Aging and Care

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Lifestyle

Here is my question for our Gotham family today.

 

My grandmother lived until just past her100th birthday.  Pretty amazing.  

 

My mom always believed that once you pass a certain age, the medical profession just stops trying as hard.  [Feel free to ask me which age fit my mom’s theory.]  She was always concerned that something fixable would be missed by attributing an ailment to “that’s the age.”  

 

Mom’s solution was to lie about my grandmother’s age to every doctor they saw together. In reality, when my grandmother was 97, it hardly seemed to make a difference when mom said she was 93.

 

Now I am watching some medical providers behave in a way towards my mom that feels awfully familiar of the observation she flagged so many years ago for my grandmother.  Certainly not all, but enough that I fear I am noticing  a trend.

 

Anyone want to brave an opinion here?  Do you agree with my mom’s theory?

Comments

Fred Klein

Wishing mom good health and care whatever her age!
Rona Gura

I so understand what you're going through. I had to watch the same scenario play out with my Mom. I knew she wouldn't want it but my dad insisted. I'm here for you my friend.
Victoria Drogin

You have to be an advocate for yourself in the healthcare system at any age. Sad but that’s the reality.
Carol Greenwald

I agree with your mother and with Victoria. In this day of super-specialization only your mother and her health care designate know the whole story and so can say what might not fit with previous decisions etc. Also, some say, that once you are over 80, doctors tend to do less not more for you - attributing most problems to accumulated age. Either way dealing with health issues is not for sissies.
Daniel Schwartz

I agree. As you age, treatments and doctors opinions change, not always for the better.
Flo Feinberg

A few days late but I also agree..
Watched LIJ ignore my father’s complaints as well as ours… he never recovered… still hurts to think about! He was 82.

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