When your parents go to the hospital and need to stay over night or longer, be sure the medical staff admits them as official patients and not for observation (which means that technically they are not admitted at all). People hospitalized for observation do not qualify for Medicare’s skilled nursing care benefit after leaving the hospital, and … Continue reading
Filed under Medical Care …
Elder Parent Surgery, Part III: Expect the Unexpected
After a successful day of treatment at the University of Virginia Health System we were relaxed. We thought that we had considered every detail of Mom’s surgical adventure. Then at 4:00 a.m. a fire alarm went off in the hotel on the night after my mother’s surgery, and we had to evacuate the hotel immediately. But … Continue reading
Elder Parent Surgery, Part I: Getting Ready
Tomorrow morning my 84-year-old mom — a woman who volunteers in election campaigns, walks or swims most days, consumes countless books and newspapers, power uses her computer, and has boundless energy — is having some serious surgery. We are spending the night in a hotel near the large medical center, which is also a teaching … Continue reading
Why Won’t the Medical World Stop Trivializing My Time?
Recently I had a medical test at a community hospital with free guest wireless, and I accomplished all sorts of work while waiting. The somewhat invasive procedure was fairly quick but with a longer wait than expected. However, I barely noticed. When I arrived back at my job, I had done so much work at … Continue reading
Dementia Incidence Going Down? We’ll Just Have to Wait and See
Is the incidence of dementia declining? We really want this to be true, because it would mean a lot less suffering for our parents’ generation and in our own. It’s personal and as we age the threat of dementia feels closer and closer. Unfortunately, when we hear news about the incidence of dementia declining we … Continue reading
Detached Retina: Bubbles, Bracelets, and Sunglasses
Three weeks after the vitrectomy for a detached retina I see well out of my left eye. I mostly knew that my sight was returning after the first week of recovery, but other individuals with a detached retina may take much longer to know for sure. The concern about infection, less and less after that … Continue reading
Detached Retina: The Bubble and My Initial Recovery Period
Note: I received a good question asking why my head is up. I had just dressed to go home and the picture was snapped before I looked back down. My first week of recovery, following vitrectomy surgery to repair a detached retina in my left eye, is over. I’ve been thinking a lot about how … Continue reading
Detached Retina: After My First Surgery
My recovery from detached retina surgery seems to be pain-free, but it is arduous, given the need to maintain certain positions for long periods of time. As a person ages, holding these positions must be increasingly difficult. The Sunday morning surgery took place at a local hospital — where the surgery prep and recovery spaces … Continue reading
Detached Retina: The Discovery and Diagnosis
Last Sunday I had retinal eye surgery. Below is the post that I wrote just before leaving for the hospital. I am about to be on my way to the hospital for urgent eye surgery. A few months ago I wrote about eye and retina health after reading an article and remembering my retinal tear … Continue reading
Effectiveness – A Frustrating Concept in Medical Care
Over the past several years we’ve heard a lot about the effectiveness of medical treatments. It’s frustrating to put together the puzzle parts on this issue, but especially so when a family member is ill with a serious disease. Sometimes going forward with a treatment feels better than seeming to do nothing. When aging issues … Continue reading
Commentary on The Supreme Court Health Care Agruments
Aging children and their aging parents should pay close attention to these arguments. However the Court’s rules, its decision will affect the quality of medical care in the lives of many people. If you are too busy to hunt for and read even a few of the articles on the Supreme Court Health Care legislation arguments, … Continue reading
A Daugher’s Long Goodbye: A Book Review by Mom and Me
When my mom picked up A Daughter’s Long Goodbye: Caring for Mother at the church library, she brought it home and quickly read it cover to cover. Then she suggested that I read it — well actually she instructed me to do so. Caring for Mother, written in 2007, is not easy reading. Virginia Stem … Continue reading
Stroke Symptoms? Don’t Ruminate! Go to the Hospital!
Adult children should all know the location of the closest stroke certified hospital, and no one should hesitate to get to the hospital if any potential stroke symptom causes concern. Oddly enough, research recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), finds that the rate of people who experience symptoms and call … Continue reading
Maybe Some Good News About Fighting Alzheimer’s?
Short excerpt from The Fiscal Times, March 14, 2012 A Bold New Attack on the Alzheimer’s Scourge I’ve added a few links to this excerpt. Click on the above link to read the entire article by Michael Hodin, Executive Director of The Global Coalition on Aging. Dr. [Peter] Piot, who served as executive director of the … Continue reading
Read — Making the Best of What Could be the Worst – Atlantic Article
Read the March 7, 2012 Atlantic article, Making the Best of What is Often the Very Worst Time of Our Lives. Whether we are helping to support aging parents right now or thinking about the years when we become elderly adults, we all know the situation. Our health care system and long-term care options are … Continue reading
The Patient’s Checklist by Elizabeth Bailey
A patient checklist — what a terrific idea! Checklists are “in” right now. John’s Hopkins physician, Dr. Peter Pronovost focuses on checklists to reduce mistakes, reduce hospital-acquired infections, and improve patient safety in hospitals. Writer-physician Atul Gawande publicized checklists even more widely in his book, The Checklist Manifesto, describing more examples about how physicians can make … Continue reading
Listening to Bill Gates
In one of those weird coincidences, during the week that India was declared polio free — with lots of help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I had an opportunity to hear Bill Gates speak about education at a conference in Seattle. To appreciate the significance of this one only needs to ask a … Continue reading
New Nurses Study Needs Participants
More research with nurses will give us more insight into how people age. from Health Day, March 1, 2012 Researchers are looking for 100,000 female nurses and nursing students to join the long-running Nurses’ Health Study, which has yielded insight into a wide range of health issues, such as the benefits of physical activity and … Continue reading
Art in a Hospital? Does it Help with Healing?
Read this short Detroit News article, Saint. Joseph Mercy Oakland Enhancing Hospital Environment, appearing in the paper on March 22, 2012. Not only does this hospital currently display art on its walls, but it is now seeking art to purchase or commission to become a permanent part of the new South Patient Tower, currently under construction. … Continue reading
The Over-Medicalization of Aging
At what point, as we age, do we become accepting of aches and pains –aging that is — and stop thinking about rushing to a physician all of the time? How do we decide whether or not to fix a problem if it has more to do with the later years of our life than … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 