When we are sick or injured or when we are planning to travel, we often try to recall past immunizations as well as determine if boosters are required. Yearly flu shots and the special pneumonia shots for our senior parents are fairly easy to remember. However, the boosters that update past inoculations are more difficult … Continue reading
Filed under Medical Care …
Taking Your Blood Pressure? Tips from the New York Times
I’ve just finished reading the best information about taking blood pressure in a December 13, 2010 New York Times article posted in the Science section. For years I’ve wondered about some of this information, and though I take my blood pressure on a regular basis, I could never get the answers to my questions. Read … Continue reading
Too Many Medications? More Aging Parent Health Problems?
Polypharmacy is a serious problem for many seniors. Here on AsOurParentsAge I’ve written multiple posts (links to a few at the bottom of this page) about the medications that our aging parents take for various chronic conditions. I’ve wondered, after considerable experience with my husband’s and my parents, why they have so many, and more … Continue reading
Three-Part Series on the Rigors of Aging Parent Caregiving
This week I discovered a great three-part series about aging parent caregiving, written by an adult child and published in the Redondo Beach Patch. I recommend taking a few minutes to read this set of short articles. When Mom Gets Old by Vanessa Poster appeared on March 15 – 17, 2010, and describes Ms. Poster’s … Continue reading
Medical Histories Support Aging Parents and Their Families
What is more important for the personal health of an individual –a family history taken by a physician or genetic testing? According to an Associated Press article published in the Washington Post, while genetic testing has important uses, people should be aware that a thorough family history taken by a physician is what Cleveland Clinic geneticist, … Continue reading
Another Great MedicareBlogger Post
MedicareBlogger has another posted interesting post, this time focusing on a man who wants a cheaper Medicare Advantage plan when he really needs a Medicare Supplement plan. Medicare Advantage Selling Season, a November 18, 2010 post, conveys a lot of information in a few short paragraphs.
Medicare Part D – It’s Time to Make Choices
It’s that time of year again. I’ve just been chatting with my mother about her annual task of choosing a Medicare Part D option for herself and my dad. Each year she looks at charts, chats with friends, consults with her pharmacist, studies web sites, and finally, after a great deal of thought, makes the … Continue reading
Seniors and Whooping Cough Vaccine
With a pertussis epidemic in California and cases on the rise in other states, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are recommending that elderly parents, especially those who have grandchildren or are around infants, get re-immunized against the disease. According to the LA Times report on the October 27th CDC panel … Continue reading
Great Interview With Dr. Berwick at JAMA
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Medicare Head Donald M. Berwick, MD, Takes on Mission of Health System Reform, should put to rest any doubt about his commitment to high quality medicine and to seniors’ access to it. The article is free and can be downloaded as a PDF. Some … Continue reading
An Alzheimer’s Statistic I Did Not Know
Writing in the October 27, 2010 New York Times, three prestigious AIDS advocates, including retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, call for a “man-on-the-moon” effort, setting a goal to stop Alzheimer’s, by the year 2020. Justice O’Connor, writing on the op-ed page along with medicine Nobel Prize winner, Stanley Prusiner (read his Nobel Price acceptance speech), and … Continue reading
More Senior Emergency Departments are Opening
More emergency rooms designed expressly for seniors are opening, according to an October 25, 2010 article in the Detroit News, Hospitals Designing Senior ERs to Cater to Needs of the Elderly. The report, by Detroit News reporter Melissa Burden, describes how hospital systems in Michigan are are opening senior ERs for the good of older … Continue reading
Health Care Law and Medicare
A Kaiser Health News (KHN) article written in collaboration with a reporter at the Washington Post analyzes some of the campaign claims about the health care bill, including Medicare changes and potential changes in our coverage. The piece identifies, with clear explanations, what assertions are true and what are false (or at least strongly exaggerated). … Continue reading
Green Houses? So Why Not Green Hospitals? …and Free Wireless, too
Here’s an interesting article, Crown Sky Garden Grows at New Children’s Hospital. It describes how a hospital in Chicago is trying to be green, emphasizing wellness over sickness and open, airy, and calm spaces without noises and incessant interruptions. The sky garden sounds amazing, and I hope this hospital administration can translate the peacefulness of … Continue reading
Long-lived Seniors Give Advice to Med Students
A delightful article appearing in the September 7, 2010 Cleveland Plain Dealer describes a panel discussion presented to second year medical students at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Panel members, all in their 90’s, told the medical students what physicians need to do to be more helpful to elderly patients. The article, Elders … Continue reading
Health Care Costs Essays: Contribute Your Two Cents!
Over at the National Public Radio Shots blog is a short post about an essay contest, encouraging doctors, nurses, and patients (two different categories) to write a true story about the impact of high medical costs. The blog post, written by NPR health policy correspondent, Julie Rovner, describes the contest, the cool essay judges, and the … Continue reading
Palliative Care on the Diane Rehm Show (NPR)
Listen to an amazing episode of The Diane Rehm Show (NPR) that explores the recent study on palliative care in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Diane’s guests include Dr. Jennifer Temel of the Harvard Medical School, a lead author of the study, and Dr. Diane Meier, who leads the Center to Advance Palliative Care at … Continue reading
Cardiac Procedures and Surgeries – Good Descriptions
Last summer my father’s internist referred him to a cardiologist who found an abdominal aneurysm. Dad underwent several cardiac procedures. Understanding an enormous amount of information in a short time was difficult for everyone in our family, and especially for my parents. While the physicians’ explanations were clear and helpful to our family, many questions … Continue reading
Medicare Doughnut (Donut) Hole: $250 Sent Automatically
According to an August 10, 2010 press announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 750,000 rebate checks for $250 have already been mailed to Medicare beneficiaries who have already entered the doughnut hole this year because of prescription costs. Adult children need to be sure that a parent reaching the doughnut … Continue reading
In the Hospital: Does Anyone Know What’s Happening?
When you or a family member has been in the hospital, do you know the names of the physicians who visit or the exact names of prescribed medications? Have you been informed of the side effects that might occur? Apparently a lot of people — physicians and patients — perceive things differently according to interesting … Continue reading
Calcium Supplements? To Take or Not to Take?
Calcium supplements are a part of a daily regimen for many aging parents and for adult children. Most of these adults take calcium supplements to build stronger bones and avoid osteoporosis. However, new peer-reviewed research suggests that the benefits of taking calcium may be outweighed by increased risk of cardiovascular events. The July 29th edition … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 