The Book About Getting Older Quotes

“Over half of men aged over eighty-five who have been in hospital overnight will die within twelve months… A move into care is a warning flag too; only around half of those who move into a care home will still be alive a year later… because the things that cause a move into care are also events that suggest that someone’s life may be nearing its end. Pg255”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“In the event of my being in a state in which I do not have capacity to make decisions about my care, and from which the chance of recovery is minimal, I do not wish to have life-sustaining treatment… for example a feeding tube… I would like to receive care directed at the alleviation of suffering…’ pg223”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“How do you know if someone’s got dementia?... I ask the students to think about children. By the time they get to primary school most small children have learned to use a knife and fork, and can dress themselves and use the loo. Most people hang on to these basic abilities for a long while; these ‘primary-school skills’ are lost late. I ask the students to tell me instead what teenagers are learning. What are my own dear children, between fifteen and twenty-one, now getting the hang of? Phoning their friends and planning a social life. Driving and using public transport in strange cities. Deploying a richer, more elaborate vocabulary. Planning neals and cooking… managing their finances. Travelling, and telling us their stories when they return without repeating themselves.
The students can now see what skills may be lost earliest by those who are developing dementia. People who have learned several languages tend to lose them in reverse order… Long-term memory may be preserved, but what happened at lunchtime today is lost. Personalities may change, subtly at first – the placid may become anxious, or the irritable may develop a sunny outlook. Pg172-3”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“Dee Mangin is a GP from New Zealand. In a video clip she made in 2017 she talked about a seventy year old woman who had five common condtions: high blood pressure (most people over seventy have that), diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and COPD. Dee explained that if her patient was treated for each of these condition, according to current guidance, she would take nineteen doses of twelve different medications at five different times of day. Dee next observed that this would give rise to at least sixteen possible harmful interactiosn; either the drugs may interact with one another, or a drug that improved one condition may inadvertently worsen something else. She went on to say that what looked like good care, if you considered only single diseases, could result in ‘meaningfully worse care’ for the individual. Pg119”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“Often families must step back, must somehow contain their own fear and concern. We put in as good a safety net as we can afford or muster: carer visits, a lifeline pendant to call for help. After that… we must put boundaries around our worry and guilt, accept risk, and step aside. Pg96”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older