Monthly Archives: January 2012

I fell into a hole

I fell into a hole
For a project & on a mission
To get some wrenches
Striding through the door
My forward motion
—Turned straight down
Surprise, lost, unknowing
Words insufficiently strong
For my disorientation
My world, my purpose—disappeared
Scraping shin
Striking ribcage
Pain shooting from here from there
Not even time to ask What’s this?
My attention—wrenched—
In less than a trice
Only later was there time
To recall I’d opened
The hole to shut off the water

:- Doug.

Posted in Emergency/Crisis Medical, Poetry | Leave a comment

Crotchety is okety-fine

Crotchety is okety-fine
when conversing:
just stand clear of
our itty bitty egoity
keep to our universality!

:- Doug.

Posted in Conversation, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

Don’t use these passwords!

Here are the 25 most (stupid) insecure passwords. http://www.ic3.gov/media/2011/111229.aspx

Don’t use these passwords!

:- Doug.

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Working on my compassion

I am working on my compassion.

:- Doug.

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Caring is compassion

Care can be a commercial transaction. Caring is compassion.

:- Doug.

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Caring who

Care is a word people use to say what they sell; Caring is a word I use to describe who I am.

:- Doug.

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Many ways to advocate

There are many ways to advocate. We can advocate by counseling.

:- Doug.

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Doctors may become mere technicians

I’m hearing from my elder clients’ children that they cannot get a time to talk with the doctor about what is going on with their parent, what the prognosis might be, and what the best course of treatment ought to be. One client scheduled a time at the nursing home for a care planning session, and only the nursing staff will be attending. He was hoping to have the doctor there, too.

Doctors are in danger of relegating their profession to the role of technicians, to be consulted only when there is an unusual problem or when we need a prescription-writer. Day to day and month to month care plans are abdicated to the people who are there daily: nurses, social workers, and family. But wouldn’t doctors want to be part of this?

:- Doug.

Posted in Emergency/Crisis Medical, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care | 4 Comments

Elders, doctors and consults

A few days ago I learned that doctors are in some settings expected to see 40 patients a day. What’s the math on 40 patients in a day?

Today I spoke with a couple of therapists about getting the doctor involved in elder care, specifically to give the family time for a consult and prognosis, and to take part in the quarterly plan of care meeting. One of them laughed at me and the other almost did. Doctors don’t do those things!

I continue to believe that doctors overwhelmingly have a heart for their patients, but the system demands they limit their minutes per patient. Who would want to become a doctor?

Maybe that is why doctors are easier for pharmaceutical companies to persuade than our prior generations of doctors were: what can you do to education patients for better self-health care or in therapeutic efforts and just plain ingenuity in a few minutes?

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Emergency/Crisis Medical, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care | Leave a comment

There’s a pill for that

Far more than
“There’s an app for that”
Our medico-economic complex teaches
“There’s a pill for that”
“There’s a pill for every that”

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Long-Term Care, Poetry | Leave a comment

Divine are the snowflakes/…

Divine are the snowflakes
dancing, floating, flying
divine is each
each faces me and asks
do you see me?

:- Doug.

Posted in Conversation, Healing and Wholeness, Poetry | Leave a comment

The phone starts ringing

When somebody dies, the phone starts ringing. But when somebody lives, what attention do we pay?

:- Doug.

Posted in Death and dying, Eldering, Healing and Wholeness | Leave a comment

Thousands dying this year of this

This year, thousands will die of not hearing. Hearing one another. Hearing is more than listening, more than preparing your response. This year, thousands will die of not being heard. Being heard is essential to continuing to live.

:- Doug.

11

Posted in Conversation, Death and dying, Eldering, Family | Leave a comment

Why we are frustrated with one another

We’re frustrated with one another and so we shout at “them.” We’re frustrated with one another because we have forgotten how to dialogue. We don’t know how to hear, how to meet.

:- Doug.

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Our whole work

Our whole work is conversing, engaging, encountering, meeting: our whole work is bringing us to whole, our whole work is whole-making, whole-realizing. Our whole work is conversing.

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Caring, Death and dying, Dreams, Eldering, Emergency/Crisis Medical, Estates Administration & Probate, Family, Grieving, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and Trusting, Wills | Leave a comment

Long-Term Care: mysterious words and ways and….

Long-term care mixes the mysterious words and ways of medicine with the arcane rules and regulations of bureaucrat and insurance giant, and presents you with choices, the consequences of which you cannot yet see. Yet there are people in these labyrinths who are warm and caring and will help you holding nothing back.

:- Doug.

Posted in Long-Term Care | Leave a comment

Work as inviting….

My work can be seen in terms of invite, free, call whole mmm.

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Eldering, Estates Administration & Probate, Long-Term Care, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and Trusting, Wills | Leave a comment