Note: Most of my blogs have been published in the Gainesville Sun, and numerous other Florida USA Today publications.
You probably know that April is National Healthcare Decisions Month. There was a great article last week (in The Gainesville Sun) written by the collective hospital teams from UF Health and the VA asking our community to “consider the importance of advance care planning.” Perhaps...
HOW PREPARED ARE YOU? Answer the following questions. Each “YES” is worth five points. Total your points to see your score and evaluate how prepared you are. I have completed a Living Will I have appointed a Health Care Proxy or Surrogate I have completed a...
For years I have watched both friends and family come out of surgeries complaining of severe mental fog that can last for weeks, or even months. For some, cognitive function is never the same. Sadly, I suspect many of my readers either have had this...
Did you happen to read the story recently about the oldest living human being? Kane Tanaka, who is Japanese, is 117 years old. She is what is known as a supercentenarian, but others have lived even longer such as American born Sarah Knauss who lived...
Many families plan on being together again over the Christmas holidays, some for the first time in years due to COVID. At the risk of bringing up a challenging topic, I’d like to suggest that families consider using this time to communicate with loved ones...
With COVID changing our buying habits and consumers looking for safety as well as convenience, most of us have ordered multiple items from Amazon over the past two years. You can literally find anything on Amazon, but did you know that soon you will be able...
The deaths of 12 patients at a Hollywood nursing home following Hurricane Irma were preventable and should never have happened. Yet they did. But why? And what can you do to make sure this will not happen before you move your loved one into a...
You’ve seen the headlines: “Hospitals Face a Shortage of Nurses as COVID Cases Soar.” “Rural Hospitals Can’t Find the Nurses They Need to Fight COVID.” “A Crisis Situation as Military Medical Teams Deploy to Staff Hospitals.” What you may not have known is that before COVID, we were facing...
Have you noticed the purple pinwheels around town? This is to remind us that June 15 marked World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Sadly, the elder abuse numbers just keep going up. More than 5 million Americans are abused every year and the annual financial loss is...
More than half of all Americans are concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their ability to achieve a secure retirement, according to a new poll taken by the National Institute on Retirement Security. This should come as no surprise. We all know that this pandemic...
