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Review of "Health Care Responsibility: The Older Adults Guide to Surviving" by Raymond Lengel

Health Care Responsibility: The Older Adults Guide to Surviving image
Health Care Responsibility: The Older Adults Guide to Surviving
by Raymond Lengel

HCR Books
Paperback
$14.95 Suggested Retail Price

I've had something of an up-close-and-personal relationship with the US health care system for the past 15 years or more. My wife was a senior who developed adult-onset diabetes in the 1980's. She progressed (to abuse the term) through Congestive Heart Failure, COPD/Asthma, a minor stroke, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Restless Leg Syndrome, Sleep Apnea, Macular Degeneration, cataracts, Diabetic Retinopathy, and degenerative Arthritis in her wrists and knees. Treating these problems entailed hundreds of visits to her HMO oevr the years, including several trips to the Emergency Room - a handfull via ambulance, several laser treatments for the Macular Degeneration, two cataract surgeries, a CAT scan following the stroke, and a series of injections of steriods and rooster crown extract for the arthritis.

I kept her in reasonably good condition through all of those problems only to suddenly lose her this past January to liver cancer. I subsequently moved back to my hometown to help take care of my 88 year-old mother whose health had deteriorated dramatically in the past year. She required three or four visits every week from home health care nurses, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and others - that is, when she wasn't hospitalized for various reasons. Mom passed away recently from complications of a fall in which she broke her pelvis.

So between the soap opera that I've been living recently, and what I like to call my 40 years of medical school via television, with mentoring from Dr. Kildare to Gregory House, I like to think that I have more than a passing familiarity with HMOs, Medicare, Medicaid, doctors, nurses, and especially Emergency Rooms. But if you're looking for a diatribe on the state of health care, you won't get it from me. I know there are enormous shortcomings in the system as a whole, but I also know that there are millions of hard-working, caring people who make that same system work as best they can. I can't say the same of author Raymond Lengel.

Mr. Lengel has some wonderful advice in this book, as well as a good deal of crticism of various institutions throughout the discussion. The best advice in this book is that you do truly have to be responsible for your own health care. My wife was the poster girl for this approach. Not only did she keep an up-to-date list of all of her medications, she also kept a diary that she took with her when she had an appointment with her primary doctor so she wouldn't forget to mention anything that had cropped up since her last visit. I had the luxury of working at home and so I would go in with her on her appointments, and would sometimes chime in with observations and opinions. I have no doubt that our combined efforts were critical factors in keeping her alive for several additional years despite the many health problems she endured.

But getting back to the book, to his credit, Raymond Lengel is also a strong advocate for self-maintenence - the basic foundation of health through diet and exercise. There's also worksheets included to help you organize your personal health care regieme. As we Americans age and our health care system continues to struggle to adapt, we do need to do more to be aware of how the system works and why its largely up to the individual as to the quality of the care they receive.


Rainbo Electronic Reviews published this review in our June, 2007 issue.




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