So here we are at the end of 2016. It’s been kind of a brutal year — globally, nationally, personally, even as a long-term care profession. Lots of loss, much uncertainty and fear, many reasons...
Journey of Heroes deserves showing, not telling
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 15, 2016
Every year about this time, I tell you eagerly and often weepily about “The Trip.” The one where 12 veterans, many of them from World War II and living in long-term care, get to hop on a plane...
Squirrels vs. LTC: The Final Battle
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 01, 2016
While we’ve been focused on trivialities like HHS and CMS appointments, declining U.S. dementia rates and electing an orange President, rabid squirrels are terrorizing long-term care communities...
Surviving the night shift
By
Gary Tetz
Oct 06, 2016
In a new study highlighted by McKnight’s, more than 60% of night shift workers reported “poor sleep quality, insomnia and impaired sleep-related activities of daily living.” Reading those...
Accept and connect
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 22, 2016
Thanks to the inadvertent generosity of Starbucks, I didn’t have to climb a mountain in my bare feet or learn to speak Tibetan to discover the secret of peace and happiness. It was delivered personally...
Senior sex — the lethal irony
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 08, 2016
Of all the forces in the universe, I fear irony the most. It’s lethal, and is eventually going to find and destroy me.
Up in the air, and up on the ground
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 25, 2016
This isn’t just a story about the World War II veteran who got to fly again, inspiring though it most certainly was. I know, because I was there — holding a video camera, unsteadily at times, as...
Cue the banjo player (you won’t regret it)
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 28, 2016
So anyway, speaking of aging, I got to spend Sunday evening with a delightful old guy named Steve — a spry, perfectly adorable gentleman with a Mike Pence hairdo who plays the banjo and seems to have...
Jumper cables and stethoscopes
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 14, 2016
After posing questions ever since the bitter childhood discovery that I would never be an astronaut or Bobby Orr, I finally got my answer this week. Why do I exist? To be the guy with jumper cables.
Gum control
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 07, 2016
I’m not surprised dementia is now being tied to gum disease. I have long believed the mouth offers a convenient and unflinching window to the soul, and that everything important about someone can...