Second Edition of Geriatrica released, Dr. Marilyn Heins' opus on aging

Updated for the Age of Covid, large print editions also available and audio book to be released in January 2023

TUCSON, ARIZONA, USA, November 8, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- If you live long enough, you WILL end up in a land called Geriatrica!

“No passport is needed ... no border to cross,” author Marilyn Heins, MD, tells us. “Even though I have lived long enough to speak Medicare I still feel like an immigrant.”

Marilyn is an experienced and wise guide to this new land. At 92, she shares the journey of aging with insightful candor.

A Traveler’s Guide to Geriatrica is a book about getting and being old — experiencing the daily challenges of life with a revised set of capacities for coping with a complex world. This is not a directory of services or an orientation for turning 65.

Geriatrica is about the real thing — what it’s like to be living as an old person today. “Those of us who live in Geriatrica are growing old, the opposite of growing up. The incurable and unstoppable process called aging brings changes in our bodies that cannot be reversed,” Marilyn writes.

“Most of us in advanced old age have signs of what I call Elderbrain, Elderbalance, Elderjoints, and Elderbladder. I have symptoms of all of these. Though my expertise is in Babybrain and Babybladder (Marilyn is a pediatrician), I have lots of personal experience in Elderwhatever. Enough to write a book!”

From downsizing, scams, and sex to the realities of “frailing” and AOA (advanced old age), Marilyn breaks the journey into 24 chapters covering subjects common to the 52 million Americans (one in seven) who are over age 65.

She gives us the data, and she describes living in the moment — many moments — of aging. “Just the other day I worried about future immobility and envisioned myself bent over leaning on a walker. My mood plummeted ... Then I had the jolt of an optimistic thought: If I ever do need a walker, I will paint it a bright, shiny red with sequins and flaunt it! Maybe even start a Red Walker Club!”

The journey through Geriatrica is fraught, and Marilyn writes this book to help those following her through the perils. “You may scoff: ‘We left childhood to enter adolescence, didn’t we? And we survived.’ True but adolescent is full of energy. Those of us in Geriatrica aren’t so peppy anymore.”

Marilyn puts all the stark issues of getting old — very old — in our faces without causing panic or discouragement. She talks about life after retirement, when even golf and the motor home lifestyles are over.

“Nobody gets to Geriatrica without experiencing loss,” Marilyn says. This book focuses on the power of the present, whether or not there is a great deal to expect from the future.

In Geriatrica (the book), Marilyn directs us toward peace with the compromises of aging. She describes adjustments we must accept but also decisions we get to make. “If we decided to be happy every day, our bad, sad, pessimistic days would diminish,” she writes. Connections, compassion and curiosity, she describes, are part of a broad formula for a rich life in old age.

“We may be old but we are human beings so we must continue, as long as we are able, to offer compassion to others. And, when the time comes, gracefully and gratefully accept the compassion of others.”

Uber, the internet, caller ID, senior housing, humor, grandchildren and community, love, dogs and books and music and so much else in Marilyn’s Geriatrica make it a desireable destination.

Two years before his death Marilyn asked her father what it was like to grow old. He replied, “Every day over 80 is pure velvet.”

“I plan to cuddle up in each velvet day I have,” says Marilyn.

Geriatrica is the travel guide to every reader’s velvet days.

Rick Wamer
A3D Impressions, publishers and author services
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