Category: February – March 2014

  • Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: A Tale About Medicare Eligibility

    The Hawaii SHIP office recently received a call from a woman who left the message, “I looked in the mirror this morning and this young 50 year old was looking back at me. Then my high school classmate called and asked if I had enrolled in Medicare yet? I realized I will be 65 this…

  • Benefits of Cardiac Rehab

    Cardiac rehabilitation, as defined by the American Heart Association, is a medically supervised program to help patients who have sustained a heart attack, undergone heart surgery (bypass) or those with identified risk factors (coronary artery disease or angina). Cardiac rehab is used to stabilize, slow or even reverse the progression of cardiovascular disease, ultimately reducing…

  • Back to School: Learning How to Age

    The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) is partnering with the University of Hawai‘i Foundation in sponsoring the new Mini-Medical School on Healthy Aging. The Mini-Medical School is designed to prepare participants for the second half of their lives. The school will deliver relevant scientific information on aging, similar to what JABSOM medical students…

  • Social Security: Ring in the New Year With a COLA

    May people ring in the new year with champagne. People who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) got to ring it in with a COLA. This year, more than 60 million Americans are receiving a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) in their monthly benefit payment. The 1.5 percent COLA began with…

  • Tips for Senior Skin Care

    Skin is our body’s largest organ, and it’s exposed to all the elements of our environment and lifestyles. As we age, our skin becomes dryer and thinner, which can lead to skin breakdown, especially with an immobilized person. Skin breakdown occurs when there is unrelieved pressure to an area on the body. This pressure impedes…

  • Legal: Do You Have Four-Legged Children?

    While I was growing up, we almost always had a dog (or two) in the house, and they always became treasured family members. You may have had the same experience, and you would not be alone if you have pets today that you consider to be your “children.” I know people who claim to prefer…

  • Message from The Editor – February / March 2014

    Sometimes we have to work hard and long to change our lives, and then sometimes it just happens — for better or for worse. When 9/11 happened, many lives were changed forever in an incendiary flash … and in unthinkable ways. In the days following 9/11, most of us struggled to process the turn of…

  • Vegas Celebrations

    Many milestones are celebrated in Las Vegas. At least that was the reason my husband and I started going to Vegas — from celebrating our 40th birthdays to this past October when we celebrated our 60th. When we started going to Vegas, we went with another couple, Sharon and Steven Wong of Mililani (a little…

  • Introducing the Hawai’i Neurotrauma Registry

    We probably all know someone who has experienced a stroke, spinal cord injury, concussion or traumatic brain injury. You may be the one this has happened to. These are called neurotraumatic injuries. Whatever the cause — a fall, burst blood vessel, car accident, sports injury, being hit by an object — the results can be…

  • Legal: The Family Meeting

    Clients often ask me, “Do you do like they do in the movies, where the attorney sits with the family and reads the will after someone dies?” I tell them that I never do that after someone dies. Most clients then respond, looking puzzled, “You don’t?” I then explain that while I never do the…