Category: The Aging Journal
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Moving my demented friend to fulltime care
Sharing my experience of moving my friend with dementia into our community’s Health Center where Assisted and Nursing Care are available as part of our contract. My friend, Traci (not her real name of course) is 90, virtually devoid of short term memory and sometimes very anxious—a bad combination. When…
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The dangers of New Year’s Diets for the Elderly
My joy in celebrating a New Year is often dampened by the absolute onslaught of advertisements and resolutions featuring diet products claiming to extend your life, improve your social life, etc. The amount of science behind those claims is debatable at best, and perhaps even dangerous for us old folk. …
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Child Resistant Pill Bottles….
Louise Aronson, in her recent book Elderhood, cites the story of child resistant pill bottles to illustrate the casual disregard given to the needs of the elder generation when medical, governmental and corporate decisions are made. Most of us remember when pill bottles were easily opened. Children were often rushed…
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Politics, Aging, and Auditory Processing
Recent news stories here in Pennsylvania feature discussions of the “auditory processing disorder” (APD) of our senatorial candidate, John Fetterman. As he explained prior to his nationally watched debate with his Republican opponent: “I might miss some words during this debate, mush two words together….” He was provided with a…
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End of Life is Like A Fine Sunset
To answer the questions asked in the previous post about when and how we disengage from frenzied life, I gathered some very wise responses from thoughtful friends. I particularly liked these two: Actually most of us are not at the end of our lives yet. These are our last years, yes.…
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Return of the Frenetic Life
It didn’t take long for the relaxation of the cruise to wear off. We arrived home on Saturday afternoon, tired and footsore after a long day. In accordance with our plan, we raced off to the grocery before exhaustion could set in and prepared to hunker down for several days…
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The Invisible Older Woman, Part II
An erudite literary commentary by Akiko Busch in The Atlantic, entitled the “Invisibility of Older Women” connects an older woman’s decision to decrease public presence with an increase in empathy and insight into the broader world. Her commentary takes my simple little observation in an earlier post about invisibility to…
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Death as Normal
Almost every month, there are two resident deaths in our senior community of 400 residents; the deaths are typically balanced by the arrival of two new residents—a dynamic equilibrium of mortality. Typically, a notice is posted, sympathy expressed, and memories of the deceased briefly shared by those who knew them.…
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“Feed Me” and the Medical System
Using my quest to resolve breathlessness, a rumination on the cost of medical care and the lack of understanding of our bodies.
Uncharted Waters 