A Tale of Two Eighty-Somethings
Health. Aging.
This household has had a major job change and as a result we spent the first part of 2025 traveling to visit family. My goal here is short and to the point. I’m writing about real people and although the people are important, the details are not and the point is the point.
Or points, I know why there are “Meals on Wheels”.
My first topic is an 89 year old, in a very nice facility, the new kind of “home” as she calls it, where a resident can go from a cute little condo type thing to full scale nursing care. She is in an independent living two bedroom apartment. Over three days, she went from being mobile, coherent and fairly independent, to feeling poorly, disoriented and unsafe, back to mobile, coherent and fairly independent.
It was stunning.
The difference was she didn’t eat.
On the middle day, at dinnertime, it took 3 hours and multiple tries of different items to get her to each one hamburger. Then miraculously she was mobile and fairly coherent. The hamburger was in the freezer. We had arrived at the apartment with a bag full of carry out type food from a fancy Italian market but none of that food was appealing for whatever reason. About 2 hours into the situation, her son found the hamburger in the freezer and cooked it. That never would have happened had she been alone. Not safely, anyway.
We were leaving the next day and picked her up to go out to lunch. We had a very nice meal with a coherent, mobile with a few issues, pleasant 89 year old.
Eighty-something in a different state is a mobile Energizer Bunny. Go, go, go. Lots of fun to be around and never dull.
We discussed an health issue that involved some blood work. The problem might be fixed with eating red meat. Honestly, now vaguely I remember discussing this in the past, it might be me who needs the help.
She thought because she ate chicken and took B12 vitamin supplements that it should be covered. Chicken is not red meat and supplements are not ever as good as the real deal.
We came up with a plan, simple, involving hamburger with no freezing allowed. Daily portion of red meat. It does not have to be large or a big deal to be effective.
We can test and evaluate for a zillion things that might be “wrong” but unless nutrition is at least at a minimum, we might not find the actual cause.
There are purposefully many details left out. The 89 year old had a team evaluation recently and all I could think reading the report is “Did she eat?”.
Maybe all this stuff should start with a dietician.