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Anyone who's ever experienced a hospital stay knows there's nothing like going home and getting back into normal routines. But after major surgery and/or a period of rehabilitation, just maneuvering throughout a home poses its own set of challenges. Fortunately, Pacific Medical Supply has everything you need to make the transition smooth for you or those you care for.
Continue reading "5-Star Home Prep for Rehabilitating Patients" »
In a recent report covered by Abilene Reporter News, consultant Rick Hunsicker suggested retirement communities provide a variety of services and amenities, such as socialization, access to medical care and security, while an ordinary home provides only shelter.
"In my opinion, most seniors should consider getting out of their house and getting into a senior living community," he said in an interview after the seminar.
Some of the reasons seniors hang onto that old home don't stand up well to analysis, he said.
To those wishing to leave something to their children, he advised that most children would rather get certificates of deposit or cash instead of an old house they'd have to fix up to sell.
Waiting for the housing market to turn upward and yield a better sale price may not pan out, either, he said.
Today's sales prices for existing homes may be less than desired, but the flip side is that buying into a retirement community may be a bargain today compared to future costs driven by rising demand, he said.
Residents of retirement communities can also rest easier about what kind of people the neighbors are, he said. The people next door will be very much like themselves, in income, lifestyle and age, he said.
A variety of services are becoming available to seniors who move from their longtime homes into retirement communities, he told his audience. These include home stagers and senior move managers.
Home stagers arrange a house placed on the market to shine in its best light, Hunsicker explained. Removing the clutter that makes a room seem smaller, and perhaps doing touchup tasks such as painting, can dramatically change the appearance, he said as he demonstrated with before-and-after slides.
Real estate brokers tell him that a staged home can sell for 10 percent to 15 percent more than one that's not staged, he said.
Senior move managers perform turnkey jobs that seniors prefer not to tackle themselves, and often can't get help from their children, he said.
The moving managers can do everything from shipping boxes of possessions to children or Goodwill and locating belongings the senior wants to retain according to a floor plan of the new residence, down to the rehanging of pictures on the wall, he said.
Hunsicker predicted a boom in the construction of senior living communities in three to five years, as more and more people choose this option. The growing demand takes a while to translate into new construction, and developers must move through the steps from concept to completion, he said.
You can read this article in its entirety at by Abilene Reporter News.
How do you budget for health care costs? How do you react when you get sick? Do you seek the medical attention first and worry about how to pay for it later or do you hold back on health care because it's not in the budget? Are you influenced by the commercials that run on television? Is it more than that and perhaps directly related to where you live in the country and the habits of most residents due to weather, economic status, age, culture?
Studies are confirming that certain areas of the country are more prone to certain kinds of illnesses. Based on Ad Ages/Ipsos observer Amercian Consumer Survey and data from GfkMRI, we'll see how consumers budget for health-care costs, how they think costs will rise, and how they want to receive health-care messages from marketers.
This graphic is a quick overview. Read the full story on AdAge's site to see the mouseover by county across the nation. Interesting, in Multnomah County, there is a high incident rate of Rosacea or skin disease - higher income, more stress, more complicated cosmetics, perhaps? Same with Salem. For those Salem residents in Linn County, there are more cases of RLS - restless leg syndrome - more line, factory and workers who are on their feet to earn a living.
Much to the chagrin of doctors in some cases, patients spend more time online researching perceived symptoms after being influenced by television commercials. As much as we all need to become our own advocates, we also have to be careful not to react to advertisers whims by suddenly identifying any ache or pain with whatever what just shown to as as our "answer" to our ailments during the episode of Mike & Molly.
In addition to geographic and behavioral differences, Ad Age partnered with its sibling publication Modern Healthcare to study generational attitudes. The resulting white paper features case studies from marketers as well as profiles of households in the American Consumer Project. In it, we examine the rise of cross-generational care-givers and how different generations want to receive health-care-related marketing messages. Check out the Ad Age/Modern Healthcare White Paper on Generational Attitudes about Health-care.
What a long week it has been. Spring Break in our house almost always means the merry-go-round of colds. This year we outdid ourselves. Our seven-year-old managed to get strep throat. The rest of us have just been toying with rollercoaster fevers and hacking coughs like a 2-pack-a-day 60-year-old. Not good since our daughter is only 10.
I felt terrible at what a mess our son had become so quickly. I figured I was negligent. Being torn between becoming the alarmist parent and the one who ignores the obvious, I usually beat myself up for a day or so that I should have known how sick he was. Thank goodness for the doctors at Kaiser Interstate and their gentle assurance that I waited the right amount of time, it just moves fast. Within hours our son had sores all around his nose, a throat that caused terrible pain with every swallow and eyes burning. He complained of fingers feeling like needles were poking him.
Needless to say, we all got swabbed and he's the only one who had strep. In case you don't know what to look for, here are some of the common symptoms:
Strep throat is a bacterial infection of the tissues in the back of the throat (pharynx) and the tonsils or adenoids. The tissues become irritated and inflamed, causing a sudden, severe sore throat.
Symptoms of strep throat include a sore throat with:
In children, strep throat may also cause body aches, headache, stomachache, nausea, vomiting, or listlessness. Strep throat usually does not occur with cold symptoms, such as sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, or cough.
Even though strep throat usually goes away on its own in a few days, it is treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics may not make you well faster. But they shorten the time you are able to spread the disease to others. Antibiotics also lower the risk of the infection spreading to other parts of your body.
Although Pacific Medical Supply carries a lot of "maintenance" and symptom products, there is another that has been so helpful for his "wittle-node" - Boogie Wipes. They are not inexpensive, but they are completely worth the comfort they bring to worn out noses.
