Mary Maxwell: “How old age just sort of crept up on me . . .”
“This is the first time I’ve ever been old. And it just sort of crept up on me,” explains 72-year old Mary Maxwell as she delivers the invocation before the annual dinner at an Omaha seniors facility. At first, her presentation starts like a normal little prayer, but it soon takes a hilarious turn when she hijacks the microphone for a more personal chat with God about the topic of growing old. With the laser-like timing of a professional stand-up comic, she talks about common aging issues - like random hair growth. “I remember the time I reached to brush a hair off my lapel,” she deadpans. “And then I realized it was attached to my chin…”
Mary shines a very funny light on the foibles of aging, to the absolute delight of her live audience, as well as over 2 million YouTube viewers so far. Here’s the 7-minute video called “A Reminder That Laughter is The Best Medicine”. It’s from the Caregiver Stress website hosted by Home Instead Senior Care Services. Sit back, enjoy Mary Maxwell, and then forward this link to the people you love. Mary’s unique message and unforgettable humour will be good for their hearts – and their souls.
You can also download a copy of the poem Blessed In Aging that Mary reads at the end of her invocation.
Having a heart attack? Call 911 – and pack your Tetris game
I confess that there was a time when I was ever so slightly addicted to playing the computer puzzle game Tetris. Like many parents, I discovered it through my children during their early teen years. Back then, I was known to occasionally “borrow” their little Gameboy and then stay up until 2 a.m. playing “just one more game” while trying to beat my previous best score. But UK researchers tell us that time-wasters like Tetris or other so-called “distractor tasks” might very well help us minimize the psychological effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Heart attack survivors have a disturbingly high incidence of undiagnosed PTSD. Research reported in the British Journal of Health Psychology confirmed, for example, that as many as 16% of cardiac survivors actually meet clinical criteria for acute PTSD, and a further 18% report moderate to severe PTSD symptoms.
So if distractor tasks such as playing an obsessively distracting computer puzzle game like Tetris can successfully help to treat PTSD in those affected by combat exposure, could playing Tetris also help heart attack survivors? (more…)
Hope for the aching heart
This article, written by Dr. Lisa Holland, appeared in the Columbia Notebook, Spring/Summer, 2007
Jen, who lives with her husband and two children, recently underwent an unexpected double bypass surgery. At 50, her course of healing should have been uncomplicated. But six days after surgery, she developed a fear of being alone and would stay up extremely late because she was afraid to fall asleep.
Over a period of several months, her once-savored walks with Toby, the family dog, dwindled down to once a week until finally she stopped walking him at all. When Doug, her husband, told her that he was worried about her, she cried.
Through her tears she replied:
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, all I know is that I’m scared I’ll have another heart attack.” (more…)
Where would you rather get sick – in the U.S. or in Canada?
I have an ever-so-slightly jaded view of American health care since spending time at Mayo Clinic where I met a number of heart attack survivors from across the U.S. - yes, even those who thought they had good health insurance coverage - who had lost their homes, their businesses, and faced collection agencies at the door or even imminent bankruptcy because they’d had a cardiac event that had left them with crushing medical debt. But last month in Toronto, the 5th semi-annual Munk Debate featured the Great Health Care Debate resolution: “I would rather get sick in the United States than in Canada.” Here are some of the pros and cons raised by each side during this debate:
I would rather get sick in the U.S. because:
- The U.S. spends 87% more per person than Canada on health care ($7,290/patient vs. $3,895).
- 54% of American men had PSA tests for prostate cancer. Only 16% of Canadian men did.
- There are 34 CT scanners per million citizens in the U.S. In Canada, only 12.
- There are 27 MRI machines per million citizens in the U.S. compared to just six in Canada.
- Canadians wait twice as long as Americans for elective surgery like hip replacements.
- The U.S. is responsible for the vast majority of health care innovations, both medically and technologically. They are the world’s undisputed leaders in biomedical research and diagnostic treatment.
But on the other hand, here’s why it’s better to get sick in Canada: (more…)
Caring for elderly parents: why daughters pay a heavier toll than sons
At the Canadian Stroke Congress in Quebec City last week, researchers presented a review of 42 published studies that had looked at the effects of caregiving on adult children who take care of parents who have survived a stroke. More than half of the studies looked at daughters who served as caregivers.
Although this review focused on the care of parents who were stroke survivors, no woman I know with ailing parents of any diagnosis would be surprised at the review’s findings: that adult daughters suffer more than adult sons from poor relationships with aging parents who need their care. Review author Marina Bastawrous of the University of Toronto explained:
“Adult daughters place greater emphasis on their relationships with their parents, and when those relationships go awry, it takes a worse toll on the adult daughters than the adult sons. Overall, the studies suggest that daughters suffer more than sons when they don’t get along with their ailing and elderly parents. The relationships rupture when there is less cooperation, less communication and more conflict. “ (more…)
