My husband has been experiencing a lot of issues with his vision lately. He has undergone work to save his eyesight in his left eye, including injections directly into the eye. Ouch! My father has been legally blind for some years now due to the same type of eye disease. The quality of life without his vision is depressing for him.

As I stated in my last blog I have recently been looking at eating healthier and getting more exercise as being good to myself. I am one of those that have learned every trick in the book to punish myself when I am stressed and that is usually through food. I am beginning to look at my life and say if I am not good to me than no one else is going to do it. I feel like I have always tried to be good to those around me and not really looked after myself. The time is NOW! Now or never at this point in my life.

I heard Dad tell a friend the other day that he didn’t want to invest in getting some dental work done because he thinks he is living on a day to day basis. Wow! That makes you think! I know he is not content with the way his health is. It really makes one stop to think that we should be doing all we can now so that our later years can be spent well. It breaks my heart to see how miserable he is.

The other day, I noticed mother had a lot of bruises and scratch marks on her hand. In asking what happened she said her hand was itching and with her thin skin scratching it caused the damage to her hand. Wow! Since I am my mother’s daughter, I thought how do I help prevent some of those thin, itchy skin issues. Dad has the same problems with thin skin. They both have broken open their hands and arms a few times just by bumping into things. Thin skin is a common problem among the elderly.

Since this is Older Americans Month, I looked into the Older American Act (OAA) and found the many functions of the OAA very interesting. I thought I would share a few key points with you. What I found disturbing was the OAA has unfortunately lost ground reaching those in need of services.

The first special person in everyone’s life would almost always have to be their mother. On this Mother’s Day, May 12, the most important thing you can do for her is to show her some love and respect. Not to disrespect our fathers as they are special too - but there is a special bond between a mother and a child. The bond between a mother and her child can begin before they are even born.

Every May, since 1963, we have celebrated the contributions elderly people make in our lives and in our country. When President Kennedy, with the help of The National Council of Senior Citizens, issued the formal proclamation, then known as “Senior Citizen Month”, about 17 million living Americans had reached the age of 65. About a third of older citizens lived in poverty and there were few programs to meet their needs.

Sleep is a varied issue for many older adults. I remember my mother-in-law had trouble falling asleep. She could get a decent night sleep once she got to sleep. Even getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night would make it hard for her to get back to sleep. My dad does not seem to be able to get his nights and days straight. He’s up all night and asleep most of the day. Then there is mother, who goes to bed fairly early, goes to sleep right away and is able to sleep well into the next morning.

Medication management is a major part in providing elderly care. Polypharmacy – taking multiple medications for different conditions- is very common for an elderly person. Therefore, the importance of medication management cannot be overstated in regard to adverse risks. Taking multiple medications creates a risk factor for drug reactions and interactions, nonadherence, financial burden and even worse. With the patient’s specific goal in mind, one needs to be careful and use a systematic approach for managing medications and adherence.

Since first launched in April of 1992, Stress Awareness Month has taken on the task of raising stress awareness, it causes, and negative affect as well as education on how to detect and minimize its impact. In the field of research it is thought to be an epidemic.