Archive for the ‘Aging’ Category
Posted on January 31, 2012 - by Nurse Virginia
STRESS RELATED CONDITIONS IN THE ELDERLY – ALOPECIA/SHINGLES
(PART III)
Louise could just as easily have developed Shingles after her emotional stress. (See part I) All of the potential was there. Louise had had Chickenpox as a child. Only people who have had Chickenpox get shingles, as it is the same virus. After having Chickenpox the virus lies dormant in your nervous system, near your nerve endings. It can be many years later that something triggers the virus to come back down the nerve, to the skin, and erupt again into a painful pustule or a “shingle.”
Louise is also well over 60 years old, most people who develop shingles are over sixty. All the possible triggers that bring on a case of shingles are not known. However, being exposed to a child with chickenpox is certainly one. And having a severe emotionally stressful event can bring about an attack of shingles as well.
Shingles may start out with an elder just feeling under the weather, or it might begin with intense pain. A few days later the red rash will appear. This rash develops fluid filled pustules, just as with chickenpox. You do not want to break these pustules. They will open and drain on their own. Opening any encapsulated blister or pustule provides an opportunity for infection to begin.
Using an antibiotic ointment as the pustules open and drain prevents against the possibility of infection. This fluid that drains is extremely itchy and very problematic for the confused elder who forgets not to scratch.
An elder who is confused and unable to express their feelings of pain, should be medicated as well as monitored for signs of pain. Keeping in mind that the pain of shingles can be present long after the last pustule has drained and healed. Pain management may be indicated for up to a year after the shingles event, especially if it was a severe case and involved the eyes.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on January 24, 2012 - by Nurse Virginia
STRESS RELATED CONDITIONS IN THE ELDERLY – ALOPECIA/SHINGLES
(PART II)
Frank also had significant hair loss; however it happened over so many years that he really didn’t notice until the hair started coming back. Because of his high blood pressure (he was on 5 medications) and his weight gain his physician advised Frank to stop eating wheat products. After going gluten free for several months, Frank noticed that at the age of 68 he was now growing a remarkable amount of hair on his arms and legs.
Frank did lose 55 pounds going gluten free and the edema in his legs was totally gone as well. But what he hadn’t expected was to see the re-growth of all that hair on his extremities. He had had Alopecia and hadn’t even realized it.
A person usually has only 80 – 90% of their hair shafts growing at a time. The rest are somewhat dormant for periods of about two months at a time. When the individual is impacted by one of the previously mentioned conditions, (see Part I) more hair shafts go dormant than normal and that is Alopecia.
Hair loss may be only noticed in one location or in patches. But in many extreme cases of Alopecia it may include all the hair on the body including pubic, eyebrows, eye lashes and so forth.
While stress may be the cause of this disorder, having Alopecia can also be a large source of stress. Usually time is the great healer here. As previously noted a dormant area of hair will start re-growth after two months. Many people with a spontaneous case of Alopecia will regain their hair in a year.
While the resulting baldness on your head will be stressful it will not be painful, susceptible to infection or potentially life threatening as Shingles may be. (See Part III Shingles)
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on January 23, 2012 - by Nurse Virginia
STRESS RELATED CONDITIONS IN THE ELDERLY – ALOPEIA/SHINGLES
(PART I)
The elderly couple was shopping at the mall, “their mall,” they had been there many times. Louise was getting tired, her knees hurt as they often did walking those hard floors. Charles told her to sit down for awhile and he would bring the car to the door. “Take your time,” he told her, “I’ll just wait.”
Which door? The problem came when they went to different doors. No one would ever know who was right, they just didn’t communicate before he left for the car. Louise went to the exit she thought Charles would be at, stood and waited on those sore tired knees till she was crying and still he didn’t come.
Charles was waiting at another door and because of the frustration of waiting, he became angry. Finally Charles started circling the mall checking all the doors and found Louise. Seeing Louise standing there crying, Charles became even angrier and began yelling at her. The situation had scared him and he reacted poorly.
Louise was in severe pain by this time and being yelled at in an enclosed car, where she couldn’t even walk away, didn’t help. When she got home she was beyond crying.
Soon her hair started falling out in large clumps. That episode at the mall was still so painful to remember, Louise being the mild mannered, meek person she was, she never said anything, she just kept going over it in her mind.
The loss of hair or Alopecia can occur because of medications, cancer treatments, fungal infections, hypothyroidism, hormonal changes – as after giving birth and many other environmental causes. Hair loss may be temporary or permanent. However this kind of hair loss was probably due to stress. The stress might be a significant illness, a crash diet, physical trauma as in an accident, or a shock to the system.
This episode probably would not have cause the hair loss in a younger person, but because of Louise’s age, close to 80 at this time, she suffered major hair loss for the next six months and had to wear a wig.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on August 15, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
WHEN THERE IS JUST NO REST FOR THE ELDERLY
The family was anxious to get her back home, but the 94 year old woman was just so tired. Her head kept dropping forward to the table she was sitting at, in the nursing home. Grace was much too tired to even stay awake long enough to eat. The staff could clearly see the old woman was exhausted, but the family wanted her home.
It seems this 94 years old woman had been the babysitter for four young children. The family not only needed her back to watch those children, but they also needed her social security check to get by. If she ended up staying at the nursing home they would lose not only the babysitter but her monthly check as well.
The social worker had become aware of this situation on a visit to the home and had arranged for the Grace to be hospitalized. The hospital found she was dehydrated, undernourished, and mainly tired. After a few days she was transferred to the nursing home, and now the family wanted to take her home.
How many of the very old are now pressed into service helping with child care because the family just has no other choice? How many of the elderly are take in by relatives for that regular check that comes from social security every month.
When times are hard, bills need to be paid and children need to eat, people look for income wherever they can.
The day the family came to pick up the old woman, they all seemed really glad to see her, and she to see them. A difficult position, for everyone, but they were a family.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on August 9, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
NEW TECHNOLOGY PROVING TO BE GREAT WAY FOR CONFUSED ELDERLY TO EXERCISE AT HOME
Are you looking for an affordable, fun and effective way for your elder to exercise at home? Look no further than your local video game store. These reality virtual systems help the elder by helping the brain create new cells. The brain does this through repetitive movements that are provided by the games while providing a challenging experience and fun as well.
When the elder is bowling and throws the ball (virtually of course) with his right arm to his left side while standing on his left foot, the elder is crossing his midline and improving his balance. Anytime you stand on alternate feet and move your arm crossing the midline you improve the right to left side connections in the brain as well.
Elders really love playing these interactive games. The elder enjoys immediate positive feedback during the game by tracking performance. This enables the elder to try to improve their score and in so doing, challenge themselves to do better.
The games are not only fun but are made to be very visually appealing. In fact they help the elder visually as well as with hearing and the sensory stimulation of playing a game. And yet even with all of this technology the games are very simple to understand and follow.
Whether you elder is bowling, playing tennis or golf the movement can energize the elder, while moving different muscle groups. The convenience of having this level of activity available right in your home is hard to measure in value.
Systems that are just as exciting to the grandchildren as to grandpa are available everywhere. And all the memories that are being created of “Grandpa” are priceless as well.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on August 8, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
TURNING 65 – MAKE YOUR CHOICE, A BURDEN OR PART OF THE SOLUTION
Carol just turned 65, right ahead of that huge amount of baby-boomers coming up behind her. She is torn between relief because she has made it to Medicare and next year Social Security, to the worry of who will pay for it. She certainly doesn’t want to be a burden to her children, but at the same time she doesn’t want to be a burden to other people’s children either.
Carol isn’t very comforted by the pictures in the senior magazines of happy, happy retirees shopping and doing fun things in pleasant places under the headings of “the best places to retire.” All Carol thinks is what are these people doing all day? Are they just walking around all day with their nice clothes and bright smiles saying “I’m retired.”
Carol’s husband has been retired for 10 years already and is fond of saying “I earned it” when the subject of Social Security comes up. Sorry Bob, you didn’t contribute anything near what you have already taken out. And so far from Carol’s reports you have clocked an amazing amount of hours in front of the idiot box.
Is this what everyone has been waiting for? The opportunity for a self-indulgent generation to show the world what being really self-centered looks like?
This isn’t what Carol has in mind – there won’t be two sitting front of that black box when she retires. Carol wants to be of service, be needed, make a difference for someone. There are so many opportunities to volunteer, that Carol will have her pick of things that she really enjoys doing that will make a difference.
How about showing the world what a generation of motivated volunteers can do.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 26, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
WHEN THE ELDER IS BITTER AND ENJOYS HOLDING ON TO ANGER – IT ISN’T PRETTY
“You know the problems we have in this family, and you don’t want to go there,” the angry, bitter sister said, while shaking a crooked finger at her older sister. While Joyce didn’t know exactly what “problem” her sister was referring to this time. What she did know, is that from a small child, this younger sister had always been bitter.
The definition of bitter is: feeling or causing resentment, intense and full of hatred, very cold, sharp, hostile, nasty, spiteful – and the list goes on.
It is very sad when those words can bring to mind someone you know. Even more so when the person it brings to mind is a relative and the bitterness is directed at you. Joyce can remember her sister when she was little, and pictures from those days validate Joyce’s memories. Her little sister didn’t smile, not even for pictures. The seeds of discontent were taking root even then, and her sister was forming resentments that would last.
As people age there is less likelihood of them becoming bitter or angry if they have felt successful in their lifetime. It has nothing to do with accumulating money, things, or having others tell you that you are successful. The only voice that counts is the voice inside your head. If that voice tells you that other people had breaks you didn’t have, they had someone to help them and no one ever helped you, all the negative thoughts that build resentment you will end up bitter.
Are you drawn to or do you gravitate towards the bitter person? Most people don’t, in fact most people would just as well avoid the bitter elder. Should you always be expected to try to make them happy? There are some people who just can’t be made happy in this lifetime.
What a blessing not to be the kind of person who is bitter and holds grudges. It is a wonderful gift from God, that because of Jesus, he doesn’t hold grudges either.
Virginia Garberding R.N.
Director of Education, the Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on July 5, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
MOVING DAY – WHEN THE ELDER LEAVES HIS COMMUNITY FOR THE NURSING COMMUNITY
Fred said his goodbyes to the neighborhood today. Not that too many people seemed to notice the old man on the porch, waving his cane and calling out “Goodbye” to every passing car. Truth be told, Fred hadn’t made too many friends in the neighborhood. Especially during these last years as he became more easily angered and argumentative with his neighbors. Yelling at neighborhood kids, for every little thing doesn’t make for many friends.
Fred had moved in with Bonnie about fifteen years ago. They never did marry, not choosing to lose the financial benefits of remaining single. (Like so many other elders these days) Maybe this crucial fact makes today, this moving day, so much easier for Bonnie.
Fred has become very fragile, so much more apparent on this very important day. Fred not getting much attention on the porch, now shuffles out into the middle of the street, as he waves his cane, to stop cars and say his goodbyes. At closer inspection you wonder how long his dentures have been sliding around, clicking and clacking in his mouth that way. He tries to smile as the tears run down his shrunken, wrinkled face and he tells of how much he has loved living here.
Bonnie is making trips to the garbage with bags and boxes as she obviously is cleaning out the house. And you think, “Wow, Bonnie must be almost 80 now herself.” It must have been just too much for her, at her age, to keep taking care of Fred.
The cars pull in the driveway; Fred’s kids are here to pack up the things he will be taking to the nursing facility. While everyone swings into action, Fred just stands on the porch looking around for the last time. When they are ready, the cars drive out single file and it is Bonnie on the porch waving and calling “goodbye.”
We all are going to make that last trip, away from our home. We hope when that day comes we have lived a good long life, seen the things we wanted to see, done the things we wanted to do and maybe made a difference for someone else. We hope to die in our own beds with family and friends around. But just like for Fred, when we leave, it will be the last time we make the trip.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on May 25, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
AGEISM – DEATH BY INVISIBILITY
Some how we never think we will get “there,” old age. (where ever “there” is) Old age is relative to how old you are presently. When the Beatles belted out “Will you still need me? Will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” It was 1967 and sixty-four seemed a long way off to me, and yes seemed old. Not so much now.
To the early teen 16 seems old because you can drive. In your late teens the number is 21, because then you are old enough to drink. When I got married my brother-in-law was 30 which seemed ancient to me then. When I reached the other side of thirty, it appeared quite youthful.
The word “ageism” was coined in 1968 by Robert Butler. He said “Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different as themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings.”
How do the younger generations become so disconnected to the elderly? One way is through placement in a nursing home. When the elderly are taken out of the general society and grouped together in a facility they start to lose their individuality.
One day I was visiting my mother in a nursing facility and as her nurse was encouraging mom to take her medication. Mom looked up at the nurse and said “Sometimes I feel invisible.” There it was, no one prompted her. I certainly didn’t know that was coming. But she had the nurse’s attention for the briefest of moments and she told her how she felt. (those four words were the foundation for what would become my book: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance)
It’s over 40 years ago that Robert Butler coined the word ageism, and gave us his definition. But the definition seems even truer today than in 1968. There now seems to be an even greater disconnect between the generations. Maybe because so many families have had to relocate for financial reasons and moved away from the folks. Maybe it’s because we have become so busy, just trying to stay current and keep our heads above water. In 1968 two income families weren’t as common place as they are today.
Death by invisibility? What ever the reason, this is an “ism” that is someday going to affect us all. As the saying goes,” old age isn’t so bad when you think of the alternative.”
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on May 4, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
BABY BOOMERS – TIME TO GET READY
(Part III -USING FOOD TO AGE WELL)
Rose finally did it, she said it couldn’t be done; “a person can’t live without a piece of bread,” she would say. But on her vacation, a cruise yet with the buffet beckoning to her, she did what she always said couldn’t be done, she went without bread. And in doing that she came back looking ten years younger.
Everyone told her how great she looked, well rested, the color she has and in the middle of winter. Oh, the compliments came in. But the strange thing is six months after coming back from the two week vacation, Rose still looks great. And Rose still isn’t eating anything with flour; bread, pasta, bagels, cookies, pie, and cake are all gone from her diet.
Rose also realizing how she could now move so much better, her stiffness from arthritis was gone. Rose didn’t just look better she felt better, moved better, she could concentrate more. Now you couldn’t give this all up, for what a piece of bread? Rose wasn’t even tempted.
The big enemy of aging well-is inflammation. Inflammation in the brain, joints, internal organs, under the skin all makes the person appear soft, puffy and unhealthy.
Best anti -aging / anti-inflammatory diet – Mediterranean diet with no flour or sugar.
Pretty basic and popular right now:
- No flour products – other grains are allowed in moderation.
- No sugar
- Limit starches – potatoes (pick sweet potatoes if possible) starchy vegetables
- Pick lean light protein – fish (wild caught), poultry, limit beef and pork
- Substitute cold press olive oil for butter
- Lots of vegetables
- Fruit sparingly
Many people who have realized the benefits of becoming flour and sugar free are taking the next step and finding a holistic practitioner who does allergy testing. The skin tests many general practitioners still use are for major allergic reactions to foods or environmental irritants. Animal dander, pollen, and the rare food allergies that cause respiratory distress.
The holistic practitioner does blood tests that now can test an amazing amount of foods. Foods that don’t have the dramatic life threatening effects noted in the skin tests. But knowing which foods don’t agree with your body type, can help create a really individualized diet, all the while helping you age well.
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Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
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