Aging & Caregiving

-- Quote of the Day --

“If you live 72 years, that is about 26,000 days. So how are you going to live your life knowing that there is an end in mind? You need to live… in the moment… exponentially… cruelty free; we need to live urgently, …and to love each other. …It is not the number of days in your life it is the life in your days. And that is the way we should all live.  …Make your last will and testament even if you are 20 years old and healthy. …You need to make an Advanced Health Care Directive - …You have ultimate control until your last breath. You are the bus and we are all in the seats, we have to do what you want. …This way you know you are going to control how you are going to live and how the end your life is going to be.” 

Damiano Iocovozzi, Sept 28

Today's quote originates from the Hospice & Health Care interview that aired on the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show back on Sept 28, 2010. Check out the archived interview by clicking on the hyper-linked show title above, or look to the side bars on this blog for recently aired Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show interviews.

 

-- World of Writing Interview --

Our special guest of the day is Joseph J. Sivak (MD), he is a board certified adult psychiatrist with twenty years of experience in direct patient care. He has taught and lectured in the United States and internationally in the areas of post traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, and chronic suicidal tendencies. Dr. Sivak has served on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Alzheimer's Association and the Northland Chapter of the American Red Cross and hosted a weekly mental health radio program for eight years on KUWS- Wisconsin Public Radio. Currently he serves on the legislative committee of the Minnesota Medical Association, is a assistant professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth College of Pharmacy and is in full time private psychiatric in Duluth. Joseph is the author of "When Can I Go Home?",  a memoir about his mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease. Find today's guest at: www.niagarapress.net  or his blog: http://alzheimmers.blogspot.com

Q. First, tell us - Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Q. When did you consider yourself a writer?

When I started writing this memoir about my mother's Alzheimer's disease, 21 years ago.

Q. Do use more than one voice in your writing? (first/second…)

The memoir is written in the first person. I am currently writing a novel about psychiatric residency, it is in third person; a work of fiction.

Q. What is your profession and educational background?

I am an MD, specializing in psychiatry. after high school, four years of college, four years of medical school, and four years of residency training.

Q. What is your mission?

With this book I would somehow like to help some family member or caregiver for an Alzheimer's victim, by decreasing the profound isolation, letting them know they are not alone, that they will make it. I would also like to see us perhaps rethink and try to treat our aging population with the honor and dignity they deserve.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Strength would be perseverance through extreme adversity: a survival instinct. Weakness used to be disorganization, but now it would have to be a certain intolerance for the pervasive mean spiritedness and narcissism that permeates society. Sometimes I waste to much mental energy letting it bother me.

 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio program, newsletter, blogs, and more at: www.brummet.ca 

* Support the Brummets by telling your friends, or purchasing a book - each book sold raises funds for charity as well!