National Senior Health & Fitness Day is May 27th

May 27, 2015 is National Senior Health & Fitness Day! It is so important to take care of our loved ones who are seniors. Even if they are independent, it is important to encourage them to take good care of themselves. I am the youngest grandchild on my mom’s side. I am the youngest of ten so by the time I was born my grandparents were already older than most grandparents. My Grandma Rose had heart problems for years. She had her first open heart surgery a couple years before I was even born. I remember she would always take great care of herself. She would walk around the mall all the time, if she couldn’t get to the mall, she would walk laps around her house. She also always ate a heart healthy diet, not a lot of red meat and took her medicines. She must have done something right because she went sixteen years without another open heart surgery when the normal time frame is ten years.

She ended up with Alzheimer’s disease so she was unable to care for herself in the same way as before. It was extremely hard because she was such an amazing woman. We had to make sure she got exercise and took her medicine and watch her diet for her.  No one minded though because she always took such great care of all of us.  After her Alzheimer’s progressed, it became too hard to care for her ourselves. We had to seek out help by looking for a nursing home as she needed more medical help. I come from a family of teachers, none of us are in the medical field.  Thankfully we found a great one for her to go to. It was also close by so I could go visit her all the time, we were extremely close.  I am so glad there is BestNursingHomes.com to help educate those who we trust our loved ones with. BestNursingHomes.com is run by the Association of Skilled Nursing Providers (ASNP) a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about skilled nursing care.

Here is a quote about BestNursingHomes.com:

 
 “We are very grateful for the leadership of John Sorensen in the post-acute care industry. John is a leader in his field, a generous philanthropist, and a great example of someone who places serving the patient above anything else. We are proud to be associated with John and North American Health Care and grateful for his support to promote best practices in skilled nursing.” – Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Association for Skilled Nursing Providers

You can do lots of things to get your loved ones moving and healthy:

Go for walks together, if the weather is bad, walk around a mall or even around the house.

Take them shopping with you, have them help push the cart for exercise and the cart will give them some support.

Go to parks and walk trails and have some fun on the swings.

Park a little further away to get exercise when going to the store.

There are also many activities at senior centers that they can enjoy and make some new friends.

Make sure they are going to the doctor regularly and are getting preventive tests like colonoscopies and stress tests.

Monitor medicines and make sure they have everything they need for the month

Cook together and make healthy meals that they can just heat up from the freezer. Sometimes cooking isn’t as fun when you are just cooking for one and people tend to go to fast food and other processed foods.

The most important thing is to be there and spend time with them. Family and friends being there can have an impact on how healthy you are. Remember that emotional health is also really important.

 Get them involved in clubs and groups based on their interests so they are making friends and socializing.

I know today is National Senior Health & Fitness  Day but it also reminds me to take better care of myself even though I am only 33. Time goes by so fast and if I make changes now, it will be easier as I get older.

Cars Should Have Names Too

My family has had a habit of naming their cars. It all started with my cousin’s car Trudy. I am not sure why her name was Trudy, but it fit her personality perfectly. Trudy was an older clunker hatchback. It reminded me of a little old lady with her own little quirks. Trudy was an awesome car. My cousin and I went on many adventures in Trudy. You had to talk nicely to her and sometimes say Come on Trudy to get her to go or start. She was well loved by everyone who rode in her. My cousin was a college student at the time she owned Trudy. I miss her.  My other cousin had a car who was named Sherman. He had started staying with my grandma after my grandpa had passed away. He was there to keep an eye on our grandma and to keep her company. I spent a lot of time at my grandma’s house so I got to hang out with my cousin a lot. I always liked that, because we are twelve years apart in age, so growing up I didn’t see him as much as my other cousins. I would see him on occasion at family things. He used to run me to the store and take me to Mc Donald’s and other places. Sherman always smelled like fabric softener. I never did figure out why that was. I think he had some in the trunk.

 My aunt had a Neon who was named Janis. Janis became my cousin’s car and we drove to Texas in Janis. She was of course named after Janis Joplin. My mom had a car named Gracie too. The car my mom drove when Noah was really little was named The Green Car. The Green Car was the best car ever. Noah named it because it was green. The Green Car was always in the stories I would make up about a little boy named Noah. Do you name your car?

Check out my post about naming your car and learn about some of the famous named cars in movies and TV.

Moments of Life

When your loved one is really sick it’s heartbreaking. It’s even more heartbreaking when they have to go in to hospice. When my Grandma Rose was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, we knew that it was time to say our good byes. My Grandma Rose had many heart problems. She had two open heart surgeries sixteen years apart. My grandma was 88 years old. She also had Alzheimer’s disease. Her health had been declining over the last few years of her life. She was in the hospital on and off. We knew that she would need hospice care. She was in assisted living before she went to the hospital but with the new diagnosis and her age, there wasn’t really much the doctors could do. My Grandma Rose was a very strong person. She was a fighter. There were times that we were told by her doctors to say good bye before surgeries. She always made it out unscathed. My family felt comfort knowing that since she was in hospice that she would be taken care of and made comfortable. My Grandma lived such an amazing life. She had a loving husband, a great family, many friends and she helped anyone she could. We knew we weren’t giving up, we were just making the last days of her life the best they could be.

You sometimes know when it’s time for them to go to Heaven. As much as you don’t want it to happen, it does.  She had family visiting with her every day. She needed medical care but, being in the hospital wasn’t something she liked. Being in the hospital was not ideal, it would have been too heartbreaking and difficult for her to be at a family member’s home, because she needed extra care that we weren’t trained to do.  It was challenging with her Alzheimer’s, because she didn’t know what was going on at all. We made sure to find a great hospice program for her. It was affiliated with the catholic hospital which is important to my Grandma Rose. Her faith was number one.

I will never forget the last time I saw my Grandma Rose. It was so hard for me because she was my best friend. When it was time for me to leave, I said I love you Grandma. She said I love you more. That was our special thing that we had been doing for years. I feel like God gave me a special gift because it was like there was no Alzheimer’s disease. There was no who are you or what am I doing here? It was just us. As soon as I walked out of the room, I started bawling. It was such a hard and sad moment and on the other hand something that I hold very dear to my heart. She was able to be herself to every family member that day.  I knew she was in good hands. The day my grandma passed away, we knew that she was probably going to heaven that night. I decided not to be there when it happened. I was not taking this well. My mom and aunt were holding her hands when she took her last breath. My mom called me and there was an ocean of tears.

Sometimes when your loved one goes in to hospice, they still have a whole lot of living to do. There isn’t a time limit for them. There is no expiration date stamp. There is a misconception with hospice as giving up, it's not though.  Hospice can enrich their lives. They can learn new skills and be always greeted with a smile. Sometimes in the hospital, the staff doesn’t always have a smile on their faces. People who work in hospice want to be there. They have a passion for their patients. Many times being at home is not possible without medical training.  Most people hate to be in the hospital or even visit them. With hospice it’s like home with many caring people by their side. 

Moments of Life

The goal of Moments of Life: Made Possible by Hospice is to educate the public about the choices we all have when facing a life-limiting illness, and how choosing hospice is not ‘giving up.

 

Optum

Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 50,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health, including palliative and hospice care for

   

For more information on what to expect from hospice check out Moments of Life.