Folks, you just have to meet 88-year-old Hazel, the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario - which is no small hamlet.

Just click here to see this amazing woman and one of my favourite Canadian TV personalities, Rick Mercer.

And they still love each other.

In this day of living together, quickie marriages and even quicker divorces, we seem to be surprised when we hear of 25th wedding anniversaries (I’m coming up to 24 this October!). Then, we hear of couples making it to 50. But what about a couple who married in 1933 - making their marriage 76 years long and - according to them - going strong.

Fred (94 years) and Dorothy Lalonde (90 years) married on April 1, 1933, when Dorothy was only 13 years old, with 16 cents in their pockets. Their post-wedding treat, across the street at a local restaurant, came out to 15 cents.

You can read more about the couple in this article, Couple celebrates milestone.

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Falling is one of a senior’s biggest nightmares. So many complications can occur because of a seemingly minor fall.

People with Parkinson’s disease are very likely to fall at least once because of their rigid manner of walking and loss of balance. In fact, up to 90% of people with Parkinson’s disease will fall at least once. But scientists have come across something very simple that may help combat this problem. Now, this was a very small study - only 14 people - but the results are interesting, nonetheless.

The 14 participants, all who had Parkinson’s disease, were asked to balance themselves on an inflatable rubber disk - an unstable surface. They were asked to do either focus on something internal (reducing their foot movements) or external (focus on the disk only) or they weren’t given any instructions about focus.

When the participants were asked to focus on the disk, rather than their feet, their balance improved and they swayed less than when the focused on their feet or didn’t focus on anything in particular.

The researchers say that knowing this means that instructions given to patients may vary in results depending on the wording of the instructions - something to keep in mind at all times.

External Focus Instructions Reduce Postural Instability in Individuals With Parkinson Disease

Interesting!

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Tags: seniors blog, parkinson’s disease, parkinsons disease

Getting home from the hospital or rehab clinic after a hip replacement surgery may have a few challenges. One of which is getting in and out of the car that’s bringing you home.

We can explain as much as we want how to do something like this, but sometimes it’s easier just to show you. If you click on the TV screen below, you can watch a video on how to get in and out of a car safely after your hip replacement or surgery.

You may not be able to watch the whole video without registering, but that takes just moments. All they want is a username, password and an email address that they can send the information to. This is when those "throw-away" email accounts are great, such as gmail, hotmail, yahoo, and the like. Once you’ve registered, click on "Download," which is just under the video screen on the left-hand side. This brings you to a window of several videos and just look for the one on transferring to the car.

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Image: iStock

Tags: seniors blog, hip replacement

As people get older, they often end up with more doctor’s visits, which often ends up with recommended medications and treatments. But doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, as well as other health care professionals, have their own language that they use to communicate with each other. It may seem odd, but the abbreviations and language they use are meant to prevent misunderstandings and errors, which could cost lives.

So, if you’re looking at a newly written prescription or consult, here are some of the more common abbreviations you might come across:

• QD - once a day
• BID - twice a day
• TID - three times a day
• QID - four times a day

Keep in mind that twice a day doesn’t necessarily mean every 12 hours, just as TID doesn’t mean every 8 and QID not every 6. Those mean just evenly spaced throughout the day.

• Q4H - every four hours. "Q" means every, followed by the number and H for hours.
• QW - every week
• OD - right eye
• OU - left eye
• CHD - coronary heart disease
• COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• DOB - date of birth
• DVT - deep vein thrombosis
• SOB

There are many more. A good site to visit to find out about abbreviations is Wikipedia. I don’t usually send people there, but other sites can be overwhelming sometimes.