IMPORTANT CONVERSATIONS

Despite the many differences that exist among people and families, I suspect that  throughout our lives we all have variations on some basic conversations. These conversations usually take place between the elders and their  younguns.  So, for example, the Easter Bunny, Santa, Boys and Girls and What Happens, disappearing Grandma and Grandpa, Assisted Care (or not),  and Death. 

Say what!? Death? Remember 2007, the year of Sarah Palin's Death Panels? If we pass the Affordable   Care Act, then government panels will decide who lives and who dies. Or variations on that theme from those determined to prevent passage of the ACA. What was proposed back then, and then withdrawn after the shameless efforts of pols like Palin, was that people should discuss with their doctors end life issues and Medicare  should reimburse doctors for the time spent in helping people to formulate an advanced care plan. 

This past summer my  younger sister passed away. When I got to her in the hospital in Florida I found that she had not made out an advanced care directive, but we were discussing what she would do after leaving rehab and without any expectation that  her death was imminent. Well.... we had that conversation anyway and a day or so  before her heart gave out  she filled out an advanced care directive. With her permission, and between visits to her in the hospital, I also found that she had pre-purchased a funeral plan.  Her will was well hidden and was not where  she said it was but I found it in the end. She passed away after about a week, in the morning just as I was leaving my motel to  visit her. As sad as her death was, I cannot easily express how thankful I was to know that she had planned in advance for exactly what happened. 

In September a Kaiser Foundatin poll found that 80% of respondents said that Medicare and private insurers should pay for the end-of-life conversations but that fewer than one in five respondents reported actually having had such a discussion with a health care provider, including only about a third of those over age 75 and about a third of those with a debilitating disability or chronic medical condition.

Many patients and families want to have these discussions, and this past summer the Myth of Death Panels was laid to rest when Medicare authorized such conversations. Under the final rule patients and families can have the discussions when and where they want — before patients become ill, after they receive a diagnosis of cancer or other serious illness, or while they are receiving hospice or palliative care. 

In such conversations, patients could discuss whether and how they would want to be kept alive if they became too sick to speak for themselves. Doctors can advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

The conversation that you have with your  kids and/or your  doctor about the end of your life is  every bit as important as the one you and your kids had about Santa, or  any of those other essential conversations. Please do not put it off.

Nifty Science: a nano-sized submarine to deliver your prescriptions?

A SINGLE MOLECULE SUBMARINE DOES HOME DELIVERY INSIDE YOUR BODY ?

We seniors have certainly benefited from the super advances in drug therapies that have been developed since WW II. Probably all of us are taking one or more on a daily basis for any number of medical conditions. I think though that much of what we may take for, for example, some cancers is a rather blunt instrument. One goal of drug therapy would be to specifically target the site at which the drug should work. How to do that? In a report I read today, scientists at  Rice University have developed a phenomenal 'nanosubmarine,' a single molecule, comprising 244 atoms, that is driven by a kind of propeller (actually a flagella such as is found on some bacteria and other protozoan organisms). The nanosubmarines could conceivably be loaded with medicine and sent up a person's bloodstream for precision delivery, or made to ferry toxic chemicals out of water filters. The paper describing the molecular machine appeared in the journal Nano Letters and was reported by NBC news. It is indeed a brave new world in which we live!

SENIORS ALIVE! THE NOVEMBER ISSUE

THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF SENIORS ALIVE! IS OUT. HERE IS A LINK. TO ACCESS BACK ISSUES OF SENIORS ALIVE! AND SENIOR MOMENTS CLICK ON THE TAB ABOVE.

There is a bunch of good things in this issue. I especially liked Pat's editorial about November. Truly, it is November. Typically it's a 'neither here nor there' sort of month, with cold-ish temperatures, gray sky, some rain and maybe some snow. The colorful leaves are gone. Maybe some golden birch leaves are hanging around but mainly what remains are the brown beach and oak leaves. Surely it's the fastest month of the year. I really do believe there is at least a week fewer number of days in November than in any other month. I mean, Thanksgiving is sort of a week away and the Christmas commercial hullabaloo is in full swing now.  

I like November. Some might think of this somber month as a time of dead but really Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year: your 'responsibility' is to reflect on your (hopefully) many blessings. Just now, even before Thanksgiving, we celebrate and honor those who have gone to war in order to ensure our thankfulness at Thanksgiving. We  honor those guys, men and women, in November. Thanksgiving, unlike Christmas, is not laiden with guilt  about gifts, cards -- 'got to,' and 'should have' stuff. It is no wonder Christmas is, for some, a very depressing season (the whole reason for celebrating the season by many having been overlooked or hijacked by commercial interests: didn't Christ throw the money lenders out of the temple after all? time for us to reconsider what this season is about?). No, I like November and Thanksgiving  My wood is stacked, we've got gas for the generator. Most importantly, the fruitcake fruit is marinating now in good dark rum.

Anyway, back to Seniors Alive!. Read Pat's introduction. Then note that there will be a Thanksgiving feast at the Hillsborough .American Legion on Saturday, 21 November at 1:00. It's free thanks to the Hillsborough Lions Club. 

Note also that the Senior's Bus will make its' monthly trip to Walmart onWedneday, 18 November, leaving from Shaw's parking lot at 10 am. Call Marie Mogavero (603 464 4727) to reserve  your spot.

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

Here is an interesting poll result. A recent Gallup Poll  found that 56% of Americans who responded said that we would be safer if more people were armed with concealed weapons. Who are they afraid of? I suppose it must be that they fear people who are armed with concealed weapons.  Doesn't make sense to me. The power of the armed 'good guy' to prevent the kind of carnage we increasingly witness is a myth. Strapping on a gun does not make you or I into a superhero, much less a good shot. Actually the ready availability of fire power dramatically increases the number, and success rate, of suicide attempts. The NRA makes it difficult to study the effects of guns on the health of Americans, but there are some interesting and disturbing trends. Take this one. One research project found of the 763 people killed in 579 shooting incidents (yes, more than one person died in some of the events too numerous to recount) occurring since 2007, the vast majority of those licensed shooters took themselves out or others who were not perpetrators. 223 of the deaths were suicides. I am afraid to ask about deaths (mainly women) resulting from domestic violence. Recent concealed-carry excesses include shooters firing at shop-lifters and other non violent offenders running in public places. Try to think of one of those vigilantes plugging away at a kid running in Shaw's parking lot with a purloined bag of Gold Fish. The Second Amendment says something about a WELL-REGULATED militia. What I think we are seeing is strong lobby groups using that amendment to prevent any sort of regulation. The result is tragic. That my neighbor is (literally) packing only worries me.

SO, WHO NEEDS TO GO TO A MALL?

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' MALL! WE'VE GOT THE

NOT AT HOME HOUSE PARTY!

Saturday, November 7 in Deering Town Hall, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm representatives of several suppliers of home goods, fashion, and cosmetics will present their wares for you. No angst over trying to find an obscure address -- in the dark. No need to drive long distance and fight traffic to go shopping. No need to worry about feeling guilty if you don't buy something from that oh-so-earnest representative of -- whatever. For about six hours Deering Town Hall will be transformed into a local version of the Mall of New Hampshire thanks to the Greater Hillsborough Senior Services. 

GHSS invites  you to come to  Deering  Town Hall, where you will find high quality items from Norwex, Thirty-one, Tupperware, Discovery Toys,  It Works, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Stampin' up, Usborne Books,Traveling Vineyard, Handmade jewelry, Petra Fashions, Deering Community Dhurch, Kalypso Twistz Jewelry, Lemongrass spa, Avon, Jarred Powers, and Karen Booth.

Deering Town Hall is located at 762  Deering Center Rd (NH Rt 149), just up the hill from Hillsborough. There will be lots of parking and beautiful scenery. 

If you have any questions, please contact Marie Mogavero at mariemogavery@comcast.net or call her at 603-464-4726
 

AN INJECTION THAT MIGHT PREVENT LYME DISEASE

A number of my friends here in Deering have experienced Lyme Disease. It's not a nice experience. Apart from carefully examining EVERY inch of your body and removing all the ticks after you've been outside during the 'tick season, there is no way to protect yourself against infection by the deer tick-born bacterium that causes Lyme Disease. So, this article from the Boston Herald brought with it some pretty good news.

Researchers at U MASS med school found that when individuals were injected with a vaccine that was developed about ten years ago, they developed a bunch of antibodies. They were able to isolate and identify one of those antibodies that, when injected into mice, kills the bacterium in the gut of the tick before it can be transmitted to you with the tick bite.

Preclinical trials are currently underway to determine the human dosage.

Clinical trials in humans are expected to begin next year, and if the Food and Drug Administration approves the antibody drug, it could become commercially available in roughly three years. It is expected that a single yearly injection with the antibody drug will be required to protect from Lyme Disease.

Henniker Music on Main: NO GHSS

This weekend, 3 October, Henniker's annual Music on Main event will take place. GHSS was planning to participate with their Wheel of Fortune but owing to the uncertain weather, we will not be there.