Last summer my medical plan (Group Health Cooperative, now
Kaiser Permanente) invited me to participate in a “Live Well with Diabetes” workshop. It was an 8-week class that involved about a
dozen folks ranging in age from their mid-twenties to a couple there who were
in their eighties. This workshop was
divided into several subjects, including some basic information about diabetes,
nutrition, exercise, stress management, managing medicines, setting realistic
goals, and planning for the future. The
2 instructors were ladies who both were diabetics and therefore knew from
experience what they were talking about when it was their turn to instruct the
class. There was really great
participation by everyone, and we learned from each other as well as the text
that we used.
Well, a month or so after the class ended, one of the
instructors who is an RN and a Planning & Development Specialist for the
City of Seattle asked me to write an article for the Seattle-King County newsletter
“AgeWise”. I asked her the subject she
wanted me write about, and she said it was my choice. Here is the link to the final piece I wrote
entitled “A
Veteran’s Take on Getting Older”. I
hope you enjoy it.
As a result of taking that class, she also invited me to
participate with other older folks in a panel discussion about the book “Being
Mortal” by Atul Gawande MD with young doctors-in-training at the University of Washington
School of Medicine. Dr. Gawande is a
Boston surgeon So, on December 7th I went to the “U” Medical Center
where several of us ranging in age from about 65 to 92 each were assigned to a
class of 20 or so students (I was with 2nd year medical students). We discussed Gawande’s tackling that “the
hardest challenge of his profession is how medicine can not only improve life
but also the process of its ending”*.
It was really fun sharing some of my recent medical
experiences with these young physicians-to-be to help them be better doctors
during their training and when they start practicing on the own. I would recommend that you read "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande (ISBN: 1846685818).
*Note: Quotation taken from Amazon’s review of this
book.
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