A March 12, 2010 New York Times article, Deciding on Care for Elderly Parents in Declining Health, made me think about the process my husband and I experienced with his mother following a stroke. This is the fourth of several postings describing our journey. Read Part I of Moving Mother – Part II – Part III Gently Dismantling 66 Years … Continue reading
Tagged with senior parents …
Moving Aging Parents, Mother’s Move, Part III: Getting Started
This March 12, 2010 New York Times article, Deciding on Care for Elderly Parents in Declining Health, made me think about the process my husband and I experienced with his mother following a stroke. This is the third of several postings describing our journey. Read Part I of Moving Mother. Read Part II. Getting Started — the … Continue reading
Moving Aging Parents, Mother’s Move, Part I: When?
This New York Times article, Deciding on Care for Elderly Parents in Declining Health, made me think about the process my husband and I experienced with his mother following a stroke. This is the first of several postings describing our journey. Read Part II of Moving Mother Series Part III Part IV Why/When We Decided … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Caregiving, and Medicare Physicians
What happens if an aging parents needs or wants to go to a doctor that does not participate in Medicare? This situation has came up for us, and it may also be an issue for others. While most Medicare health claims are submitted by a person’s doctor or health provider, navigating the Medicare highway can … Continue reading
Aging Parents and Medication Side Effects
Recently my dad, who takes a number of blood pressure and heart medications, began to experience nosebleeds –they seemed to begin out of the blue. Family members and friends kept offering explanations for why the nosebleeds were occurring. Twice, when he had difficulty stopping the bleeding, Dad went to the emergency room at the local … Continue reading
Update on My Parents’ Blog
My parents worked hard to figure out (outwit?) the eccentricities of the Blogger site, and they managed to get their new blog up and running. They only needed a bit of help from me. I have made a mental note to think about writing some technology tutorials and attaching them to a technology tutorial posting … Continue reading
NIH Senior Net – A Senior Friendly Site
…and Tips for Making a Website Senior Friendly Take a few minutes to visit this NIH Senior Health site. Bring an aging parent along. Notice the great care that has been taken to make the site easy-to-read with large type and navigation links that are clear and uncluttered. This site is full of information on … Continue reading
Baby Boomers, Aging Parents, Caregiving Observations
About a month ago we attended an out-of-town gathering with fifteen or sixteen friends plus spouses, all in the 50’s – 60’s age group. Every single person we met that evening had at least one aging parent who needed caregiving and support. The variety of caregiving arrangements was interesting, and after a long evening of … Continue reading
Communication: We are Always Children in Our Parents’ Eyes
“We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.” Henry Ward Beecher Last night on the phone my mom directed me to take care of myself and rest up. She knows the past three years have been well-filled, and often tiring, as my husband and I assisted his mother with post-stroke … Continue reading
Aging Parents and Children: Wireless Medical Information
A few weeks age I wrote about a my mother-in-law’s atrial fibrillation, especially how she grew increasingly helpless as she felt the unusual heart beats while her physician never heard them. Even after Mother wore a monitor at home for 48 hour the monitoring it wasn’t enough to detect the problem. Additional consistent investigation was … Continue reading
Aging Brains: A Review of Welcome to Your Brain
If you think a lot about your brain and why it acts like it does, I’ve discovered a wonderful book. Welcome to Your Brain, by Ph.D. neuroscientists Sandra A. Aamodt and Sam Wang tells all sorts of stories and dispels lots of myths. Published in 2008, it’s filled with clear and easy-to-read information about the … Continue reading
Aging Brains: The “Senior Moment” Comment
As aging children most of us are used to hearing friends and colleagues make the “senior moment” comment. Just about any time a person has difficulty remembering something he or she will comment, “…oops, I’m having a senior moment.” I began noticing this in my late 40’s and now, ten years later, it happens more … Continue reading
Google Buzz and Gmail: Heads Up for Seniors and Everyone Else
If you or your parents use Gmail, as we do, be alert for the new Google Buzz. It is easy to check your e-mail and suddenly find yourself connected into Buzz, and right now if this happens there is almost no privacy. This is a newfangled social networking platform like Facebook or MySpace, but it … Continue reading
New Old Age Blog – NY Times
Love the New Old Age blog at the New York Times. This July 1, 2008 New Old Age posting, Our Parents Ourselves by Jane Gross, sums up the perspective of aging children confronting the aging parent experience — anxiety, love, concern, frustration, respect, and more. So much to learn. So much to give back.
Census Information and Aging Parents
I’ve written about seniors and aging parents and how they can interact with technology, computers, urban legends, and scams, but one aspect that I have not touched on is the upcoming census. Dale over at the Transition Aging Parents blog, has written an excellent post about helping aging parents avoid census scams. Census information gathering … Continue reading
Washington Post Health Section – Aging Well
Today’s Washington Post Health and Science section has a theme, The Aging Well Issue. Article topics include Alzheimer’s/memory, aging-in-place villages, and geriatrics experts discussing “good things about aging.” The Post also has a feature on Medicare with lots of information to help children of aging parents who are helping their parents with health issues.
My Mother (Mom)
I spoke on the phone with my mother tonight. What an amazing woman! Besides being one of the Obama super-volunteers in the Shenandoah Valley last year, she is active in politics, a book club, and church, and she is always ready to get in touch with a Congressperson or Senator about an important issue (right now … Continue reading
Technology and Seniors: Practice Makes It Easier
If you are an aging child and you have parents who use or want to use computers, check out this great web site. The Senior’s Guide to Computers, run and updated by Jeff Mayer, features wide-ranging advice, ideas, illustrations, tutorials, and much more. His explanations are in simple plain English, and it’s possible to choose … Continue reading
Making Our House Safer: For Aging Parents and For Ourselves
My husband and I keep hearing about people who fall inside their homes, some of them older seniors and some in our age range (50’s – 60’s). Most people trip over an area rug or lose their balance in the bathroom or on steps. Check out this online PowerPoint lecture at the University of Pittsburgh Supercourse … Continue reading
Anticipatory Grief
This National Cancer Institute web site features a number of explanations and resource links on bereavement and grief. One section, titled anticipatory grief, describes how people often feel and behave when the death of a loved one is expected. This type of grief usually applies in a situation where a person is seriously ill and … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 