Thanksgiving and Nursing Homes
A lot of you have probably given some thought at least to what your Thanksgiving plans will be. Some of you have relatives or friends in nursing homes. I’m asking that you don’t forget those folks and at least pay them a Holiday visit. Although it can be a strain, try to bring them home or take them out for Thanksgiving dinner with you and your family.
Many of these folks never leave the home and it would mean a lot to them to be included in the families plans. For them, going out beats a visit every time.
If it’s not possible to take them out you could ask the home if your family can make arrangements to have Thanksgiving dinner in the home with the resident. Maybe they will let you have your family meal before or after the rest of the residents have used the dining room. You could then bring your prepared food after checking with the nursing and dietary staff about what the resident is allowed to have or not have.
Good luck with your Thanksgiving plans!
Elderly Woman Assaulted
Last week I caught a news story about a 79 year old woman who was the victim of a home invasion and assault. It’s not difficult for a young adult male to push an old woman aside and take what he wants for himself out of her home, however this individual beat this woman for about a half hour so badly that her eye popped out of its socket. He then left her in her basement alone and bleeding for hours before a neighbor checked on her and called for help.
As far as I know she is still alive. Need I say more?
Womens Health and Age 70
A new study has found that although most women can live to age 70, those that maintained a good weight from the ages of 18 to 50 were in good health at age 70. Those that were overweight between the ages of 18 and 50 tended to have suffered from a number of diseases by the time they reached 70. These diseases included diabetes and heart diseases.
Don’t call it quits if you have reached 50 and are heavy. You can still benefit from losing weight and exercising.
It’s just another reason to wish for 18 again isn’t it ladies? Or is it?
Bedside Advocates
I was flipping channels and stopped at this small cable show. I don’t know the name of it, but I know that it’s hosted by a woman in her 80’s. Her name is Suzanne, and her show is about senior issues.
Today near the end of the show, she had an elderly gentleman as her guest. He talked about a small organization he started called Bedside Advocates. As I listened to him talk, I couldn’t help but think that I wish I had them for my parents before they died. I was excited however that this man is looking to expand this service into something large enough to go national.
The purpose of this all volunteer organization, is to have someone like a retired doctor, nurse, or lay person who has full knowledge and experience with different illnesses, pair with a sick person as an advocate. The advantage over having them involved is that they know what questions to ask, what alternate care might be available, and can act as go between the doctors and the families.
The cost for such a service with this small group is free and composed of volunteers. I think this has great potenial and is badly needed. Although most doctors I’ve met up with are very caring, the truth is that when they have patients who are elderly, the attitude is that they are old and will die soon anyway, so I don’t think they are as concerned with saving lives as they would be with younger people.
Children’s Treatment Rights
There was a story not too long ago about a 13 year old boy who had cancer. His parent decided after one chemo treatment that they didn’t want any more for their son. They cited religious reasons why they stopped the treatments. The doctors reported them and a judge ruled that he get the chemo. Mom took off with the boy to hide him, but eventually came back.
The update on this story is that the boy has had his first treatment since being back, and he’s not doing well on it at all.
This story is important to all of us because we could be in the same situation one day. We need to be clear about our stance on this issue. How old doea a child have to be before it becomes their own choice. Does the law see that the answer to that question is the same as our answer to it?
How much control do we have as parents? Do we obey the law or do what we feel is best for our children?
Sentenced For Spreading HIV
A former martial arts instructor has been sentenced to a 45 year jail term for intentionally spreading HIV to several woman without telling them he was infected. The women are now HIV positive and are of course not very happy about it.
Wow, that’s really an awful thing to do to another human being. I just have one question. What about the responsibility of the woman who willingly engaged in sex with a man they didn’t know, or didn’t know well? Are these women stupid? They’ve never heard of sexuallly tranmitted diseases before? I don’t feel too sorry for them if the sex was of mutual consent.
Yes he should have told them, and no, they don’t deserve HIV, no one does. However for each of us, it’s our job to be educated and informed about our decisions.
Organ Donations
A study says that 72% of Americans said that they would donate their organs after death, while in reality only 38% actually do.
The researchers say they understand the reason for the discrepincy and that is that there are many misconceptions about the process of organ donation.
First, many people think that if they are registered for organ donation that doctors won’t try as hard to save their lives. Some people think they are too old or ill for any of their organs to be of worth for donation. Others don’t understand that brain dead people will not regain brain activity.
My sister and I knew that my mom would have liked to be an organ donor but that she had so many things wrong with her that she was conviced she would not be a good candidate. However after she passed away last December, we gave the go ahead for organ donation. Several weeks later, we got a letter from the organization that harvested her organs saying that two different men recieved parts of her eyes and were given the chance of sight thanks to her. For some reason I felt proud that she was able to do this. Organ donation. Give it some thought.
Nursing Home Tragedy
I just wanted to mention the recent shooting that claimed seven lives, one a nurse and the other six residents at a nursing home two days ago.
Thus far as I’ve heard the suspect is in custody however no reason has yet to be provided as to why this happened.
Nursing homes are one of the few places that you don’t expect to see this type of violence. We’re used to it happening in schools. malls, and offices, but nursing homes are of an innocent nature. The elderly and the ill come to these homes to find peace and quiet and make the most of their conditions, either before they die, or before they are made better.
Our sorrow goes out to those who are survivors of this tragedy and we certainly hope this never happens again.
Nursing Home Abuse
Four employees and a supervisor are being charged with abuse of a 94 year old Alzheimer’s patient. They punched the woman and stomped on her feet among other things.
This abuse occured at night at the Kane Regional Center’s Glen Hazel facility. Another employee finally reported it after six months. The abuse occured during overnight shifts.
This is probably the reason it went on for so long. There are no visitors during overnight shifts so the accused would know that it would have to be someone on the inside.
The cowards names are Mary Ann Bower, 57, Danielle Taylor, 46, of Pittsburgh; Shelly Keene, 35, of West Mifflin; Karen Perry, 46, of Homestead; and Shalaya Hatten, 30.
There were no other reports of abuse by any other residents or staff, so authorities can’t figure out why this one woman was singled out.
Well how about this for an explaination, there was other abuse but no need to report it since these idiots are already being fired and charged.
You must understand that no matter how you say you will protect them, you can’t. These helpless residents are there by themselves at night, at the mercy of the staff, and they are afraid. They can hear them come into their rooms at night and steal from them, but they know the best thing for them to do is to pretend they are asleep and live with it.
I would urge administrations of nursing homes to occasionally have departments heads come in for surprise checks during overnight hours to at least slow down the neglect and abuse. Many staffers spend the night hours sleeping themselves and only care for the residents right before staff changes in the morning, and the only way to catch this is to bust in during the night and check the residents.
Final Thoughts On Hospice
It’s been a while since my last post because I’ve lost both my parents. My mother unexpectedly died December 2 morning, and my father died December 4.
We had hospice take my dad to a hospice unit in a hospital, where they were better staffed and equiped to care for him. I believe that my mother felt so much better and relaxed that he was being taken care of, she just let go of her own struggle.
I spent the afternoon with my dad the next day and brought him a nice picture of mom. My sister and I saw he was suffering so much we told him mom went peacefully in her sleep and it was time for him to let go and be with her. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Hours later he took his last breath.
He was cleaned and turned on his side when we visisted him, however when I asked when the last time he got his morphine was they responded 10:30 that morning, it was after 1:00 in the afternoon. When I pointed that out, the hospice nurse said he was resting comfortably. The man was given no food and water and could not speak or hardly even moan. He was far to weak to move even a finger.
I told her that just because he can’t tell you he’s in pain doesn’t mean he isn’t and she better go get some morphine for him unless she wanted me to do the scene from “Terms of Endearment” where Shirley McClaine has to scream for her daughters meds. She immediately got the meds and administered them to him. That made me wonder how they cared for him during the long night when we weren’t there. His mouth was so dry and cracked from lack of moisture. He couldn’t swallow they said but he could have someone wet a cloth and wipe the inside of his mouth and lips. We did it for him while we were there but what did they do? I don’t know, I’ll never know.