Category: Seek On Blog (Consumer)

Watching Roy compete at the World Championship Spark Challenge this past December was cause for celebration—not only because his phenomenal performance on the arm crank ergometer helped take his team to victory, but because this octogenarian athlete had been on hospice just a few months earlier. According to Wendy Zimmerman, Director of Community Life at […]

After a hip replacement surgery in 2022, Marlene had been transferred to a transitional care unit (TCU), the last place she wanted to be, according to her son, Kent. “Mom always told us that she wanted to walk out her front door into nature, not into a hallway next to someone else’s doorway,” he said. […]

A couple of years after her mother died in 2002, Carol* wanted her beloved father, Stan*, to move out to California where she could visit him every day and help him as he aged. But Stan had already begun dating Joan* and didn’t want to leave the Twin Cities. Carol accepted his decision, checking in […]

Listen to an audio conversation on this topic: When I was eleven, I became obsessed with learning how to ride a unicycle. It was a slow and painful process, involving ugly gashes, lacerations, road rash, and bruises, but I refused to give up. How my mom survived the bloodletting is beyond me, but never once […]

When Jackie Johnson, RN, took on the role of Director of Health Services at Boden Senior Living in Apple Valley, a Lifespark Senior Living Community, she had a singular mission for the residents: to make their final chapters good ones. “To do that, we had to ask ourselves questions like, how can we best support […]

Ginny* had a lot on her hands. As her husband’s primary caregiver, she was on call 24/7, keeping close watch on his health, nutrition, and medications. But despite her vigilance, Doug, 85, was having frequent falls and urinary tract infections (UTI) which needed immediate medical attention. And typical of most emergencies, Doug’s nearly always happened […]

Fifty-five years ago, when Nancy and Dick bought 40 acres of land with their best friends, they never imagined leaving. The two young couples built homes next door to each other and raised their families together. They cut their own firewood for heat in the winter, grew their own vegetables, built a barn, and raised […]

Ethel has been a nurse for over 50 years, 10 of them with Lifespark. Years ago, when she worked with us, she said, “There’s a beauty about being over 50 that people don’t realize – you can draw from years of experience on many things that seem common sense to you now but didn’t come […]

The modern hospice movement was founded nearly 60 years ago, yet even today, hospice suffers from an image problem that often prevents people from taking advantage of this life-enhancing health care benefit.  Cindy Crawford, BSN, RN, Clinical Liaison, Lifespark Hospice, is passionate about debunking hospice myths and helping clients and families understand that hospice can […]

One Sunday morning in early August, Irene woke up with a badly swollen knee. She thought about waiting until Monday to call her Lifespark Nurse Practitioner but was afraid that bacteria from an infected tooth had migrated to her artificial knee joint, something her orthopedic surgeon had warned her about. If left untreated, an infected […]