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
Tagged with doctors …
Will Concierge Medical Practices Cause Medicare Decline?
Read High-end Medical Option Prompts Medicare Worries, an article posted by the Associated Press today (April 2, 2011). The article, by health reporter Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar, examines the increasing number of practices that are moving toward concierge medicine (also called retainer-based physician practices). Concerns abound about how this might affect the access to care by Medicare beneficiaries. Although … 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
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
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
Getting Ready for the Gray Tsunami… Staggering Statistics
The American Medical News, a publication of the American Medical Association (AMA), just published an interesting opinion piece, Coping with Baby Boomers and Staggering Statistics, by Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., a AMA board member. After the statistics, she has many ideas and recommendations for physicians, medical training, especially in relation to geriatrics information.
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
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
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:
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: Emergency Department Texting
According to the May 11, 2010 Washington Post, the Reston Hospital Center emergency department in Northern Virginia has added a texting service. The article, Reston Hospital Uses Cellphone Texting to Announce Emergency Room Waiting Time, explains how the hospital has enabled cell phone texting so that patients and their families can learn how long the … Continue reading
Late-Stage Dementia, Hospitals, and Feeding Tubes
A professor at the Brown University Medical School was the lead author on a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Hospital Characteristics Associated With Feeding Tube Placement in Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia (abstract). Joan M. Teno, MD, used Medicare data from 2000 to 2007 to evaluate how … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Medical Technology for Aging in Place
On April 22, 2010, the US Senate Special Committee on Aging convened a hearing, Aging in Place: The National Broadband Plan and Bringing Health Care Technology Home (view webcast of the hearing at bottom of committee page). The concept of Aging in Place is becoming a mantra, not only for our aging parents but for people … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Disposing of Unused Medications
If even one of your parents takes medications for a chronic condition, you know that it is not unusual for a switch or a dose adjustment. Changing medical conditions, drug interactions, and side effects in older adults require physicians to make changes, and each of our parents has experienced the need for a medication adjustment … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Atrial Fibrillation, and Dementia
New research, published last week in the April 2010 edition of the journal Heart Rhythm, reports an association between atrial fibrillation and all types of dementia. The article, Atrial Fibrillation Is Independently Associated with Senile, Vascular, and Alzheimer’s Dementia (abstract and full text available), describes the study, which included 37,025 patients already a part of … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Dementia, and Driving Safety: New from Neurologists
This past week the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) held its annual meeting in Toronto. At this meeting neurologists revised and updated guidelines about driving and dementia. Adult children and physicians can use the information to help determine if and when an aging parent with dementia should stop driving. Here is a list of news … Continue reading
Elderly Patients: Nurse Practitioner? Physician’s Assistant?
Last night, April 13, 2010, the Associated Press article, Doctor Shortage? 28 States May Expand Nurses’ Role, by Carla K Johnson, appeared online, discussing the changing roles of nurse practitioners in the delivery of today’s health care. The article reminds me that my parents and others their age can be confused about the roles and … Continue reading
Aging Parents Are Safer — Dr. Atul Gawande Fan Club
If I were a more avid, public, and maybe younger Facebook user, I might start a fan club for Dr. Atul Gawande and invite lots of adult children who are aging parent caregivers to join. Ever since he started writing, Dr. Gawande has demystified medicine, hospitals, surgery, public health, and public policy. In my household … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Boomer Children: Advertising Medicines
Resolved: I will ignore prescription medication ads on television and in print. I will try not to ask my physician about a specific medication unless I think I have a problem with my current one and/or have attempted to get some reliable information (ads do not count as reliable information) that will help me have … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 