT Age Lab as well as her experience wearing the Age Gain Now Empathy System (listen to an NPR system about these special suits), and she writes about the need for … Continue reading
Aging, Respect, Caregiving, and Honor: How Many of Us Could Do This?
For Mr. Bronson, a Neighbor’s Kind Act Led to a New Family tells the story of a couple in the Washington, DC area, John O’Leary and Nadine Epstein, who became friends and shared a home with Mr. Bronson, a 90-year-old man who had lost his home. What began as a spontaneous offer of a bedroom 25 … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Adult Children: Back Aches!
Most of us have experienced back aches of some type, and a fair number of our senior parents have back pain even more often than we do. For me, the only solution is to wait out a back ache and keep moving, even if it doesn’t feel so good to move (and it doesn’t). Most … Continue reading
Senior Gait Speed and Life Expectancy
Bob (not his real name) is an active man in his mid-90’s. Whenever we made early morning visits to his senior community, we found him up and walking before breakfast. If the day was especially cold, he made rounds of the various corridors, regularly changing floors and always waving a cheerful good-morning to residents emerging … Continue reading
Dale Carter – Transitioning Your Aging Parents Book Tour
Dale Carter’s book, Transitioning Your Aging Parent, is a must read for anyone with senior parents who need extra support. The book has been well reviewed — a resource that helps right now, and honestly, it still may be a useful resource years from now when we require support from our children. Follow Dale’s blog, … Continue reading
Waiting for a Doc or for Anything Else: Possible Things to Do
Waiting for an appointment in a medical office is a pain in itself and not just senior parents. All of us hate sitting around, inactivity enforced, while we wait for someone to help us. If I don’t plan ahead, bringing something to do so I can use the time, I gently chide myself, because it’s a … Continue reading
Many Seniors Don’t Know About Medicare Extra Help Subsidy
According to a January 4, 2011 Kaiser Health News (KHN) article, many American seniors who qualify for a Medicare Part D subsidy that reduces prescription costs have not signed up. The article, 2 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Missing Out On Discounted Drug Coverage, explains that the program, called Extra Help, lowers medication costs and reduces money spent … Continue reading
Each Time the Violence Feels Closer
Three older seniors died Saturday at the Arizona shopping mall where a young disturbed man started shooting with a gun, killing six, including a 9-year-old girl, and injuring more than a dozen others. Some of the dead were simply waiting their turns to ask their congressional representative a question, probably about Medicare or Social Security. … Continue reading
Be Proactive With Atrial Fibrillation!
It’s been a year and a day or two since my husband’s mother died, and frequently we think about her stroke and its effect on the last 30 months of her life. To support the health of our other senior parents and to be sure we know enough to be advocates for our own health, … Continue reading
Medicare Taxes and Benefits Just Don’t Add Up
A January 3, 2011 Washington Post article, Analysis Illustrates Big Gap Between Medicare Taxes and Benefits, describes an Associated Press poll that found that most people believe they deserve all of their Medicare benefits with no cuts, no increased costs, and no additional Medicare taxes, even though most have paid in far less taxes over … Continue reading
Strokes Don’t Just Happen to Aging Parents
Many middle-aged adults listen to Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion commentaries on life, and a good number of us have been tuning into the radio program for 30 years or so. Few aspects of daily experience escape his humorous and sage observations — families, travel, children, politics, writing, arts — you name it, and not surprisingly, … Continue reading
Remembrances: Keeping Memories Alive
How can we remember a loved one and all of the cherished memories? In other blog posts I’ve described how my family went about writing remembrances and obituaries, and I’ve seen a number of wonderful media presentations sharing pictures, video, and spoken tributes. One good friend hosted a hymn-sing remembrance, an evening of friends singing and … Continue reading
Medicare: 2011 Updates and Innovations
If a senior parent in your family is on Medicare, or if a family member is an adult who will turn 65 in 2011, significant changes are coming in 2011 as a result of the healthcare overhaul. A total of 21 healthcare changes are supposed to be implemented, beginning January 1; however, a smaller number … Continue reading
Senior-Friendly Holiday Activities and Even Oklahoma!
This past week three generations of my family (age range 29 – 87) and one small dog spent several days together. Over the 2010 Christmas weekend my two senior parents, my husband and me, our millennial daughter and her husband had great fun with one another. We especially celebrated our good health, because last year my … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 