Archive for the ‘Aging’ Category
Posted on May 3, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
BABY BOOMERS TIME TO GET READY IS NOW
BABY BOOMERS TIME TO GET READY IS NOW
(Part II Practice Prevention)
They didn’t see it coming, even though she had been in the hospital twice for a TIA. (The mini stroke) Yes, for a while after each hospitalization the doctor would keep Ethel on a blood thinner. But then eventually that would be discontinued, and Ethel and her husband Ed would forget about it and the “close call,” and move on with their lives.
That is until the day Ethel had the big one, the one that would keep her from ever walking again, ever using her left arm or hand. Oh, and place her in a Nursing Home for the rest of her life.
Low Dose Aspirin – 81 mg
It used to be called “Baby Aspirin” until the guidelines changed and it was no longer recommended for children under the age of twelve. At the same time it was widely recognized that this very small dose of Aspirin could keep the blood just thin enough to prevent that stroke that so dramatically took away Ethel’s ability to function.
Many people cannot tolerate Aspirin due to allergies, ulcers, bleeding problems or already taking other pain relievers. But for the vast majority of the aging population, a tiny pill that is also inexpensive, effective in prevention of a stroke or heart attack, are you kidding? If Aspirin were discovered today, we would be shouting it from the roof tops.
Eighty percent of strokes involve a blood clot cutting ff circulation to the brain. Of those, 36% like Ethel had a TIA before they had the stroke. The long-term results of stroke can be; paralysis, muscle weakness, impaired vision, memory loss or speech and swallowing problems.
Everyone who knows a Baby Boomer or is concerned about paying for the elderly in nursing homes in the future, because of their having had a stroke. Should be interested in this very small piece of prevention – the Baby Aspirin. Let’s all shout if from the roof tops, and prevent more Ethel’s.
Celebrate National Nursing Home Week – May 2011
Free Guide for Visiting the Elderly
Go To: www.pleasegettoknowme.com
(Click on Products)
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 2, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
BABY BOOMERS TIME TO GET READY NOW
(Part I – Develop you own caregiver)
Sheila said she is 62 this year and adds “I’m worried.” Sheila had breast cancer two years ago and is the only wage earner for her family. She lives in a three flat with her son, daughter-in-law, their two small children and her niece. The whole family depends on her and she is working two jobs to do it.
Sheila bought her building 10 years ago and like so many she doesn’t think it is worth what she paid then. She can just handle the mortgage and all the other expenses for a family of six. But how she says can she ever retire, she has 20 years left on the mortgage.
A good place to start would be to have one of the adults in the home take a course as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Giving Sheila the gift of reassuring her that someone will always be able to care for her, will decrease her anxiety about the future now. While not as numerous as they once were, the job of a C.N.A. comes with a variety of schedules, environments, as well as benefits.
The benefits of Certified Nursing Training
Nursing assistants learn:
- Basic first aid.
- CPR training and certification.
- How to walk, bathe, feed, dress, transfer from one surface to another and toilet the elderly or disabled.
- How to use proper body mechanics and protect themselves from injury, especially their back.
A Certified Nursing Assistant course can be found by going to: CNA.campuscorner.com
How will all of the “Sheila’s” survive when we will no longer have a government system that cares for every elder? As this large generation of baby boomers ages, every family will need someone who knows how to care for a fragile or disabled elder.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on April 5, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
RETIRE, STOP WORK, CALL IT QUITS, PACK IT IN – HOW ABOUT VOLUNTEERING?
Ralph is what many would call an old codger. He likes to talk about how he paid his “dues.” He worked his time and now deserves to rest and enjoy himself. He enjoys riding around on his lawn mower, so he does cut his own lawn. But that is about it, if he needs anything else done around the house he gets someone else to do it.
While Ralph was an exceptional worker for 40 years, he has now been retired for 10 years, years filled with watching TV all day long. His list of doctors and medications gets longer every year. He would tell anyone that this takes up a lot of his time, just going to his appointments and getting to the drug store.
When Ralph gets his Social Security check, he feels no guilt – this is just the money he earned and has coming. But the numbers don’t add up. When Ralph decided to “pack it in” yes, he had contributed for forty years. But those forty years of contributions in no way touch the 10 years he has received $23,000 each year in Social Security payments.
We now know that a person who retires at 65-66 can realistically expect to remain much the same until they are close to 80. A good 15 years to be of service using the skills and wisdom the elder has acquired for the next generations.
How about a system where if the retirees doctor determines they still have the physical and mental capacity to produce, the retiree would be asked to volunteer. The need is great – from working mothers who desperately need child care, food programs for the hungry, VA hospitals who need transport people, States that have to cut their pay roles for human services – to churches that could use more willing hands.
What Ralph doesn’t know is that if he did get out of the house to do something for others he would really be helping himself more than anyone else. He would have more to talk about than the last conversation on daytime talk. Instead of focusing on what he deserves or is owed and past accomplishments, he could join everyone else in the present.
Volunteer –a person who freely offers to do something, an unpaid worker – doesn’t that have a much nicer ring to it than retiree?
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
Posted on March 10, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
FINANCIAL SANDWICHING, BABY BOOMERS SANDWICHED BETWEEN AGING PARENTS AND CHILDREN
“More than anything else, it’s the financial drain that bothers me,” Mary said. “My mother has just moved in with us, Al calls it financial sandwiching.”
That’s a good term, because Mary and Al are sandwiched between the financial demands of raising a family, preparing for their children’s college education, and providing for Mary’s mother, who has almost no retirement income.
People like Mary and Al are labeled baby boomers-members of the seventy-six million Americans born between 1946 and 1964-nearly a third of the nation’s population.
They are feeling pessimistic, scared, and depressed.
“It’s not just the problem of providing for our kids’ college needs and caring for Mary’s Mom. On top of that we haven’t done a lot of preparing for our retirement,” Al said. “I’m forty-nine. That means I’ll probably have about fifteen years to set up a good retirement fund, I worry that I can’t do it.” Al’s worry was not about the amount of money coming in. He holds a good position, and Mary’s part-time consulting brings in a higher-than-average income. It’s the output that concerns them. Like a lot of others in their generation, they’ve lived high and bought what they wanted. Mary and Al chose the lifestyle that says, “Get it now. Enjoy it now. Pay later” – an attitude contrary their own parents’ lifestyle.
“My dad always said to save the money first and then get what you want,” Mary added to Al’s words. “We assumed that by the time we had saved the money for everything we wanted, we wouldn’t be young enough or healthy enough to enjoy the benefits.”
As they try to prepare for their own retirement years, they’re starting to feel trapped. Mary says she avoids thinking about it. “When I do, I get depressed,” she says.
“And we’ve just taken in my mother,” Mary says.
Mary and Al need financial counseling. This may be a good time for them to look objectively at their lives. In their sandwich position, they may need to look toward their children’s future, but they would do well to examine the present situation with Mary’s mother.
They may be able to realize that although money matters, ultimately it’s not what matters most. If they’re really perceptive, they may realize that, poor as she is, Mary’s mother may have found something more important than three vehicles and a large house.
She is loved and wanted. Isn’t that of greater value?
Book excerpt: My Parents, My Children, Spiritual Help for Caregivers – By Cecil Murphey
Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
Posted on March 3, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
WARNING TO COUCH POTATOES – INACTIVITY BRINGS DISEASE
PART III
The research is conclusive – you don’t even have to break a sweat to achieve the health benefits of exercise. A 30 minute walk a day, at a brisk pace, will get the circulation going enough to prevent disease. The benefits of a daily walk are never going to be a “breaking story” on the evening news, because there is no way to turn this into a pill that someone can sell.
So strap on the gym (sorry, walking) shoes and just move, to reduce the incident of:
- Heart disease – there is a good reason some exercises are called “cardio” they get the blood moving and moving blood is good for the heart. Walking can raise the good cholesterol, lower the bad, lower blood pressure – walking improves the function of the arteries and brings down blood pressure.
Yes, we have all heard the stories of the ultra- fit person, who died suddenly of a heart attack. What we don’t read about is a guy like Brad who has poorly controlled diabetes, is in his mid- forties, never played sports or exercised. Brad had a major heart attack two years ago and was in the hospital for weeks, the damage to his heart was catastrophic. No one thought it possible for him to survive.
When Brad was discharged from the hospital he looked and moved like an old man. Every movement was slow and painful to watch. But move he did. At first he could only walk a few minutes before becoming so tired and winded that he needed bed rest. But he kept at it; recovery was his full-time job and exercises his medicine.
Two years later looking and moving like a guy in his thirties, he is not only back but better than ever. He will never be a “jock” but he isn’t sitting on the side lines anymore, because he has a second chance.
- Diabetes – Clinical trials have proved that environmental factors are responsible for 91% of cases of Type 2 diabetes. And physical activity is one of the most effective environmental factors responsible for lowering the risk of developing diabetes.
- Stroke – A stroke that reduces oxygen to the brain, not the stroke that results in bleeding in the brain, is impacted by exercise. Many strokes are due to an enlarged and poorly functioning heart. When the heart rhythm changes (Atrial Fibulation) blood can pool in the heart causing clots, when those clots move to the brain, they will cut off the blood supply causing a stroke. Once again it is a problem with the heart and exercise can reduce the risk.
Please excuse me – I’m going to take a walk.
Many Thanks to all the readers who are recommending this blog on their
Facebook and Twitter sites. You are the reason for the success of this blog.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
Posted on March 1, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
WARNING TO COUCH POTATOES – INACTIVITY BRINGS DISEASE
(PART II)
Couch potato, bed potato – why walk when you could just stand, why stand if you can sit and why sit if you can lie down – that’s Marvin’s motto. A couch potato, is a person with such an inactive lifestyle, that they are sitting or lying down most of their waking hours.
Marvin is 68 years old and has never met a TV show he didn’t like. There is no such thing as “nothing on TV” in Marvin’s world. There is always something on. Marvin spend 90% of his day lying bed watching TV, till 6p.m. when his wife comes home from work, and then Marvin transfers to his recliner in the living room to watch the prime time shows while he eats his dinner.
This has been Marvin’s routine for the past 10 years since he took early retirement. How has he fared physically with this lifestyle? He seems to now be paying the price.
Marvin no longer knows when a TV show is a repeat, everything is new to him. Marvin’s wife realizes he is no longer following the story line on the shows or remembering the characters, because he often has a blank expression or is asking her who each character is.
Marvin’s circulation is compromised in his legs as well as in his brain. Marvin now has to be doubly careful of any injury. The smallest bump on his legs, ankles or feet can produce a large hematoma that takes weeks to resolve. Now if Marvin does stand or walk for any normal period of time his legs soon become black and blue from the blood pooling in his lower legs.
It was after the Second World War that the “good life” really came into being. For so many generations people had to be active in order to survive. The human body was designed to move and not using those muscles causes them to shrink and weaken just as much as if you were on forced bed rest for a terminal condition. Marvin is giving himself a terminal condition by his inactivity.
As Marvin’s condition has deteriorated, due to inactivity, he is taking more and more medication to just keep going. He now takes 5 different medications just for high blood pressure. Marvin would just love it if there was a pill substitute for exercise.
We just can’t seem to come up with that cure in pill form yet. If we could there would be a very long line outside of Walgreens. Seems people like Marvin like nothing better than to have their answers in a pill – as long as they don’t have to get up and get it.
Many Thanks to all the readers who are recommending this blog on their
Facebook and Twitter sites. You are the reason for the success of this blog.
God Bless!
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
Posted on February 25, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
WARNING TO COUCH POTATOES – INACTIVITY BRINGS DISEASE
Many years ago when television was oh – so young, there was a particularly memorable commercial. The scene was a beach where a skinny young man is looking at this pretty girl. A very fit and muscular young man, comes over and steals the attentions of the pretty girl. The muscular lad then adds insult to injury by kicking sand in the face of the skinny youth.
The point of that commercial was all about building muscles to get the girl. There was nothing about health or fitness or a better life, just get the girl.
Nowadays, we know the long-term health benefits of eating healthy and getting exercise. But the serious repercussions of an inactive life aren’t often spelled out.
Also what doesn’t help are the words we use. “Couch Potato” is a term everyone knows and understands, but it lacks a certain amount of drama. However being a couch potato is dramatic and has a dramatic impact on your overall health.
If a person is over eating to the point of gluttony or eating only unhealthy choices at fast food places, we might say “He is digging his grave with a fork.” Now there’s drama. This statement is understood by all while it also provides a pretty clear mental image.
But “inactivity” is pretty much of a yawner. How about – Inactivity causes an increased risk of:
- Cancer
- Heart failure
- Diabetes
- Respiratory failure
- Dementia
- Hypertension
- Arthritis
Does this list command attention? Is this dramatic? Yet it is all too true.
Many Thanks to all the readers who are recommending this blog on their Facebook and Twitter sites. You are the reason for the success of this blog. God Bless!
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegetotknowme.com
Posted on January 12, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
FOR END OF LIFE DECISIONS YOU NEED TO REALLY KNOW THE ELDER AND THEIR WISHES
“Just don’t do anything to make me better,” said Vera to her daughter. They had been having a rather routine discussion about her care in the nursing home, when Vera made that very clear statement. The daughter was caught off guard with her mom’s comment. But when she thought about it later, it really made a lot of sense.
Vera has been not only ready to take Jesus’ hand, but since the death of her husband has been looking forward to it. She always speaks with confidence and assurance about seeing her deceased husband, parents and brothers when she gets to heaven.
Vera loves to talk about heaven, and what life on the new earth would be like. She never tires of reading the first chapters of 90 Minutes in Heaven, or Heaven by Randy Alcorn. So, when the question comes up of feeding tubes or any extraordinary measures to prolong life everyone knows what Vera wants.
When a very dear friend of mine’s mother was dying of stomach cancer, I wasn’t surprised when they tried every treatment available. Her mother was very much afraid of death and was willing to continue with any treatment possible, no matter how painful, to continue living. Eventually, of course the battle was lost, and the memory of her mom and those last days, is how scared she was.
At times adult children know the wishes of their parents and yet subject the elderly parent to unwanted treatments for selfish reasons. I remember the 92 year old man who had been on dialysis for many years and then developed gangrene in one leg. His son, unable to lose his father, talked the father into agreeing to an amputation. The elderly man who didn’t want to go to a hospital or have surgery, died shortly after the painful procedure he never wanted.
Honoring the wishes of the elderly, means listening even when you don’t agree, and really getting to know the elder. Fortunately for Vera, her family members are confident in their understanding of her wishes. As confident as Vera is about where she is going.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
Posted on January 4, 2011 - by Nurse Virginia
ANNUAL WELLNESS VISITS FOR MEDICARE RECIPIENTS GREAT WAY FOR SENIORS TO START 2011
Tell all the seniors you know and see those smiles.
Medicare recipients – it’s a new day. Starting January 1, 2011 all 46 million Medicare recipients are eligible for annual Wellness visits. A Wellness visit is different form the regular Doctor’s appointment where the senior talks about illness, sickness and chronic disease. The focus here is not on getting on yet another medication, but changing behaviors that make those medications necessary.
The Wellness appointment will be about lifestyle changes, making better dietary choices and just taking the time to stress health instead of disease. This will be a chance to really sit down with your doctor and talk about your nutrition, how much exercise you get and identify bad habits.
Enormous health care price tag on future generations.
We are told that 75% of annual health care costs come from diseases that are brought about by lifestyle choices. Seniors worry about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s futures and the countries incredible debt. This is a way for all seniors to help out future generations by participating in Wellness dialogues with their doctors.
I remember a time when it was a rare occurrence to see someone jogging down the street. Now not only is jogging and running common, anywhere in the country. But, every town seems to have a Health Club with a full parking lot.
Now is the time for seniors to also focus on wellness. The Wellness program will present a challenge for doctors who may not have received adequate training in nutrition, disease prevention or exercise in school. But in time, as with everything else that is worth doing, the annual Wellness visit will one day become common place.
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
Posted on October 20, 2010 - by Nurse Virginia
IS THERE AN ELDERLY HOARDER IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
Shirley looks like anyone’s grandmother, always friendly, greeting everyone who walks by as she sits reading in a corner in the Nursing Home. The problem is, she never was married, has no children or grandchildren and when she goes home who will watch over her? Now when her therapy is ended and she has gained strength and better balance, should she go home?
If you look at her bright eyes, quick smile and how steadily she walks around the facility, sure – why not, discharge her to home.
As Paul Harvey used to say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
You see Shirley had been living in a Condo she had owned for years. Her neighbors called the police because of the terrible odor coming from the condo. What the police found was the typical apartment of a hoarder with stacks of saved magazines and newspaper. In addition the apartment had mouse droppings all over, human feces on the floors and carpets, a refrigerator and freezer that no longer worked filled with rotting food and a very thin Shirley who hadn’t eaten for some time.
Now, Shirley having been taken care of for the last 60 days in the Nursing Home, eating regular meals, working out with therapy twice a day, looks like she is ready to leave. After talking to Shirley’s direct care givers we learn that despite how great Shirley looks she is incontinent of urine and stool and doesn’t seem to be aware when she has an incontinent accident.
While Shirley can have a great conversation with anyone who stops by, she needs some help finding back to her room. Shirley was driving a car before she came to the Nursing Home but the staff notices a constant twitching of her right eye and they question if her sight and judgment are good enough to drive.
No family but she has us – the Nursing Home family.
While it seems her options are limited she has many people who care to help her sort this out. From calling a brother out of State to make sure he is aware of her situation to calling Home Health organizations, the facility staff are here to help.
Whether Shirley and her brother decide to have her stay in the Nursing Home or get help into the home, Shirley is no longer alone. The real question is, how many Shirley’s are out there, all alone, counting on the neighbors to notice?
Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
- Help support this site by buying my book! Click the link below for details. Thanks!
www.pleasegettoknowme.com
