50+ Lifestyles

Aging and You

By Julie Arndt
Marketing Director at Ridgecrest Village

How Quickly It Can Happen

I was reminded recently on a personal level how quickly things can change, as well as how standard medical jargon and service resource information can be overwhelming, especially when making critical decisions on a dime. My aunt Carol is a very spry and independent 91-year-old living on a farm not far from where I grew up in northern Iowa. Like many older adults, she spends the winter months divided between her daughters in Colorado and Michigan and enjoys being at her home during the warm months. Carol has gracefully leaned into growing older. In recent years she has diligently researched her options of suitable senior housing to live closer to her daughters when she is ready.  Recently the unexpected happened when she tripped on her carpet on a quick trip to her kitchen. She said she was in a hurry.  Fortunately, her cell phone was within reach, and she was able to contact her neighbor for help. She ended up going to the hospital with a fractured right shoulder.

This is something that can happen to any of us at any age.  It can be traumatic with unforeseen complications, but even more so when one’s adult children live a couple states away and are remotely helping with the plans for discharge from the hospital. In this case, they had anticipated surgery with a post-acute stay in skilled care but after two days in the hospital, over a weekend no less, the surgeon decided surgery was not the best course and ordered rest with an immobilizer for several weeks. After another day in the hospital, Carol was told she would be released the next day with some home health follow-up. And of course, it had to fall on a holiday week which made any planning extraordinarily challenging.

She didn’t feel she could go home and had planned to go to a skilled facility, but she didn’t qualify for skilled care under her Medicare. The hospital didn’t tell her that she could still go temporarily to a skilled care center as a private pay resident.  Rather, she was told she could go home with home health follow up. She had little choice, nor did they really understand what home health follow up truly entailed. The discharge planner was trying to communicate with her daughter, but cell reception was bad, which complicated matters. Her daughters were not familiar with options for skilled care and all the terminology was like a foreign language. Acronyms like ADLs (activities of daily living – dressing and bathing); IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living – shopping and driving), ALF (assisted living facility) and respite vs. skilled care all had to be addressed/assessed very quickly.

Carol ultimately elected to go home with private duty interim help, which I helped initiate as time was running out before the holiday. Her daughter was quickly brought up to speed with medical terminology once she had cell reception and created Plan B for a skilled unit or respite in assisted living, if Plan A didn’t work. Like so many people, she had been given a list and told when she would be discharged and that was that.

During our summer open houses, several guests shared the reason they were considering Ridgecrest was because they had concerns about something happening to them without family in the area.  They wanted the reassurance that they had their bases covered regardless of what may happen to them as they age. We all like to think if something happens there will be time to consider options but often this is not the case. Our recent experience with my aunt was a huge reminder of how quickly things can change and when they do, for those who are not living in a continuing care retirement community like Ridgecrest Village, it can be a very tumultuous time. On a personal note, it all worked out for my aunt and she is doing beautifully.    

Julie Arndt, is a licensed social worker and Director of Marketing at Ridgecrest Village with over 30 years’ experience working in the field of geriatrics and senior advocacy. She can be reached at jarndt@ridgecrestvillage.org.