I'm staying in my old neighborhood while taking care of my mom in the hospital. Yesterday, as I headed out on my exercise walk, I passed the 50-something year-old man next door, who was a neighbor for 15 years.  While asking me about my mom, the neighbor checked out my body a couple of times, with ...

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Back when my mom was in the Intensive Care Unit a couple of weeks ago, I was blown away not only by the quality of attention and care that she received, but also by the bedside manner of the staff.  Not only did they demonstrate tremendous compassion, but they actually encouraged questions and took the time to explain things -- ...

Given what I have seen in my mother's hospital care recently, I have come to understand that there is a dire need for patient advocacy on behalf of hospital patients. I was by my mother's side for two full weeks, watching her like a hawk -- which turned out to be absolutely necessary for ensuring her proper treatment. Of course, I finally had to leave and get back to my own life. Once I returned ...

It took a while to put together the pieces of information I gathered from various sources, but I now know more or less what happened to my mom two Sundays ago. First the background 411: A few years ago, my mom devised a system whereby she could still work as a street artist, despite her increasingly severe chronic pain and resulting disability: She assembled three carts that she could fill with her artwork, bought a scooter and attached a trailer ...