The elderly who are in nursing homes lose the most. Not only have they had to say goodbye to family and friends who have passed on, but they also lose health, home, and beloved posessions. This is a lot for one to lose and somewhere along the way they lose their joy of life and hope for the future.

It’s very sad to see someone who has given up on life and it’s almost impossible to expect them to fully celebrate the holidays. Even if they have families the most they can expect is a couple hour visit or if they’re very lucky a trip out to spend part of the day with family in their home. They find it difficult to fully embrace those visits when they know the next one might not be till next year, if they even have a next year.

So if you know an elderly person try to make a commitment to spend some quality family time with them all year around, holiday or not. It could mean the world to an older person to know someone still cares.

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.

My mother also asked those same two doctors to take a look at the bottom of her foot. A couple weeks ago she stood up and as soon as she put some weight on it she felt pain like a nail being driven through her foot and up her leg. The doctors ignored her and left without looking at the foot. Then a woman came in the room, my mother doesn’t know if she was a nurse or a doctor, but she did look at the foot and told my mother that the skin had split from the heel to the toes and that was the reason for the pain. The woman left and returned with a tube of white cream which she then massaged into the crack. The pain left immediately even with standing. She let her have the tube to take home. I guess it was to small a thing for the almighty doctors to bother with.

My mom has had to be in the hospital a lot lately and this particular one is terrible. Every time she goes in there are some issues, mean and rough nurses, doctors that don’t care, and kitchens that can’t read menu orders. The rooms are so small that with the two beds there isn’t even room for more than one or two others to stand in the room.

In contrast only several miles away, my daughter had her baby at another hospital. She had a private room, and with the exception of one rough nurses aide, had nice nurses. Her doctors were interested and caring. They messed up the menu once and immediately corrected it. I stayed overnight with her the second night she was there and they were as nice to me as if I were also a patient. The little family lounge on the floor offered free coffee and tea and they ordered a couple dozen rolls and bagels for everyone every morning. I loved the cafateria, they had everything you could want, and in the middle of the night there were a dozen nooks and rooms with soft sofa’s and chairs that I could lounge on.

Both hospitals in the suburbs, but what made one so much better? Was it because one was a maternity stay and the other elderly? I don’t know, but I do know where I’ll have my next hospital stay.

Unless I am not understanding correctly, this article seems to be saying that some doctors and a government committee feel that some cancers can live and grow in the body, but if you are older you will probably die of something else before the cancer really becomes a health concern for you.

It further seems to say that by detecting it early you would undergo treatments that would prove to be unnecessary because you’re going to die soon anyway. WHAT?

I don’t know about anyone else but I do not want cancerous tumors anywhere in my body whether they are causing me pain or not. These doctors seem to be saying that they are affecting the quality of life by treating and testing the cancer, rather than the cancer affecting the quality of life.

Of course I have to ask once again where do the insurance companies and money fit in to all this. After all look at how much can be saved if we just all forget about testing high risk groups of people for cancer, and even more money can be saved by ignoring it and not offering treatment.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I woke up on the wrong planet. See the whole article here and throw me a comment, I’d love to know what you think about all this.