ageing – Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion)

Babyteeth

It’s a comedy,

Although I don’t remember laughing.

Care Home; acceleration towards time.

dim lights that cast no shadow in the bedroom

Older person

Man or woman

sits

silently

Waiting.

This morning I had a brief discussion with one of our patients; she is on the cusp of her 65th birthday. And, for those involved in the administration of the flu vaccine, this is a thing. Under 65s get one vaccine and overs another. Why would this be? At first, my assumption was that asContinue reading “Influenza”

My daughter is in a nursing home

On bingo days she misses her water tablets.

Manor Field Blog #2 – I am a GP not.

In the olden days, over 65 was considered old.

Now, when I meet someone who is 75, I consider them young.

now

The past is the past

It is gone

And

I am left

With

now.

Visible

Today I learned a sad fact, I should Have been aware Already, Perhaps Indeed It was one of those things I had chosen to forget. It was about the eyes. Visit to the optician. I like the bright, My son the dark. ‘Ah, that is your age,’ Says the guy. Continue reading “Visible”

Person-centred

Could you Facetime your doctor when you are on holiday in Greece rather than having to wade through the complexities of health insurance (yes, Brexiters) and a foreign health system?

Unnatural selection

You are unconscious, the focus for the doctors and nurses is maintaining your physiology with particular attention to your brain and heart.

Medicines, etc.

Nevertheless, within the dark underbelly of medicine, where geriatricians live, there are some quite stunning effects often, from stopping and sometimes starting medicines.

Future? (pace & meaning)

if you choose to follow this path in life, without basing your actions on, I guess, vocation, you are in trouble

Things could have been different…

How to change the system?

Puberty, the NHS and Laloux

Here we have it, a system that needs to be changed, a system that is changing and a process that is threatening to kill that system – you might think of puberty with anabolic steroids or platform boots – wobbly, unsafe and unsightly.

Habit, hospital & older people

Habits are our liberation, they are also a limitation

Sliding in, struggling out

An old man living alone, is that the problem? Is the problem that it is a problem?

What do you do?

I have recently been asked to show what I do, to demonstrate, I guess, how much value I am for the money spent on me.

Catheters, old men & dementia

As time marches on, with each passing decade, more men will develop these symptoms, until, in their 80’s and 90’s, they are almost universal.

Planning ahead…

I’m sorry if this sounds a little dark, and that, is probably part of the reason most people don’t want to go-here.

There is a strange aesthetic associated with care

If you go to an art gallery, whether the National Portrait in London or your local museum, where paintings are displayed, there is something mesmerising about the human face; when an artist captures the moment of silence, of stillness or of movement, when the years are brought into focus and a person is seen as aContinue reading “There is a strange aesthetic associated with care”

Locked-in, drugs & the 60’s

Here is a question… What do you do when someone you are caring for, refuses your attention? When you, the ‘carer’ – doctor, nurse, therapist, father or son are unable to find a position or a stance that makes sense to the other person, to the extent that you are viewed as a burden, anContinue reading “Locked-in, drugs & the 60’s”