We're having another health crisis at my house.  Of course these things always happen on a weekend and a holiday.

This time my mom, who is 81, has a reoccurring   sever eye infection.  We need to call the eye doctor, but he isn't in and probably won't be until tomorrow.  Of course we could go to the emergency room, but after hours of frustrating waiting, they'll only patch up the eye and tell her to call her regular physician when he's in.  She's better off waiting at home where she's comfortable.

I don't have to explain what a problem this is for caregivers. 

We all know that often we can't really get help when we need it because our system is too complicated.  We live in strange times when we have very sophisticated  medicine but the delivery of it is somewhat sub par.  It's only going to get worse. 

So we'll spend our holiday worrying  and continuing   to watch mother's  eye, while getting ready to do battle tomorrow for a place in the eye doctor's patient line.  And there are no guarantees and it means losing a day of work during our busiest season of the year. (We're in real estate.)  

But this also reminds me  that the  Governor of Tennessee,  who had  made his personal fortune in health care,  recently hired Federal Express as consultants to try to figure out how to better organize state bureaucracy.  Maybe companies like Federal Express could do something for the health care industry in general.

Don't laugh, I don't think it's that far fetched.  If we can get an Amazon delivery within hours, why can't we get some relief for our chronic health conditions, or at least see a doctor?  Am I asking for too much here? Amazon doesn't stop your order because it's a weekend.  

How many of us  who are caregivers face these types of situations every day?

I came across an article by  Pamela Varkony who has been through this very same maze for the last few months.  Pamela describes herself as "informed" and wonders what the uninformed do.  That's a good question. 

One solution, which we are all predicting will gain popularity in the future, is to hire a health care project manager.  Maybe that doesn't seem so far-fetched now that many of our aging parents have  three to six or seven doctors and specialists they have to see on a regular basis. 

Read Health Care Barrel Ride Can Be Disorienting

Popularity: 3% [?]

• Improve Your Vision - Take Off Your Glasses And See! (Note: Here are some exercises for improving your eyesight. For more serious problems get help from your eye doctor.) Eyesight improvement is achievable. You can learn to see without glasses and be relieved permanently of the pain and distress so frequently associated with defective sight. But you cannot Improve your......
• Health Care Bill: Is It DOA or Will It Spring to Life? Image via Wikipedia The healthcare bill is once again on the front burner.  That is after it was put on the back burner for quite some time.  What is really going on here?  Does it have any chance of passing this time? How exactly will it affect seniors?  Will......
• Health Care Bill: Is It Doomed? The Health Care Bill is being delayed. That's not a bad thing. A report from the Washington Post informs us that Congress is taking a second look. We can only hope it will be a longer, more informed look this time. There are many questions which need to be answered before......
• n
  n

  Linda Abbit of Tender Loving Eldercare has a treasure trove of holida" title="catxmas height=199 alt="" src="http://agingparentsauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/catxmas.jpg" width=300/>n

  n

  Linda Abbit of Tender Loving Eldercare has a treasure trove of holida" border=0>How Caregivers Can Get Through the Holidays Guilt-Free Linda Abbit of Tender Loving Eldercare has a treasure trove of holiday advice on how we can get through the holidays successfully as caregivers.How exactly do you deal with the hectic, sometimes difficult holidays while you're trying to care give?There is plenty of advice here which we can actually......

• Was Health Care Decided Today? Was health care finally decided and settled today?  There was a very long conference with Democrats and Republicans?  Did we learn anything new? Image via Wikipedia Are we still trying to get an answer to one basic question?  Will Medicare be cut? Where will the money to pay for all......

• What is the truth behind the Health Care Reform? Every day there are constant news about health care reform and universal health care. I want to understand the truth from an unbiased viewpoint. What is it that the health care bill is trying to accomplish? Why are people so against this reform and universal health care. If the government......
• Jay Leno and Bill Maher discuss health care Bill Maher appears on Jay Leno on September 29, 2009. The conversation starts out with some Maher classic "new rules," turns to talk of Obama, Sarah Palin and George W. Bush. Then they get "serious" with a discussion of health care, which is actually a good summation of the current......
• Health Care Bill Proposal Drops Public Option and Looks to Avoid Medicare Expansion Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard all kinds of speculation about the proposed health care bill and the controversial public option. With President Obama determined to find an answer to the unacceptable challenge of affordable health care in the United States, the idea of a public option......
• Health Care Spending in 2016 According to a WebMD article Health Care Spending will reach 20% of all spending in 2016. This is an amazing number to me, but it's really not that surprising. As baby boomers get older it makes sense that more money would go towards health care. Medical advances should continue at......
• Health Care Cost Destroying America I was reading this article in Business Week and I got very excited about the future of health care in the United States. I am a proponent of universal health care and the article gave me hope that our country is heading in that direction. Health Care Cost The health......