Wild Weather and our Aging Family and Friends

Every time we turn on the news lately, it seems that there is a new story, complete with distressing pictures, regarding damage to lives and homes by the forces of nature. The flooding in the Midwest has been horrendous but there was plenty of warning, particularly for towns downstream. There is some warning regarding tornadoes but not nearly as much as we would all like. This year the storms seem to be more violent than usual as well.
Every area has its own dangers from nature. Humans find themselves in the path of everything the planet can throw at us but we can also be prepared for what can be expected.
Take the time to sit down with your aging loved ones, maybe even all of your family and make a plan to meet the challenges you can reasonably expect where you live. Set up an emergency pack with items you can expect to need that can be grabbed in a hurry if you need to evacuate. Include a list of medications and contact information in a water proof bag in the back pack or other bag along with a couple of days worth of clean clothing and a small quantity of high energy food (energy bars, trail mix, etc) When the time comes to leave the home it will be easy enough to toss all your medication into a large storage bag and add it to the larger emergency bag.
Take the time to store irreplaceable items in a manner that will reduce the likelihood that they will be destroyed by a flood, fire or storm. It may even be worthwhile to store them in a safety deposit box at the bank.

What Makes an Accurate List of Medications?

If you listen to the ads on TV or read them in magazines, they will remind you to tell your doctor about all the medications you are taking. This is important because you need to be sure that your doctor has all the information needed to make good decisions regarding changing your medications. The medications you need to list for your doctor include all the medications that have been prescribed by this doctor and other specialists you may see as well as over the counter medications such as vitamins, stool softeners and non-prescription pain relievers. Also, include any folk remedies or supplements. Any or all of these have the potential to interact and cause problems such as making a medication work less well than expected or more intensely than expected.

Never take it for granted that you doctor knows everything that you are taking. In order to get the most from your health care you need to be an active participant or partner with your health care provider.

Medication Safety for the Aging

The older we get the more likely we are to need some sort of medication on a regular basis. I have talked about storing medications safely but there is so much more to keep in mind. You may have heard it before but it bears repeating; store medications in the containers in which they come. These containers will be labeled with the name of the medication, the strength of the pills (milligrams) and how often it is to be taken. There may also be additional important information. It is perfectly fine to set out a week’s worth of pills in a pill case that is labeled for the day of the week and possibly the time of day that the medications are to be taken. If you are traveling, be sure that you have a list of the medications you are taking and if any of them are narcotics, keep them in the original prescription bottle.

Be sure that you understand why your physician wants you to take each medication, how you are to take the medication and what side effects can be expected. You may need to take a medication with or without food, avoid certain foods while taking the medication or you may need a certain amount of fluid with each pill. You may also need to sit upright for at least an hour after taking the medication. Side effects may need to be reported right away or only when you next see the doctor. You should also know any symptoms that would require a trip to the Emergency Room due to an allergic reaction. Never hesitate to ask for clear instructions and plenty of time to ask questions.

Driving, withdrawing gradually

Beyond a doubt, when to hang up the car keys is arguably one of the most stressful decisions a family needs to make. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have our aging loved ones voluntarily stop driving, more often there is stiff resistance to the idea. Driving represents independence as no other issue except maybe control of money. Recognizing the need is hard enough for the family, the aging driver is unlikely to acknowledge the increased challenges unless there is a significant or dramatic incident that is unmistakable.

It is possible to start the conversation related to events in the news. The current high gasoline prices represent a wonderful opportunity to talk about decreasing time behind the wheel. Offer to take your aging loved one to the market when you go as a cost saving measure. Suggest that you will drive them to religious services, to the doctor or wherever else they need to go and you can complete an errand of your own at the same time. Any news item regarding an aging individual who got into trouble driving will also present an opportunity to open the topic for discussion. It also is possible to start the discussion if there is a change in a person’s medical condition that will make it less safe for them to drive.

If you can get the conversation started, consider suggesting a gradual decrease in driving. Limiting driving to daylight hours, close to home and/or familiar destinations is a way to ease into the change.

Health Literacy

As we all age, we will find that we need to spend a greater portion of our time with MD’s and other health care providers. In order for us to make the best use of this time it is important to be as informed as possible. We can do that by asking questions that lead us to the best and most complete information. We need to use our best critical thinking to separate the good info from the garbage.

Remember that you need to be aware of the source of any health information that comes your way. The web is a wonderful source of information but anyone can post anything that takes their fancy. Reliable info will come from government websites, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or from sites that post research papers. The trick is to be suspicious of the hype and to look for well conducted research that uses control groups and can be repeated. Testimonials of how wonderful some new treatment seems to be are the beginning of the research not the end.