Andy Griffith, of timeless Mayberry fame, stars in a new video celebrating the 45th birthday of Medicare, today, July 30, 2010. On this date in 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law. Griffith, now 84 years old, shares his enthusiasm for Medicare and for the upcoming improvements that will occur over the next several … Continue reading
Filed under Medical Care …
End-of-Life Decisions: Article by Dr. Atul Gawande
Dr. Atul Gawande has done it again — writing another compelling and riveting article that everyone will be talking about in the coming weeks. It can be downloaded at The New Yorker website. In Letting Go, published in the August 2, 2010, issue of The New Yorker Magazine, he examines how people make end-of-life decisions and how … Continue reading
Mother (age 110), Daughter (age 85) – Home Care Miracle
Today, July 18, 2010, the Washington Post featured an amazing story, Home-care Program Gives Mother and Daughter, 110 and 85, Long-awaited Reunion, that describes the home health care provided for an elderly mother and daughter in Washington, DC. After a multi-year separation and despite substantial health problems, the two women have been reunited. A slide … Continue reading
Healthy Aging – Our Health Histories: Deja-vu?
Yesterday I ruminated on healthy aging in my post, Thoughts on Aging: Boomers and Aging Parents, and today one of my Google alerts — one way I discover interesting information to post on this blog — pulled up a fascinating article from the New York Times. On first glance I thought it was recently published. … Continue reading
Thoughts on Healthy Aging: Boomers and Aging Parents
What can be fixed by a doctor and what can’t be fixed? What can be addressed by medication and what can’t be? We boomers only have to look around to see people we know, or maybe even ourselves, indulging in plastic surgery, tooth whitening and remodeling, and much more. Plus we have access, if we … Continue reading
Caregiving Orientation Publication
The Osher Center for integrative Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has published an amazing book, Orientation to Caregiving: A Handbook for Family Caregivers of Patients with Serious Illness. This comprehensive, 68-page publication, aimed at families caring for a family member with a serious illness, is just as applicable to adult children who are … Continue reading
New MedlinePlus Website – Terrific!
Visit the new, more user-friendly MedlinePlus website. As an advocate for aging parents, not to mention other family members, I find this new site terrific, easy to use, and well laid out. It’s colorful with carefully selected typefaces, and a user can get anywhere on the site with just a few clicks. After you explore a … Continue reading
Aging Parents: NIH Senior Health
The NIH Senior Health site, developed by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine, maintains a huge library of videos. According the website, the topics are chosen to “offer up-to-date medical information, tips for healthy living, and inspiring stories of older adults who are coping with diseases or conditions of aging.” … Continue reading
Three Medical Reference Sites for Aging Parents
The other day I asked some questions about a particular medication that has been prescribed for one of my parents. When we searched for information on the web, I realized that my parents’ computer needed permanent bookmarks to three reliable health and medical information sites: Medline Plus Mayo Clinic WebMD All of my health and … Continue reading
NICHE: Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders
A June 29, 2010 article, Preparing More Care for the Elderly, appeared in the New York Times. Written by Milt Freudenheim, who generally writes about the business aspects of health care, the piece describes how the country and our health care system can go about preparing for the huge number of people who are aging. … Continue reading
Hospital Acquired Infections: Kojo Nnamdi Show
The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, DC, broadcast a program on hospital acquired infections on Monday, June 28, 2010. Once you go to the program link — it has not yet been posted as a podcast — the part of the program on hospital acquired infections begins at 18:22. Kojo’s guests included:
Aging Parent Hospitalizations – Family Caregiving Tips
Our family has experienced two types of aging parent hospitalizations, and we handled each in a slightly different way. For surgeries a or medical procedures that required a hospitals stay, we monitored the situation one way, but if our parent was hospitalized overnight for dehydration or observation, we focused on different things. Our aim, in … Continue reading
End-of-Life and Pacemakers that Keep on Going
If you are not a regular reader of the New York Times, use this link to go to What Broke My Father’s Heart, by Katie Butler, published in the June 14, 2010, NY Times Magazine. Butler writes about the enormous difficulties her family encountered after a pacemaker was inserted into her father’s chest despite that he had … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Aging Boomers, Geriatric Competencies
Some time ago my father had an uncomfortable experience with a health care professional. A physician, without even a sentence of explanation, began administering the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), a short evaluation that measures cognitive functioning. My father, who knew exactly what was happening, was upset. As people age, assessments are important, but so are explanations. After … Continue reading
Aging Parents Traveling with Medications
It’s summer and many of us will be on holiday with aging parents who must travel with a fair number of medications. A Health Day article from Medline Plus shares a few tips about packing and traveling with medications. Also on the page are links to other traveler’s health resources. Share this post.
Aging Parents: Comprehensive Medicare Prescription Information
My favorite medical information source, Medline Plus, is maintained jointly by The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Medline Plus adds new features or highlights old ones just about every week, and today I discovered the Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage page, a comprehensive, “one-stop-shopping” site with links to important Medicare information about … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Medicare Part D Doughnut Hole Savings in 2011
According to a May 21, 2010, press release from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2011 Medicare Part D beneficiaries will see a 50 percent savings on applicable drugs in the doughnut (donut) hole coverage gap. CMS has issued new guidelines to ensure that these savings occur. The discount will apply to brand … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Hospitals, and Noise
The Boston Globe (Boston.com) recently published an article on hospital noise, Fixing the Noisy Hospital — a timely topic for my family. Written by Drake Bennett, the May 30, 2010, news story highlights the problem of hospital noise and its negative impact on healing. Last year I was directly involved it two hospitalizations, one for my … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Diseases of Aging, and Sodium!
The May 30, 2010, the New York Times published an article, The Hard Sell on Salt, about our high sodium diets, the reluctance to find ways to lower the amount of salt in food, and how the food industry continues to push for its inclusion in our foods, all despite documented risks to our health in … Continue reading
More on the National Library of Medicine: for Boomers and Aging Parents
In my last post I wrote about the tutorial at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) designed to help people learn how to evaluate health information on the web. NLM, one of 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health, provides much more on its website, information that is especially useful to families seeking … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 