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Hello again! My name is Louisa Strohm and this is a second blog post in continuation to my first post about Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). If you would like to read that one first, which I do recommend you can find that here. In my first post I talked about what MCI is and what kind of effects it has on elderly people physically and mentally. I also talked about my personal connection with MCI, which is my grandmother. She was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment in 2013, and it affected not only her, but our entire family. We changed the way we did things around the house to try and help her condition. In this blog post I’d like to talk about some new facts and statistics I’ve found. I also got to sit down with my grandmother and my mother, her caretaker, to ask some questions about MCI and how they deal with it.

The first interview I conducted was with my grandmother. The first thing I had her tell me about was her daily routine. She told me that 3 days a week she babysits her 2 year old grandson Leo. If she isn’t watching him she’s doing laundry, watching her favorite game shows such as The Price is Right, or if it’s nice out she sits on the front porch, or she gardens. She also told me that during the spring and summer there is one thing that she never misses and that’s the Phillie’s game. During my interview she expressed many times that the medication she takes makes things much better. At the end of our interview she told me specifically to let the people know that if she didn’t have us girls, referring to me my sister, and mother, she would be sad, she said that she would hate to be alone.

The next interview I conducted was with my mother, the caretaker of my grandmother. She told me that her initial reaction to being told her mother has MCI was that she was upset with herself at first for not recognizing the signs and in denial about my grandmother’s condition. She told me about some of the things she does like leaving notes and filling my grandmother’s medicine for her that may not sound like they make a difference, but they do. She told me that she she normally is fine with my grandmother but sometimes gets frustrated with having to repeat herself but knows that it’s just part of her condition. She got emotional towards the end when I asked things people might not know when living with a person that has MCI. She got teary eyed and told me that it takes a lot of patience and love to care for anyone with any disease.

Since my last blog I’ve done some more research on the effects and ¨cures¨ of MCI. This Scientific American article I found, suggests that the risks of MCI and dementia are falling. Studies done in America and Europe tell us that over the past 25 years the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease has been steadily falling. A study led by Carol Brayne at Cambridge University surveyed people over the age of 65 once in the 90’s and again somewhere around 2010. The results led them to believe that the dementia rate was decreasing by 24 percent.

There is lots more to discover and uncover in the always moving world of MCI, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s. I hope to come to some more conclusions and help more people overcome MCI.

If you would like to see my sources here’s the link to my Annotated Bibliography.

https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/amigas-de-tu-viaje/home?authuser=0

The content of the last post addressed what The Affordable Act and Obamacare wa\. The fight for affordable healthcare is being fought through the Obamacare. Obamacare is threatened of being terminated by President Donald Trump. Even though, Obamacare opens opportunities to poor families and middle class families, Trump still wants to take it away. The Affordable Healthcare Act is the same as Obamacare. The Affordable healthcare Act is called an act because it was an attempt to increase the Healthcare market and making insurance available to more people.(First Blog Post)

Since last blog post, I’ve gathered information from multiple sources and conducted research on my own. I’ve interviewed a nurse at my mother’s clinic. I am well acquainted with her so it wasn’t a problem interviewing her. I initially was supposed to interview a rising RN (registered nurse) that mainly focuses on The Affordable Healthcare Act but his schedule was too busy. As a result, I ended up interviewing another nurse dealing with Obamacare. I’ve conducted the interview over the phone with nurse Jelysa. Questions I asked involved the Obamacare users, the nature of Obamacare, the benefits of it, the downsides of it, and some opinionated driven questions.

Jelysa isn’t only a nurse, she gives patients information on Obamacare. She first offers the patients the opportunity, then explains how it can benefit them. If the patient’s accept the offer, she sets them up for Obamacare, as other workers would do in the clinic.  My newly found information also had a humanely “touch” to it. Jelysa expressed how she felt about the President taking away Obamacare and the flaws of it. She said Obamacare isn’t perfect because participants have to pay a fee at first. However, she believes Obamacare should not be taken away because it has helped the poor and Middle class. Interview with nurse Jelysa.

Jelysa(right) and my mom(right) at work.

I’ve gathered new sources explaining more of the Affordable Healthcare's nature. The act’s three primary goals are to make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies (“tax credits”) that reduces costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level. Support medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally. Compared to my interview, these goals seem to be true and are the main goals the act wants to achieve.

Agent of Change is the process of doing something that relates to my topic that will have significance. My Agent of change will involve me working in a clinic that verifies patients for Obamacare. I will be working with nurse Jelysa and in some cases by myself in the clinic verifying patients for Obamacare. I will spend long hours working with patients and helping them getting set up for Obamacare. I understand that I am literally working without pay but nonetheless it will be a great experience working with various patients and helping them get acquainted with health insurance.

Family Practice Care Clinic. Where Jelysa works at and where I’ll be working at

Annotated Bibliogrophy

Remember me? The kid with the Black Lives Matter project. If not, let me catch you up. Previously in my last blog post, I spoke about the significance of the movement, and why it was important to me. I think it’s safe to say I did pretty well. But let’s not get off topic because I’m sure you’ve been waiting for more. In my research, I’ve dug up more interesting facts and information that I’d like to share with you and the world.

That was the statement I most agreed with because in the media, when we hear about an African-American being killed by police, we only tweet the hashtag for a few days before we move on to the next thing. This is not how I think we should handle situations. Unity is key. We should scream until our voices are heard. We should fight until the truth hurts. This is the only way we’ll make a difference. Once we realize that as a community, we’ll be successful.

Thank you for making it to the end, and for coming on this wonderful journey with me. If you learned something new, feel free to let me know! That means I’ve done my job. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me: rpowell@scienceleadership.org. Until we meet again, I’m signing off.

See my annotated bibliography here.