Columns

A Message From Nature

A red-tailed hawk, a bobcat and an eagle — no, this is not the beginning of a bar joke. This past week brought all three of these wonders of nature to our rural neighborhood. My husband and I saw the hawk in our backyard. It was on the ground along the tree line. We thought this was rather unusual for the bird to be on the ground for any length of time, but we soon realized the reason. The bird was enjoying a rather hefty meal of a rabbit. We have seen the hawk or its relative flying over the fields near our home. It will dive toward the earth, often scooping a mouse from ...

Dear Annie: How To Make Friends When You’re Older

Dear Annie: How do you make friends when you are older? I am 60 years old, and I’ve never been a “joiner” or good at making friends. I do have a couple of friends who I see once in a while, but I haven’t had a best friend since high school (and she wasn’t that good a friend, it turned out). The vast majority of my social activities involve my husband’s family. If I do step out of my comfort zone to become involved in something, it may give me something to do for an hour or two, but it never results in a friendship. It seems at my age that everyone has longstanding ...

To Your Good Health: Seek Neurologist’s Advice for Involuntary Mouth Movements

DEAR DR. ROACH: For about the past year, I have had mouth movements that I do not intend to make. I can stop them if I really concentrate on doing so, but as soon as I think of something else, they resume. Lately, I also have involuntary movements on the left side of my mouth when I am about to fall asleep, or maybe when I have already fallen asleep. I make a loud noise, which wakes me up. The left side of my face is twitching wildly. Sorry I don’t know how to better explain this, but I am partly asleep when it happens and don’t know anything else. Do you have any idea what could be ...

Dear Abby: Widower Regrets Not Having Living Will Handy at Hospital

DEAR ABBY: I would like to address a problem I’ve never seen in your column. A lot of people have living wills but most don’t remember what’s in them. My wife went to the hospital for a routine procedure that required anesthesia. After three hours of what was supposed to be a one-hour procedure, a nurse came out, said there was “a problem” and took me back to the recovery room. My wife was writhing on the bed and kept rasping, “I can’t breathe!” Six nurses tried to put an oxygen mask over her face, but she kept fighting them, trying to rip it off. I was in total shock. ...

Too Many Off-Track Beats Could Cause Symptoms, Heart Disease

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 77-year-old retired internal medicine physician. Last year I started to have asymptomatic PVCs. I also have prediabetes and mild high blood pressure. I am on 100 milligrams of Lopressor twice daily. I had a negative stress test. My cardiologist wants to reduce the frequency of the PVCs to less than 10%. Is there any good scientific rationale to this approach? — R.D. ANSWER: Premature ventricular contractions — PVCs — are early heartbeats. An average person might have 500 of them daily. You are having a great deal more than average: more than 10% of your ...

Older Boyfriend Considers Meeting In Person Too Risky

DEAR ABBY: I have a dilemma. My 33-year-old boyfriend keeps badgering me to see each other. We live 15 miles apart. I’m a 60-year-old man in pretty good health. Before this pandemic, I worked out every day at a gym, and I still do at home now. Every day he keeps asking me to either come visit or if he can come here. Because of this shelter-in-place advisory, I have been telling him I’m more at risk due to my age. He then tries to make me feel guilty by saying things like, “We are both fine; there’s no need to worry,” and, “OK. Fine! That’s the last time I’m going to ...