13 THINGS OLD PEOPLE FEAR; and, rightly so. A baker’s dozen of senior fears!

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  1. Falling – If you fall, it may lead to the hospital or to not being discovered for a long time. And you forget the button that you are supposed to wear around your neck to call for help.
  2. Driving – You might have an accident, you might not pass the driver’s test, your kids may take your keys away, you may get lost and you will not know how to get home. What senior has heard of Uber or the bus line?
  3. Finances – Will your money last? Who is trying to get it? What if need long-term care? What about Medicaid?
  4. Memory – Not just a “senior moment” any more;  you can’t remember where you left things,  names, or what you did yesterday, etc
  5. Telling doctors your symptoms  – The Dr. will make a record. The insurance company, MVD, your kids or the trustee under your Living Trust will take action.  When you are old, you don’t want a record. What is the Dr.s duty?
  6. Medicines – You can’t keep track of them and you don’t know why you are taking them. – If you sell your opioids, you may go to jail, but you need the money.
  7. Caring for children – What if you screw up. they can talk you out of anything; they hide from you; and, teenagers  want money and to use your spare bedroom.
  8. Eye exams – Will this keep you from driving ? Cataracts operation? Blind!!!
  9. Hearing tests – You never did like people with hearing aids and now you aren’t wearing yours. You are isolated and you still can’t make out the words, especially in a noisy restaurant.  Plus, hearing aids are expensive, get lost, break, don’t work right and you forget to take them off in the shower.
  10. Hiring a contractor – What if he cheats you? How do you know what you need? Do you really need what he says. It is important to act like you are competent, so he doesn’t think you are dumb
  11. Travel – What if you get lost?  How do you get the too-big suitcase in the overhead bin? Do you really need a wheel-chair? Plus, all the usual fears in this day of terrorism.
  12. Losing things – You put things under other things, or other things on top of the soon-to-be be lost things. Then you can’t find them and have to ask a kid, spouse, friend or stranger  for help. And, you  feel stupid. Every time you lose something, you know it is dementia.
  13. Dementia – You have to be really careful here. If you have Alzheimer’s, it is all in your mind; you forget that it won’t be your problem any longer; it will be someone else’s. The fearful time is just before you develop a full-blown case of some form of dementia, and you know something is wrong, but not what but you know you can’t really do anything about it.

And, of course, there are a lot more fears,

THINK OLD!

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