pressure ulcers/sores, here, here, here, here
prestige in medicine, here
preventative care, here
prevention of disease, here
primary care medicine, here, here, here, here, here, here
prison inmates, here
privacy and technology, here
privilege and successful aging, here, here
prokaryotes, here
The Prolongation of Life (Metchnikoff), here
“Prolonging the Prime of Life” (McFarlane), here
prostate disease, here
psychiatrists and psychiatry, here, here, here, here
psychosocial theories of aging, here
PubMed, here
Puritans and Puritanism, here, here, here
Quality of Life Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, here
racial and ethnic disparities in health care, here, here, here, here
radiation treatment, here, here, here
radiologists, here, here
Rafael, here
RAISE Act, here
Ranchin, François, here, here, here
Rankine, Claudia, here
rapamycin, here
Ray, here
realism vs. romance, here
reclamation of elderhood, here
rectal exams, here
redundancy, here
red wine, here
Reformation, here
refugees, Southeast Asian, here
Regimen Sanitatis, here
rehabilitation, here, here
rejuvenation, here
relevance, here
religion
care for aged and, here
chosen death and, here
history of ideas about aging and, here, here, here, here
longevity and, here
sanctity of life and, here, here
success and happiness and, here, here
Remnick, David, here
Renaissance, here
reproduction and aging, here
Republic (Plato), here, here
research, exclusion of old people from, here, here, here
resilience, here, here, here, here, here, here
resilience therapies, here
resveratrol, here
retirement age, here
review of symptoms (ROS), here
Rhetoric (Aristotle), here
rheumatologists, here
Riley, Matilda White, here
robot caregivers, here
Roman authors, here
romance vs. realism, here
Roman Empire, here
Roman writers, here
Rome, ancient, here
ROS (review of symptoms), here
Rosin, Heinrich, here
Rossellini, Isabella, here
Roth, Philip, here
Rowe, Anne, here
Rowe, John W., here
Rowling, J. K., here
Ruefle, Mary, here
Rush, Benjamin, here, here
Sacks, Oliver, here, here
safety, here, here, here, here, here
Said, Laila, here
Sakovich, Dimitri, here
Salvaging Old Age (Martin), here
Sandberg, Sheryl, here
San Francisco General Hospital, here, here
Sardinia, Italy, here
Sarton, May, here
science
aging, attempts to affect, here, here
anti-aging products and, here
dementia and, here
history of medicine and aging and, here, here
human health and, here
imagination and, here
limits of, here
as medical education focus, here, here, here
medical paradigm shift and, here, here, here, here
Scientific Revolution, here
scribes, here, here
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, here
senescence, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
senility (cognitive impairment), here, here, here. See also dementia
senility (old age), here, here, here
senior moments, here
senolytics, here
Seventh-day Adventists, here
sexiness in health care, here
sexuality, here
sexual orientation, here
sexual vitality and vigor, here, here, here
Shakespeare, William, here
shame, here
Shannon, Diane, here
Shaw, Byers “Bud,” here
Sheen, Martin, here
Shem, Samuel, here
Shoven, John, here
sickness, childhood, here
Silicon Valley, here
silver architecture and design, here
silver economy, here
Silverman, Sarah, here
silver tsunami, here, here, here
single-celled organisms, here
sirtuins, here
skilled nursing facilities, here, here, here. See also nursing homes
sleeping medications, here
smoking, here
social care combined with medical care, here
social inequality, here, here
social policies, here
Social Security, here
Solnit, Rebecca, here
Sontag, Susan, here, here
Springsteen, Bruce, here, here
stages of life, here, here
standards of care, here, here
Steinem, Gloria, here
stem cells, here
sterilization of poor and disabled, here
stress, here, here, here, here, here, here
stress resistance, here
strokes
blood pressure and, here, here
blood thinners and, here
confusion and, here
dementia and, here
disabling effects of, here, here, here, here
falls compared to, here
medical advances to prevent, here
minimizing risk factors for, here
rehabilitation after, here
structural inequality, here
structural violence, here
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn), here
successful aging, here, here
suffering, caring about, here, here
suicide attempts and suicidal thinking
geriatric patients and, here, here, here
physicians and, here, here, here
Super Bowl (2016), here
surgery rotations, here
Susan (Frank’s daughter), here, here, here, here
Suzman, Richard, here
Sweden, here
Swift, Jonathan, here
Switzerland, here
sympathy, lack of, here
tachyphylaxis, here
technology, here, here, here
teenage years, here
teeth, here
Terence, here
Thane, Pat, here, here
That Senescence Itself Is an Illness (Hutter), here
Third Age, here, here, here
This Chair Rocks (Applewhite), here
Thoms, William, here
Tokoni, here
Tolstoy, Leo, here
Tomlin, Lily, here
touch, need for, here
toxicology screens, here
transitions, here
trauma, here
treatments, perversion of brutal, here
treatment vs. care, here
trigeminal neuralgia, here
Tuskegee syphilis experiments, here
UCLA geriatrics conference, here, here
UCSF (University of California, San Francisco), here, here, here
ugliness, here
UK Ministry of Health, here
undertreatment, here
United Kingdom, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here. See also Britain; England
United State
s
ageism in, here
aging vs. dying in, here
anti-aging medicine in, here
baby boomer blip and, here
deinstitutionalization in, here
geriatrics in, history of, here, here
health care spending in, here
history of medicine and ideas about aging in, here, here, here
history of old-age institutions in, here
hormone injections in, here
life expectancy in, here, here, here
medical education requirements in, here
medication safety regulation in, here
old age definition in, here
overtreatment in, here
patient health outcomes in, here
pediatrics in, here
primary care in, here
robot caregivers, reaction to, in, here
weight in, here
well-being in, here
youth as metaphor in, here
Universities of the Third Age, here
University Hospitals of Cleveland, here
University of California, Berkeley, here
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), here, here, here
The Unknown Profession, here
unretiring, here
urinary problems, here. See also incontinence
urinary tract infections, here, here
urologic conditions, treatments for, here
urologists, here, here
usefulness, here, here
vaccine schedules, here, here
van Gogh, Vincent, here
vascular dementia, here, here
Vedas, here
violence by doctors, here
vision loss and impairments, here, here, here, here, here, here
vital force, waning, here
Voltaire, here
Volunteer Corps, here
Voronoff, Serge, here
Warren, Marjory, here, here, here, here
Waterston, Sam, here
Ways of Seeing (Berger), here
Weinstein, Michael S., here
well-being, here, here, here
West Middlesex hospital old age unit, here, here, here
The White Album (Didion), here
“Why I Hope to Die at Seventy-Five” (Emanuel), here
Why Survive?: Being Old in America (Butler), here
Williams, Clarence, Sr., here
Winakur, Jerald, here
A Woman’s Story (Ernaux), here
Women and Power (Beard), here
women’s health, here, here, here
workhouses, here, here, here
World Health Organization, here, here, here
World War II, here
worthiness, here
wound infections, here
Yolanda, and daughters, here
Young, Robin, here
young adulthood, here, here, here
young-old people. See also Third Age
cancer treatment and aging of, here
expressions about aging and, here
Neugarten’s definition of, here
old-old compared to, here, here
packaging testing and, here
Third Age and, here, here, here
youth, here, here, here, here
Zerbi, Gabriele, here
Zuckerberg, Mark, here
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Louise Aronson, MD, is the author of A History of the Present Illness and is a geriatrician, educator, and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she directs UCSF Medical Humanities. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and the MFA Program For Writers at Warren Wilson College, Dr. Aronson has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism, the California Homecare Physician of the Year Award, and the American Geriatrics Society Outstanding Mid-Career Clinical Educator of the Year Award, as well as numerous awards for her teaching, educational research, and writing. She is the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship and four Pushcart nominations, and her articles and stories have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and Bellevue Literary Review. She lives in San Francisco.
Also Available from Louise Aronson
A History of the Present Illness
From the author of Elderhood, sixteen elegant and original linked stories—“a gem” (Washington Independent Review of Books).
A History of the Present Illness takes readers into overlooked lives in the neighborhoods, hospitals, and nursing homes of San Francisco, offering a deeply humane and incisive portrait of health and illness in American today. An elderly Chinese immigrant sacrifices his demented wife’s well-being to his son’s authority. A busy Latina physician’s eldest daughter’s need for more attention has disastrous consequences. A young veteran’s injuries become a metaphor for the rest of his life. A gay doctor learns very different lessons about family from his life and his work, and a psychiatrist who advocates for the underserved may herself be crazy. Together, these honest and compassionate stories introduce a striking new literary voice and provide a view of what it means to be a doctor and a patient unlike anything we’ve read before.
In the tradition of Oliver Sacks and Abraham Verghese, Aronson’s writing is based on personal experience and addresses topics of current social relevance. Masterfully told, A History of the Present Illness explores the role of stories in medicine and creates a world pulsating with life, speaking truths about what makes us human.
“Some of the most startling and memorable stories I’ve ever read. A History of the Present Illness is a fascinating study of our fragile human condition, both physical and emotional. Here is a writer—and a doctor—whose empathy for her people, her characters, springs forth on every page.” —Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here?
“Eudora Welty described the work of another physician/story writer by saying that ‘Chekhov’s candor was exploratory and painstaking—he might have used it as the doctor in him would know how, treating the need for truth between human beings as an emergency,’ words that seem to me to also apply here. Aronson’s quest, too, is for that truth.” —Antonya Nelson, author of Bound
“Dr. Aronson, a geriatrician in San Francisco, joins the ranks of those immortalizing the small, realistic details of modern medical care . . . Lovely, nuanced.” —The New York Times
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Copyright © Louise Aronson, 2019
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-62040-546-8; eBook: 978-1-62040-548-2
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Aronson, Louise, author.
Title: Elderhood : redefining aging, transforming medicine, reimagining life / Louise Aronson.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018040491 | ISBN 9781620405468 (hardback) | ISBN 9781620405482 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Older people—Health and hygiene—United States. | Aging—United States. | Older people—Medical care—United States.
Classif
ication: LCC RA564.8 .A76 2019 | DDC 362.60973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040491
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