AGING PARENTS

Being prepared is the best way to handle aging parents and we all just hope our children are watching and becoming prepared for their turn.

During the past several years when I have been with one of similar age, we always end up talking about aging parents. Even though we never thought our parents would have issues, the issues come and go on a more frequent basis than we ever expected. It is hard enough to manage our own health insurance, but having to learn about Medicare and different supplements takes us into a completely different world.


While having breakfast this morning with Jim Weisent, the aging parent topic arose. Jim brought up the issue that visits to the doctors office or hospital always brings up the questions of what prescriptions are in use for confirmation with the medical records. I told Jim about how I handle it and he thought it was a great idea to post it on my blog:


I keep my father's med list on my phone in a pdf file. Every time his medicines change or a dosage increases or decreases, I change it on my PDA. This has come in very handy, even if there is an emergency and I am not available, the list can be emailed to the hospital's emergency department. Recently, when my father did not have his med list during a check up, I was able to sit in the examination room and email it to the nurse so she could review the list. She was sitting four feet from me.

It works.