I’m an adult child with aging parents, and all my life I’ve looked around with awe, observing what people my parents’ age and older have left for their families and their world. Bridges, highways, businesses, savings accounts, good schools, paid off mortgages, parks, protective regulations, Medicare, social security, you name it. Even foreign aid to build … Continue reading
Tagged with adult children …
Reading Glasses and More Reading Glasses
I’ve just finished reading You Can See Mortality Better Through a Pair of Reading Glasses, an essay in today’s Washington Post. The opinion piece, by Janice Lynch Schuster, looks at reading glasses — and how nearly all of us eventually require them — as a metaphor for viewing and accepting our mortality. Writing with irony and … Continue reading
Apropos of Distracted Driving, Children, and Cell Phones
In light of my previous post about the apparent extra protective layer that grandparents have when they drive their grandchildren around, I decided to post this BMW distracted driving advertisement. I believe that telephones and texting play a big role in parents’ accidents these days. I wrote a longer post about the this BMW video … Continue reading
Are Kids Safer When Grandparents Drive?
I’ve just read an thought-provoking research article from the journal, Pediatrics, Grandparents Driving Grandchildren: An Evaluation of Child Passenger Safety and Injuries (freely available, PDF full text or abstract. As a part of this study, the researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School collected insurance data on 11,850 children who … Continue reading
Things We Take for Granted Used to be New!
A humorous, but pithy reminder for everyone — adults, adult children, and seniors — everything we routinely use and take for granted was new at one time or another. The video is a Norwegian Broadcasting Network comedy presentation. Enjoy!
Conversations about Dying
“… old age is a place we have never been. We may see it up close as our parents age, but we will never know what it’s like until we’re there.” The quote comes from a piece I just read, a post by Paul Staley at the KQED Perspectives site. Staley describes a conversation that he had with … Continue reading
Aging Parents: To Do or Not to Do?
If you are providing minimal aging parent support, but still find yourself in ongoing muddles about whether or not to offer help — or even just take over with a task — check out Paula Span’s NY Times New Old Age blog post today, When to Back Off. Span deftly sums up the adult child’s quandary … Continue reading
New CMS Video on Medicare Preventive Benefits
Check it out. Read the CMS press release about preventive benefits.
Aging Parents and Atrial Fib
The Kevin MD blog features an interesting post about atrial fibrilliation (afib). The article, Improving Atrial Fibrillation Communication Between Doctors and Patients, provides suggestions that can help improve communication between physicians and patients with diagnosed or suspected afib. Written by Mellanie True Hills, a patient advocate from Texas, the post suggests physician/patient afib do’s and don’ts. Over 18 months, my husband’s … Continue reading
Senior Patient Hospitalization, #5: The ER Worked Fast
If you like this post, please read my Senior Parent Hospitalization posts: Report #1: This Hospital Gets It, Report #2: Peace and Quiet, Report #3: Four Ways to Reduce Stress for Patient Families, Report #4: Observations from My Dad, Report #5: The Emergency Room Worked Fast, and Report #6: Learning About Cardiac Procedures and Surgeries. It was long past … Continue reading
The Good Caregiver: Rules of the Road for Adult Children
I have just read The Good Caregiver cover-to-cover. The recently published book, by Robert L. Kane, M.D., is an all-in-one user’s guide with thorough, indexed, and therefore easy-to-find information about every aspect of elderly parent caregiving. Though he is a world-renowned specialist on aging and long-term care (Read Dr. Kane’s faculty bio), and he produces lots of … Continue reading
Senior Parent Tech Support-Advice I Wish I’d Discovered Ages Ago
This New York Times article, Five Tips for Helping Parents With Technology, provides some helpful tips for people who are troubleshooting the computers of senior parents. Gadgetwise blog reporter Paul Boutin offers common sense suggestions that can simplify over-the-phone family tech support, and it’s my view that you should consider following these ideas almost to the … Continue reading
Aging and Decision-Making
No matter how old we are, making decisions and choices can be more difficult when we are presented with lots of options. As we age, we may take more time to make decisions compared to our children or grandchildren, and the situation can become a source of frustration for family members. Read Why It Takes So … Continue reading
A Garden Product for Everyone — But Great for Seniors
Since we’ve been helping our parents with various tasks, we are keenly aware that some products might as well have the words AGING (or aged) etched into them. Since I avidly read posts from the MIT Age Lab, AgeTek, Laurie Orlov’s Aging in Place Technology Watch, and Eric Dishman, I know that new products aimed exclusively at “old people” … 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
Learning About Retinas: Aging Parents and Adult Children
You can also check out my other posts about eyes and retinas. After going through five cataract surgeries with four senior parents and listening to people fret about floaters in their eyes, I thought I knew a lot about middle age and senior eye problems. But now I know that floaters can lead to flashes which … 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
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
As Our Parents Age So Do We 