Growing Old With Dignity

[txdon]

65 to 75 is go go.
75 to 85 is slow go.
85 to. - is no go.

 

[ultrarunner]

The worst part about many of the health issues is knowing they will only get worse...

The break room discussion at the physician lounge this morning was on geriatric care... several of the Docs are of the opinion it must be rationed... one brought up the case of nursing home hip fractures... saying the cost is huge with little quality of life gain... just repeating what was said...

I did interject that the local Juvenile Hall spends about 500k to incarcerate a kid for a year... that is right, half a million dollars... but 60k for Grandma's hip is a price too steep?

Lots of changes coming our way...

 

[Sigarms]

Really ?
Maybe you could share with your pastor some of the dirty crap and jokes you have posted here in the past.... Im sure he would be thrilled with your off color humor!!

1 - It was a sincere question.

2 - The question wasn't directed towards you.

3 - Even though you responded directly at me, your response had nothing to do with the question but more along the lines the typical, holier than thou hypocrtical Christian.

4 - The thing that simple minded Christians like yourself don't understand that there are people just a "religious" as you are, who serve the lord in many capacities, but get ready for this...interpret the Bible differently than YOU. You Mr. Christian have made your opinion known, per your own interpretation of the Bible, if you kill yourself, in your opinion, you don't go to heaven. Currently I'm going to what I consider a pretty "hardcore" Baptist church (following the written word of scrpture), yet those ministers believe through the written word of the Bible, even if you kill yourself, you can still get to heaven. Guess what, they consider themselves Christians, yet they disagree with your opinion. Wow, imagine that!

5 - I'm not in kindergarden, so I don't block people or whatever kids do who want to take their blocks and go home if they don't like someone online, so if you want to respond to a question that I pose and you answer like you just did, I highly suggest you just pass on it and you and your wife go serve the lord like you claim you do instead of pointing a finger at me.

 

[ovrszd]

1 - It was a sincere question.

2 - The question wasn't directed towards you.

3 - Even though you responded directly at me, your response had nothing to do with the question but more along the lines the typical, holier than thou hypocrtical Christian.

4 - The thing that simple minded Christians like yourself don't understand that there are people just a "religious" as you are, who serve the lord in many capacities, but get ready for this...interpret the Bible differently than YOU. You Mr. Christian have made your opinion known, per your own interpretation of the Bible, if you kill yourself, in your opinion, you don't go to heaven. Currently I'm going to what I consider a pretty "hardcore" Baptist church (following the written word of scrpture), yet those ministers believe through the written word of the Bible, even if you kill yourself, you can still get to heaven. Guess what, they consider themselves Christians, yet they disagree with your opinion. Wow, imagine that!

5 - I'm not in kindergarden, so I don't block people or whatever kids do who want to take their blocks and go home if they don't like someone online, so if you want to respond to a question that I pose and you answer like you just did, I highly suggest you just pass on it and you and your wife go serve the lord like you claim you do instead of pointing a finger at me.

You obviously knew what Ernie meant. Good distraction though.

 

[ovrszd]

The worst part about many of the health issues is knowing they will only get worse...

The break room discussion at the physician lounge this morning was on geriatric care... several of the Docs are of the opinion it must be rationed... one brought up the case of nursing home hip fractures... saying the cost is huge with little quality of life gain... just repeating what was said...

I did interject that the local Juvenile Hall spends about 500k to incarcerate a kid for a year... that is right, half a million dollars... but 60k for Grandma's hip is a price too steep?

Lots of changes coming our way...

My Dad was incompetent with Alzheimers. Mostly just laid in bed. Fell out of bed and broke his hip. Docs performed the hip replacement surgery. He died a week later.

I believe that was what they were talking about. Where do we go from here? If not for advances in open heart surgery he would have died 2 years before the hip incident.

Tough call. We as a society are going to be forced to address this in regards to Medicare/Medicaid.

 

[Sigarms]

You obviously knew what Ernie meant. Good distraction though.

From your comment about myself and my father at the VA and now this post, you assume way too much.

No clue what the man who serves the lord meant (and no distraction meant), and his response had nothing to do with the question that I asked. Ironically enough, lot like your post.

If you don't like me, don't respond to my question or post, adding nothing to the mix.

I don't go home with my toy blocks...

Here is a question for you, if your dad was incompetent with Alzheimers and just laid in bed for two whole years, why not be merciful and end his life? Do you believe that is what your dad would of wanted? Now, if you have a smart butt response, no need to reply, but I am sincerely curious as to when you thought your father was "past his age" for living. Or, do you believe that no matter what state you're in at an old age, as long as your heart can beat, that means it's the Lords will that you live and no one should do anything and the person should die when they die?

The flip side to that is a long time ago, people in their 20's and 30's would die 100 years ago for something considered pretty simple by today's medicine. Both my grandfathers died by age 50. One from black lung, and the other from gangrene on a logging accident.

My dad could not bring himself to tell the doctors to "pull the plug" on his wife. It came to me, which I did. Feel guilty about it from time to time, but I know it's what my mother would of wanted because where she was "at", there was no coming back from a recovery.

Hope someone loves me enough when I'm bedridden to make the same choice.

 

[dmccarty]

...
We had a local case last winter where an elderly man wandered off. There was a big search party on foot and ATVs. They eventually found him quite dead in a wooded area.

This happens too frequently in our area. A body was found in the last week or so of a guy who had wondered off some time ago. I think it was back at the end of the last century, I found a lady walking in the gutter along a busy road. Thankfully, it was Saturday or Sunday morning and not much traffic. I stopped to talk to the lady as did another woman. The elderly lady had wondered off from a very nice nursing home that I did not even know was nearby. As I was talking to the elderly lady, I saw the white van with a bunch of guys in white coats drive by. :shocked: Twas right out of a movie. They could not see the lady because she was sitting my car as I talked to her. The women who had stopped followed me to the nursing home to return the lady.

The look on the staff's face when we showed up was priceless.

Now it seems like every month or two some body goes missing. Sometimes they are found alive. Sometimes they are found dead. Sometimes they are not found at all.

My FIL worked for the DOT and one time he found a well decomposed body in the woods. Some of the crew did not want him to report the body because they thought it would get them in trouble with the police. :thumbdown::thumbdown: What morons.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

Hope someone loves me enough when I'm bedridden to make the same choice.

Me, too.

After the last time my HVAC service man was here to check out the system (something they do twice a year), a few days later, I went up the ladder into the attic and discovered the string you had to pull to turn on a light bulb up there was broken, and most of it just laying there. Now it's right beside the ladder opening, but higher, of course, so I couldn't reach the short (about 4 inch) chain on the light. So instead of tying another string on there, I bought 2' pull chain at Walmart and found I had a 2 x 10 board barely long enough to span the ladder opening. If it was dark up there, I couldn't see what I was doing; if I turned the light on, it blinded me so I couldn't see what I was doing. But on my third trip up there this morning I finally got all the old string off and the new chain on. A 5 minute job that didn't take me much more than an hour and a half.

Old age is tough sometimes, ain't it?

 

[Looking4new]

I pulled the plug on my Dad after he took a stroke and was going to lose his leg all the way up to the hip. Occasionally I have guilty feelings about it, but in my heart I know it was the best decision.
I know where I am going when I finally croak. I'm going where I will be warm and all my friends will be there, too.:devil:

 

[Sigarms]

but in my heart I know it was the best decision.

And I would like to think that the decision you made was out of pure love for your father. The reality is if there is a God, how can He hold something agasint you when you made a choice purely out of love? One could argue the God of Abraham whom Christians worship sacrificed his own son out of love.

 

[Sigarms]

I reckon I've posted this before, but I know there's a great deal of difference of opinion within the Christian faith as to whether one who commits suicide will be able to enter Heaven. I had an uncle (by marriage, Dad's sister's husband) who was an ordained Baptist minister who taught new preachers as well as members of the congregation. And not too long after my aunt died, he committed suicide. His brother was one of those who believed that prevented him from entering Heaven and he decided there should be no funeral. But the pastor of the Baptist church where my uncle taught just took over, obviously believing that suicide did NOT prevent entry into Heaven, and I thought his reasoning and the "sermon" he preached at the funeral pretty well summed up my beliefs, too.

Thing is, no man can be the judge of who goes into heaven or not and as to why.

Bigger question IMO becomes do you go diretly into heaven when you die, or do you "sleep" waiting for Jesus's return to judge if you go by the written word of scripture?

Ultimatley IMO there are more questions than answers, and it just comes down to faith.

 

[Bird]

Ultimatley IMO there are more questions than answers, and it just comes down to faith.

And THAT is true of ALL religions, in my opinion.

 

[Sigarms]

And THAT is true of ALL religions, in my opinion.

Some Christian believers will tell you EVERYTHING (AKA God's "truth") is in the written word of the Bible.

That said, I agree with you. Faith is the ability to believe without answers IMO.

The way I see it, the Bible is only about Jesus's love and what God did for us through His Son.

I'd also like to think that Jesus perhaps used some 4 letter words in his time before the age of 33 (just for tractor earnie:thumbsup.

 

[ovrszd]

From your comment about myself and my father at the VA and now this post, you assume way too much.

No clue what the man who serves the lord meant (and no distraction meant), and his response had nothing to do with the question that I asked. Ironically enough, lot like your post.

If you don't like me, don't respond to my question or post, adding nothing to the mix.

I don't go home with my toy blocks...

Here is a question for you, if your dad was incompetent with Alzheimers and just laid in bed for two whole years, why not be merciful and end his life? Do you believe that is what your dad would of wanted? Now, if you have a smart butt response, no need to reply, but I am sincerely curious as to when you thought your father was "past his age" for living. Or, do you believe that no matter what state you're in at an old age, as long as your heart can beat, that means it's the Lords will that you live and no one should do anything and the person should die when they die?

The flip side to that is a long time ago, people in their 20's and 30's would die 100 years ago for something considered pretty simple by today's medicine. Both my grandfathers died by age 50. One from black lung, and the other from gangrene on a logging accident.

My dad could not bring himself to tell the doctors to "pull the plug" on his wife. It came to me, which I did. Feel guilty about it from time to time, but I know it's what my mother would of wanted because where she was "at", there was no coming back from a recovery.

Hope someone loves me enough when I'm bedridden to make the same choice.

I assume nothing. I just read what you post as Ernie does.

I've never said whether I like you or not. I figure that's irrelevant. Obviously not to you.

To answer your question. During the two years of my Dad's incompetence, the end of his life was not in my hands. It was, as always, in God's hands. Now by your suggestion I should have taken charge and smothered him with a pillow. Great choice. So my family lost a member to my hand. And they lost me to prison. Great choice.

I believe that as long as my body can sustain itself with life essential functions it should not be interfered with. I.e., the pillow. I believe we should have the right to declare no artificial assistance in accomplishing that. And we can. Legally. No prison time.

My Dad died when God decided. Mankind did everything to make that as comfortable and humane as possible.

Your reference to pulling the plug is not the same. I referred to that second paragraph up.

So if you have a life changing event that restricts you to a bed you want the pillow treatment?? Really?? A person should be respectful about what they declare in such matters in God's presence.