Category: Seek On Blog (Consumer)

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 […]

Read time: 1 min, 50 sec For the past six years, Barb* had been caring for her husband, Carl*, in their home with the support of her sons and caregivers from Lifespark Community Home Care, but she was struggling to keep him out of the hospital. Chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs), treatment for bladder cancer, […]

Read time: 2 minutes “Even though death, loss, and grief are universal experiences, it’s important to remember that there is no universal response to loss, nor is there a set timeframe for grieving—it takes as long as it takes,” said Jackie Bohrer, MSW, LICSW, Lifespark Hospice Bereavement Coordinator/Grief Counselor, a role she helped develop to […]

Before joining Lifespark’s primary care team, Wendy Laine, MD, spent 19 years on the frontlines of emergency medicine. She loved the work, but even before COVID-19 overwhelmed emergency departments and hospitals, the system was breaking down, she said. The result was long waits in crowded waiting rooms swarming with viruses. “When I first started, if […]