In January of 2009, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan became the first hospital to tweet a live surgery (@HenryFordNews).  

The lead surgeon, Dr. Craig Rogers, and his chief resident, Dr. Raj Laungani tweeted  updates throughout the surgery (CNN.com, February 17, 2009).  According to CNN.com, “at the end, Rogers had the last tweet. ‘The robotic partial nephrectomy was a success. ‘Thank you for joining us today.’” The entire Twitter stream was then uploaded to YouTube.  (By the time I wrote this post, it was no longer available on YouTube.)

Throughout 2009, several other hospitals around the country embraced Twitter and began tweeting, as well.  On November 23, 2009, I followed a Hip resurfacing surgery on The Detroit Medical Center’s Twitter and Facebook feeds. It was fascinating!   

I am now a regular follower on Twitter of the DMC and follow their Twitter surgeries.  The DMC can be followed on Twitter at @DMC_Heals.

We would love to hear your thoughts on Tweeting in the operating room……

In the video, Jamie Heywood shares the story of how when his brother Stephen was diagnosed with ALS,  he and Stephen began capturing data on a variety of topics related to his experience (e.g., medications, dosages, efficacy, impact on health, etc.) as a patient with ALS. 

Out of this data capture, Jamie and his brother Ben Heywood, along with a friend, founded PatientsLikeMe and an “ingenious website where people share and track data on their illnesses — and they discovered that the collective data had enormous power to comfort, explain and predict.”

PatientsLikeMe is a privately funded company that aggregates its users health information and shares it with members of the PatientsLikeMe community. 

The community is free of charge to its members. 

Data is incredibly powerful, sharing data is exponentially more powerful!

A special “thank you” to Dean McRobie for sharing this moving video.

I donated them to a couple of really good causes.

OneSight:  OneSight is “a family of charitable vision care programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Since 1988, these charitable efforts have provided free vision care and eyewear to more than seven million people in need around the world and have granted millions of dollars towards optical research and education.”

The thing I like about this program is just how convenient it is to donate.  I was able to drop my family’s old eyeglasses off at my local Pearle Vision store and they immediately gave me a receipt that I could use for a tax deduction purposes.

Donations are also accepted at any: LensCrafters, ILORI, Optical Shop of Aspen, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical or participating local practitioner. Find the donation location nearest you today!

The optometrist that I have been seeing at Pearl (formerly D.O.C.), personally distributes the glasses when he donates his time and professional services in third world countries.

The Lions: Over the years, my family has donated several pairs of glasses to our local Lions’ Clubs.  A couple of years back, I dropped glasses off in a box supplied by the Lions in the lobby of a real estate office in Royal Oak, Michigan.  My Uncle Chuck had been a long time member of the Lions so I felt particularly good about donating to their collection.  

The Lions website says they currently have eleven recycling centers in the United States.  Click here for the complete list of recycling centers.

Even though Linda hired the auction house to handle the sale of many of her parents’ items, she was surprised to learn that there was still a great deal of work and responsibility associated with auctioning items off for sale. 

She has several words of wisdom.

• Record information (heirlooms/stories/times/dates/locations) on your parents’ belongings when they are still well enough to share this information with you.  It assists the auctioneer when listing and promoting the items.
• Be realistic about the value of used furniture (even if it is walnut or cherry, etc).  Auctioneers will be upbeat and optimistic prior to the event.  But, you should assume that the item will likely sell for very little money.
• A responsible party should attend the auction(s) to assess the honesty of the sale/ the follow-through/the detail.
• Take a buddy for distraction and moral support.
• Be prepared for the onslaught of emotions from others who purchase items out of sentimentality for your loved ones.  Linda equates it to being almost like a mini funeral.
• Offer to help with tasks during the auction to help reduce excess fees.  Linda explained that people will buy a box of items and take out the one thing they want and leave the rest.  By Linda reorganizing items herself throughout the day, she was able to save herself some substantial administrative fees.
• Be prepared for the sense of loss you may feel in selling items of importance to your loved ones.  
• Stay through the entire sale.  Unless you want to pay a fee, you should arrange to collect/handle any unused items at the conclusion of the sale.

It is not unusual to have unsold items at the conclusion of an auction.  Linda recommends that a representative be present at the end of the auction to clean up and to evaluate what should be kept in the family and what should be donated to others.  Linda suggests:

• donating unsold household items to charities such as the Salvation Army in hopes of helping the less fortunate (collect a receipt for a tax deduction)
• donating items of special meaning directly to individuals or organizations that you know will appreciate them.  For example, Linda donated walkers to the area rest home, religious books to her parents’ church, popular novels to the local library, etc.
• selling valuable items on eBay
• restoring furniture that did not sell for your own future use

Note:  if the sale is held at a location outside of your home, you may be assessed for a dumpster (sometimes called a “tipping” fee) and incur additional labor costs if the staff of the auction house is left to discard your unsold items. 

According to Linda, as difficult as it is to auction off items of a loved one,  ”it is also helpful and cathartic to see your organization/work and all the stuff go to interested parties.”

• patients and their families to keep loved ones up to date on a patient’s progress
• loved ones to send a patient messages of encouragement

This morning, Richard Liechty,  a co-worker,  shared a similar site with me called CaringBridge.  In recent months, he has been staying abreast on the conditions of a couple of loved ones via CaringBridge.

According to their website, CaringBridge was started in 1997 when “founder Sona Mehring’s close friend suffered a life-threatening pregnancy.  To keep family and friends informed about the critical situation, Sona and friends created a website.

Baby Brighid was born almost three months premature.  With her mother in critical condition, the one-pound preemie was quickly rushed to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul Minnesota.  The family posted daily news about mom and Brighid on the website.  An accompanying online guestbook enabled visitors to send the family messages of love and encouragement.  Sadly, Brighid’s story does not have a happy ending.  After a nine-day struggle against tremendous odds, she died in surgery.

The website allowed the family to convey the saddest of news without the painful burden of several emotional phone calls.  The parents also had a place to post a final message to honor Brighid and their supportive online community.

Brighid’s death prompted an outpouring of loving messages to the family. They immediately understood that other patients dealing with the birth of a premature baby, childhood cancer or other critical illness would benefit from the same web resources.

And CaringBridge was born.”

A special “thank you” to Richard Liechty for sharing his experience with CaringBridge.com with me.  Richard can be followed on Twitter @RichardLiechty.

Well, an incredibly heartwarming story has come out of all of the heartbreak in Haiti.  According to a NBC News Today Show online article, an American Dad was working for a mission organization in Haity “making a film about the impact of poverty on the people of Haiti.  He and a colleague… had just returned to the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince” when the earthquake hit.

The online article explains that “thanks to the iPhone first-aid app he’d downloaded, he knew how to fashion a bandage and tourniquet for his leg and to stop the bleeding from his head wound.  The app also warned him not to fall asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his cell phone’s alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes.  And then for 65 hours, he waited for whatever fate had in store for him.”

An AdAge article today reports that the American Heart Association has reaped the benefits of this amazing story.  Sales of their app have skyrocketed in recent days.

I am currently singing the praises of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen.  I have been using it for a couple of weeks now.    It ranks right up there with my iPhone,  mino HD Flip videocamera, and TechSmith’s Morae software …. in making my life simpler;  yet,  significantly more productive.

This pen is a fantastic tool for any caregiver!  My experience with the smartpen has been nothing short of exceptional!   If you aren’t familiar with it, you really ought to take a few minutes to check it out online.  You can see a full demo of its capabilities at www.livescribe.com. 

Key features of the pen include but are not limited to the following:

• Capturing what is written in a Livescribe specific journal via an infrared camera
• Capturing audio via a speaker
• Allowing users to upload their notes to a desktop application via a usb cradle
• Giving users the ability to review their notes and the corresponding audio post-session
• Providing users with a friendly approach to sharing session notes (pdf) and/or the corresponding audio publicly or privately
• Providing uploading capabilities for users to share their session with their Facebook friends

Better Caregiving

Physicians’ Appointments.  It allows me, with the preapproval of my Mom’s physicians (critical point), to record appointments with specialists that my mother sees for some chronic health issues. As her caretaker and legal guardian, these visits can be stressful and prior to now I was always worried that we might not have caught everything the doctor had to say – compromising her care in some way. 

Radio Programs.  At lunch today, I heard a great program on Sirius radio about happiness.  I took notes in my Livescribe notebook and was then able to load the audio onto my computer when I returned to the office so that I can hear the program again, at a later time.   I would love to share it with my Mom later to help her when she struggles with the frustrations of her compromised health.

Misc. I am hoping to also use it for: recording meetings with her attorneys, assisted living caregivers, physical therapists, etc.  For more details on how I have used the pen in my work life, visit my blog post at www.threeminds.com.

So far, my only regret is that I didn’t purchase the 4GB version.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with for future versions…. 

Notes:  I would like to send a special “thanks” to David Berney who familiarized me with the Smartpen at Forrester’s Consumer Forum.  You can follow him on Twitter @dberney.

To protect the privacy of others I get preapproval of anyone that might be heard on the audio prior to beginning any taping session.

Once I got her into my car (not an easy task), I took the wheelchair around to the back of my car and tried to put the chair into the trunk of my car.  That’s when things got really rough! 

• I had a difficult time lifting the chair high enough to get it into the trunk (It weighs a ton!).
• Once I did get it into the trunk, I struggled to maneuver  it around in the trunk so that I could get the lid of the trunk closed.

Not long after this “incident,”  I learned about transport chairs.  I ran out and purchased one a.s.a.p. and it has been a lifesaver!!

The many benefits of the transport chair far outweigh the cons.  Some of the many benefits are as follows:

• The chair is fairly lightweight.  I am only 5’2″ and weigh about 120 pounds.  I find the chair easy to maneuver and easy to lift.  They are under 25 pounds.
• It fits in the trunk of my car (Chrysler Sebring) without any problems.  An elderly couple I met awhile back said that they keep theirs on the floor of the back seat of their Chevrolet Cavalier. 
• They come in some nice colors – - more than just the “chrome” of standard wheelchairs.
• They are fairly comfortable. I have not sat in my Mom’s for an extended period of time but she has said that it isn’t bad.

As is the case with most everything, there are a few downsides to these chairs.

• Medicare does not cover the cost of transport chairs.  They see them as a benefit for the caregiver, not the patient.  I beg to differ…..  Regardless, I found the approximately $100 pricetag well worth the money.
• Because the wheels are considerably smaller than those of a standard wheelchair, the patient is unable to move themselves around in the chair.  Users will need the help of a responsible adult to push them in the chair. 
• The wheels on these chairs are not as tough as those on standard wheelchairs.  Wheels on transport chairs wear out more quickly if they are used daily and/or on uneven surfaces such, as gravel.

Please keep in mind, these chairs are meant for short trips.  They are not meant to replace the use of a standard wheelchair.

I purchased my Mom’s from a local medical supply company.  However, they are available online at Amazon.

krisdecurtis on Flickr

My mother has been in assisted living for the past few years. Keeping her place homey and safe without appearing cluttered has been a challenge.

The facility she lives in is beautiful and they do a lovely job decorating for the holidays. However, it just wouldn’t be Christmas for my Mom if she didn’t have her own tree. Over her lifetime, she put a great deal of care into collecting Christmas ornaments that meant something to her and to our family. She purchased ornaments on vacations. She purchased ornaments that represented our favorite things: sailboats, skiing, ice skating, lighthouses, dogs, etc. She saved ornaments that had adorned the trees of my grandparents. She even saved the silly ornaments I made with coffee can tops and sequins in kindergarten.

So, simply enjoying the tree in the lobby of her assisted living facility was not an option. I decided that I would decorate her room myself and then store the decorations in my home to keep her place from becoming too cluttered the rest of the year.

Decorating in her room has become much easier with my now fine-tuned, well-organized approach. I have purchased decorations that are easy to store at my home and are easy to transport to/from my Mom’s place.

Here are a few utilitarian and beautiful items that have made Christmas decorating a breeze! There are frequently some great cost-savings by purchasing holidays items “off-season.”

Four Foot Pre-lit Christmas Tree: I chose a four foot artificial tree. It is a large enough tree for her to display her favorite ornaments. It is small enough that it doesn’t take up all that much space in her room. It is also small enough that it fits inside the trunk of my car without a struggle. Purchasing the pre-lit version kept me from having to struggle with detangling lights each year.

Snapware Three-tier Christmas ornament boxes: The three-tiered Snapware boxes are great because they allow me to transport her ornaments in just a couple of boxes. The fewer trips to/from the car the better! The boxes have sturdy handles on the top that make them easy to carry, even when wearing my mittens. The clear plastic makes it easy for me to determine which boxes were my Mom’s and which ones were mine in my basement.

Bubble Wrap: I take a fresh roll of bubble wrap with me when I pack the ornaments up each year. It ensures that I am using wrap that is in good condition to prevent the ornaments from breaking in transport to/from my home.

Packaging Tape: Clear packaging tape is great for securing bubble wrap around fragile ornaments. It stays well secured all year long. You might even want to label the ornament under the clear tape if you want to be able to identify ornaments before unwrapping them.

Artificial Christmas Tree bag: The box that the tree came in eventually ripped making it difficult to close and to transport. The Christmas tree bag made transporting the tree much easier. It also keeps it clean throughout the year.

Extension Cord: You may need an extension cord if there isn’t an electrical outlet close to where the tree will be placed.

Live Wreath. Over the past few years, I have purchased live evergreen wreaths from the boy scouts for my Mom. It has scented her room with the smell of evergreen without the mess and challenge of bringing a live tree into her space.

Here is a list of links to where you can purchase the recommendations found above:

• Pre-lit Christmas tree
• Snapwear ornament box
• Artificial tree bag
• Bubblewrap
• Packing tape

Note: the links take you to Amazon. I cannot guarantee that the suppliers who are now selling the products on Amazon are those that I purchased from.

Below you will find the official course overview…..

Are the changes in Medicare causing you confusion? Are you navigating through the Medicare process or are you helping a parent or loved one navigate through the process? Do you have questions and need answers? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, or if you just want to be reassured that you are making the right choices when it comes to Medicare, please join us for an informative meeting about the rule changes for Medicare. Learn from unbiased industry experts how to match your health care needs with the appropriate insurance provider.
 
Presenters are Ruth LoPrete, The Area Agency on Aging 1B and Steve Hornacek, The Benefits Group. 

RSVP requested, 248-644-5832.  To enroll online click here.