I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell...

[renn_man]

It sucks to get old. It sucks to get hurt. There are exponential effects when these things are combined. This morning in the ER we had an 84 year old man brought in by EMS with a femur fracture. There was a defined deformity in his thigh, and probably over a liter and half of extra fluid in the area (basically, you could see the bone trying to

Comments

Becomming more and more relevant

[thisisjoel]

This is the kind of story that I'd just brush aside a few years ago. I'd say "that's horrible," but I'd go on living my life the same way.

However, within 20 years the "old man" may be our father. We should start paying attention to issues that senior citizens face in health care.

-- Joel

[dirtyfrank07]

i just had a tangent conversation over lunch today. my friend and her husband are discussing what happens as they get older and how to plan for if one of them is left without the other. we came to the conclusion that maybe we weren't meant to live this long.

[renn_man]

As interesting as they are, I have a problem with those sorts of theoretical conversations. Ultimately we are living that long, so just saying we aren't meant to, true or not, doesn't actually do anything for us. Personally, my conclusion is that I'd better save like crazy when I have the opportunity to so that I can resonably survive in my retirement years. I'm racking up debt now, but I'm not touching my retirement investments - let them grow, 'cause I'll need them much sooner than I think I will.

This is also a huge lesson to a lot of younger people who don't seem to understand these issues - MAX OUT YOUR ROTH IRAS AND YOUR 401KS. It hardly makes a dent now, but it makes all the difference in the world when you're 65.