Preparing to Age in Place

Your question is very broad.
The web link is to a page from the Aging Life care Association, a national organization of health care professionals who have skills and knowledge to help people find assistance needed as we grow old and ill. The link will tell you about individuals in your area.

One of the local members came and talked to our neighborhood "eldertea" meeting, talking about the range of options available when we need help. She didn't charge for this.

And she stopped in our home to assess our environment for aging in place. Because we are close to major universities and medical schools, there are many resources, including health care majors who provide basic home help at minimum wage!

You'll have to try the link and see who is available in your area. (just enter your zip code.)

Since you are facing multiple illnesses, I hope you'll find someone soon who can help you plan your future needs, at home or in a care facility if necessary.

@edsutton. Very good, I will do my best to check what’s available in my area.
Thank you, Susan

I am very close to 90. My birthday is in September. I just read a very interesting article from Cleveland Clinic. It is all about the benefits of black tea. I gave up drinking coffee many many years ago and have been drinking black tea since then. I also was a race walker for many years and then just walked until my recent hip replacement. I do not have aches and pains or major diseases of which I am aware. I do not eat sweets. Not for health reasons, but I just don't like the taste. So I have done a lot of right/good things by accident and here I am. Unhappily my husband of 59 years passed away almost 3 years ago and I am having a very hard time dealing with the grief. Yet I still go on. I call myself a survivor.

thisismarilynb. I like your message. It's sensible and uplifting. You call yourself a survivor. You are that, that's for sure. But you are also a "Warrior". I'm very sorry for your loss. Perhaps you can find an advocacy group in your area that helps people through the loss of loved ones. Is there a senior center near you? You seem to have a youthful spirit. I'm sure you can find others who would love to sit and chat with you over a cup of black tea. Many blessings to you from above. CB

Let us know how it goes.

Here's an example of what can be done.
One of our neighbors has complex health problems, including early onset dementia. She shares a home with an old friend and has daytime helpers about 30 hours a week. The helpers' job is mostly to help her focus and decide how to manage her life.
Left to herself she gets hopelessly confused and frenzied, but with her helpers she can organize her day and stay fairly stable. Her memory for "things to be done today" is pretty good, but she can't organize, plan and set goals without help.
The current situation is manageable and preferable to going into memory care. She has many friends close by and loves to help garden, care for animals and such tasks that support her need for purpose and sense of place. I don't know the details, but the family worked with local care providers to come up with the current arrangement. It took a few trials, but when the right home help people were found, improvement was quick.

We really need a discussion here about what private insurance, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid pay for in home care. There is wide-spread belief that Medicare only pays for a few days and will only do that after a hospital visit. But we just learned that regular Medicare will pay for about 100 days of in-home care for my son in law who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers and has to have someone with him all the time for his safety. When that runs out, Medicaid will add in-home caregivers prior to the need for nursing home care, but I’m not sure for how long. I wonder if any of this can help your situation. My daughter just had to pay an attorney a bundle to learn about Medicaid. This expense should be unnecessary, but I digress. She learned that there are 13 states that don’t take all a working spouses retirement plan savings when a dependent spouse is in that period, both when they require nursing care at home and after they enter a nursing home. This is such important information but even the in/home health agency I spoke with did not know it. However, I verified it was true with an elder law attorney.

We really need a discussion here about what private insurance, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid pay for in home care. There is wide-spread belief that Medicare only pays for a few days and will only do that after a hospital visit. But we just learned that regular Medicare will pay for about 100 days of in-home care for my son in law who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers and has to have someone with him all the time for his safety. When that runs out, Medicaid will add in-home caregivers prior to the need for nursing home care, but I’m not sure for how long. I wonder if any of this can help your situation. My daughter just had to pay an attorney a bundle to learn about Medicaid. This expense should be unnecessary, but I digress. She learned that there are 13 states that don’t take all a working spouses retirement plan savings when a dependent spouse is in that period, both when they require nursing care at home and after they enter a nursing home. This is such important information but even the in/home health agency I spoke with did not know it. However, I verified it was true with an elder law attorney.