For those with a life-threatening illness, there are four questions you need to discuss with your physician. This useful advice was shared this past weekend by our guest Gloria Brooks, president and CEO of Arbor Hospice. Having a frank, open talk with your doctor should include these four questions:

1. What can I expect to face with this disease?
Be specific, ask what symptoms you may experience. Don’t expect your doctor to know that you want these details. Doctors get different messages from different patients. Give your physician a gift, and make it clear that you would like to know.
2. How will you keep me and my family informed?
The physician and you need to agree on how new developments will be communicated. This could be by phone, e-mail and/or visits to the clinic.

3. What are my options?
Doctors should be able to provide the different alternatives available. Will you need to be at a skilled nursing facility, or assisted living? What are your potential care requirements?
4. What about hospice?
What Gloria and her staff hear most from families is they wish they had contacted hospice earlier and started hospice care sooner. Ask for hospice care by name, and do not assume all hospice care is the same.
Don’t wait for your physician to bring up this subject; be proactive and ask the questions.

On Everything Elderly, we also talked with Gloria about five very useful questions to ask yourself. Click on Questions from Arbor Hospice.doc for a listing of all these questions. To listen to the 12-minute talk click the audio link below:

To get in touch with Gloria or Arbor Hospice, visit their website arborhospice.org, or call 800-997-9266.

We also had a great discussion with Vance Shutes, a local realtor with Real Estate One. Vance is very optimistic about the coming spring market. The market has been very resilient this winter, and all signs point to a strong spring.

The Ann Arbor area is holding up well, but the latest surprise is South Lyon. It’s a hot spot right now where there have been multiple bids on a number of properties. Overall, the number of homes on the market is down from levels of the last few years. The market inventory is back to more normal levels, and that helps hold up selling prices.

Vance shared how Ann Arbor is an attractive community for seniors. The health care facilities and the broad diversity of activities are major draws for seniors to stay in, or come to, Ann Arbor. There are neighborhoods where many of the original owners are still there, aging in place in their own homes. In these areas, the seniors are a significant percentage of the population.
To better enable the elderly to stay in their homes, seniors can take advantage of local service providers to handle home maintenance requirements, including lawn maintenance and snow removal. To listen to the 12-minute discussion click the audio link below:

If you would like to contact Vance Shutes or Real Estate One, please call 734-476-2063, Vance also blogs six days a week at salinemichiganrealestate.com.

Alan Caldwell and Sheila Doeden co-host Everything Elderly every Saturday morning at 8:30 on 1290 WLBY. In their day jobs, Alan and Sheila co-own and co-manage Senior Helpers, providing in-home care services, primarily to the elderly. Both can be contacted at homecareexcellence@seniorhelpers.com, or at 734-927-3111.