I Got The Swine Flu, But You Don't Have To!

By Susan B. Geffen

We have all heard about the virulence of this year's swine flu outbreak. It is supposed to "hit" Southern California by mid-February.

Thank you; I have already been the recipient of the great bug.Fortunately I have no underlying chronic health conditions and I am not 65, so I am grateful that it didn't do more harm to me.

Sadly, I had not yet gotten my shot in 2013 and I was taken out of action and in bed for two weeks.

If you are over 65 and/or have one the following underlying health conditions OR IF YOU ARE CARING FOR SOMEONE who is at risk (which is equally important), it is not too late to get vaccinated. These conditions are:

Asthma
Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions [including disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy (seizure disorders), stroke, intellectual disability (mental retardation), moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury].
Chronic lung disease (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and cystic fibrosis)
Heart disease (such as congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease)
Blood disorders (such as sickle cell disease)
Endocrine disorders (such as diabetes mellitus)
Kidney disorders
Liver disorders
Metabolic disorders (such as inherited metabolic disorders and mitochondrial disorders)
Weakened immune system due to disease or medication (such as people with HIV or AIDS, or cancer, or those on chronic steroids)
People younger than 19 years of age who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy
People who are morbidly obese (Body Mass Index, or BMI, of 40 or greater)

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ALZHEIMER'S CORNER

Could a test using only a pen and paper be enough to diagnose Alzheimer's disease?

Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center believe that their Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) test can help medical professionals find out a person's cognitive ability early so they can have a chance to intervene before they develop the degenerative brain disease.

"What we found was that this SAGE self-administered test correlated very well with detailed cognitive testing," Dr. Douglas Scharre, director of the Division of Cognitive Neurology and head of the Memory Disorders Research Center at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center, said in a press release. "If we catch this cognitive change really early, then we can start potential treatments much earlier than without having this test."

The 15-minute, 22-question test can be taken at home by patients, who then bring the paper to get examined by a medical professional.

The researchers believe that it can spot the beginning signs of trouble for dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The tests go through a variety of questions looking at different mental skills including orientation, through questions about the current date; language, through verbal fluency and picture naming tasks; reasoning/computation, by abstraction and calculation problems; visuospatial, from 3D construction and clock drawing; and executive (problem solving) and memory tests.

- How are a corkscrew and a hammer similar? Write down how they are alike. They both are... what?

- You are buying $1.95 of groceries. How much change would you receive back from a $5 bill?

MY WATCHDOG

Alerting you to the latest SCAMS, Elder Abuse,

and things that are just plain WRONG!

Assisted Living Legal Constraints

Unfortunately, even in the best assisted living facilities, the residents are on their own when they get ill and need assistance. Without a doctor's order, simple over the counter medicines require a doctor's order unless a family member, friend, caregiver or geriatric care manager brings it and administers it and takes it home.

Of course, the reason this rule exists is because the assisted living facility is legally constrained from providing any medication that is not on the resident's list, as provided by his or her physician at move-in.

The other day, I received a phone call from an assisted living facility where one of my client's lives. One of the assisted living's "care managers" told me that my geriatric care client was sick and I needed to bring her Imodium quickly from the drug store. (My client has no children, friends or relatives within two hour's drive, so she hired me to look after her about two years ago.)

At 8 pm, I had to run it over to her, which I was happy to do, but it was frustrating that I had to return two hours later because she needed to have a second dose.

I couldn't simply leave it for her to take on her own because it is against the law to have any form of medicine on the premises without a doctor's order.

Remember: If you have a friend or family member in an assisted living facility, it is very important to have someone close by who can be there at the snap of a finger when the need arises.

As an aside, when I reorganized my client's blankets, I noticed that her toe nails were so long, they were a day away from growing into her skin. The Podiatrist said that this could have led to a very serious blood infection if it had not been caught!

Susan's Picks

L.A, O.C., and Ventura County Companies that have been vetted by me and my staff

Susan's Picks helps you find companies that have a proven track record of integrity and excellent service.

If you know of a company that you believe qualifies as a Susan's Pick, let me know and I will check them out!

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Featured Article-

I Got The Swine Flu

But You Don't Have To!