Episode 3 Healthful Tips

Podcast Overview – “You Still Have Time”
In this heartfelt and informative episode of You Still Have Time, hosts Hope and Harold open up about navigating serious health issues — something everyone encounters sooner or later, whether personally or through loved ones. Broadcasting from a chilly Northeast winter, they dive into insights inspired by an AARP Magazine article about facing major illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, COPD, and Alzheimer’s.
While reminding listeners they’re “not doctors, just experts at getting older,” Hope and Harold walk through seven practical steps for managing serious diagnoses: learning everything you can, choosing the right doctor, getting second opinions, keeping a list of questions, being honest with family, connecting with others facing similar challenges, and most importantly—embracing life fully, no matter the diagnosis.
Through warmth, humor, and honesty, the hosts encourage listeners to stay curious, seek support, and remember their show’s central message: you still have time. They close by teasing upcoming episodes on health topics, including one focused on men’s health, and invite their audience to share ideas and stories for future shows.

Organization List 

Cancer 

Cancercare.org 

Cancercommonns.org 

Heart Disease 

Cdc.gov 

Heart.org 

Stroke 

 Mayoclinic.org 

Stroke.org 

Alzheimer’s Disease 

Alz.org 

alzheimers.gov 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello and welcome to You Still Have Time. We're your host, I'm Hope. And I'm Harold. And we welcome you back today. We hope that you're not as cold as we are, because we're in the Northeast, and if you've been watching the weather reports, you know that it's been record-breaking cold here. But thankfully, we are nice and warm right now and happy to be talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Absolutely. Absolutely. The last week, I don't think if you add all five days together, or it was all seven days, I don't think it came up to 30 degrees. So uh That's not true. Well, it'll be for the most part. We had one day that it popped over 30, but I I get up in the morning to walk, and it's seven and five and two, and uh but and that's what you get for walking at six o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah. Well anyway, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Today's episode, we're gonna focus on some things that we all have either dealt with or will have to deal with, and that is illness, and in this case, serious health issues, let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

The the impetus for this episode was really an article in the December-January issue of the AERP uh magazine. Yes, we actually read it.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yes, and we encourage you to do that as well. And for those of you who are over 50, and I'm sure that m is the majority of our listeners. If you are not a member of AERP, I would I would encourage you to do that because there is so much helpful information in their publications. We get like a newspaper thing, and we also get the magazine. So we get two different things each month. And we always find something that is interesting, informative. When we when we saw this, actually, Harold discovered it. Uh we said, boy, this would make a a good episode for the podcast because it's information that I know not all of it that I've thought of, but might be helpful to all of you.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

You want you want to give the audience your disclaimer?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yes. And here's the disclaimer. If you don't already know, we are not experts. We're not doctors, we're not, we just don't have much expertise on anything. I'm a good knitter.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

We we well, we are experts at getting older.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

We're experts on getting older and learning more each and every day. But as I said, this was information that we thought should be shared in case all of you didn't get an opportunity to read about it.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

And all of the information that we will be providing, we have links in our show notes to the organizations that we will uh mention and the AARP articles. So if you're interested in doing your own research, which we actually suggest you do, you can just find the links in our show notes.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

And as I said at the top, this is something that almost all of us will have to deal with at some point in our lives if we haven't had to deal with it already. And that's serious illness. And so, Harold, you want to go over some of the statistics that we found?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

As as Hope had mentioned earlier, we all will be encountering, and if not ourselves, if you have not had some of these illnesses yourself, I'm sure you know someone or someone in your family who has uh undergone some of these cases. So we we're just gonna focus on the top five leading causes of death in America. Number one, and I don't think these are are in a specific order. I just listed the ones that I saw in the article. Heart disease, which is the number one killer in the U.S.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

You do have it in order.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I do? Okay. Yes. Okay. I do have it in order. Never mind. Number one is heart disease. That counts for accounts for almost 700,000 deaths annually. Then we have cancer is the second leading cause. Again, 619,000 deaths a year. Stroke ranks as the third most fatal disease category with 166,000 deaths. Chronic lower respiratory diseases, like COPD and asthma, 145,000 deaths a year. And the fifth in the group is Alzheimer's disease, which is attributed to 116,000 deaths a year.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

And the article that we read in AARP uh magazine was written by a writer. Uh he's a he's a writer on health care, but he was talking from personal experience because I believe his father His father had uh had cancer. He got a cancer diagnosis. So, you know, his father happened to be a doctor. His siblings were doctors. I think he's like the only person in the family that's not a doctor, but writes about health issues. And he decided to put together, I guess, a little primer on what to do when you're facing issues like that yourself or s for someone in your family. And it, you know, he was talking about cancer specifically, but we felt that it was applicable to all the major diseases, all the major illnesses that uh Harold just, you know, listed.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And one of the things that even though we we made it clear to, well, we want to make it clear that we're not experts, but I think, and as we go through this episode, you will recognize some aspect of these points because it's not that this is groundbreaking information, but it's important to remember it, because as we said earlier, if you haven't gone through this, you will. You I mean, hopefully you won't. Hopefully you'll never get sick, you'll never know anyone who's sick, but I think that's unlikely.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Well, I think so many of us know people already who've been diagnosed with cancers, who may have been diagnosed. I mean, we're blessed that in our immediate family, we haven't had to deal with, but certainly other people very close to us. Uh if by immediate I mean ourselves and our kids. But beyond that, certainly in in my family, there have been people who have passed away because of cancer and other diseases. And so I I you know I I keep it we've talked a lot, we keep saying the same thing. Somebody somewhere in your life, this is information. If you can't use yourself, maybe you can share it with someone else.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

So let's let's get to the points. We I think what do we have here? Seven points. Uh actually seven and some subpoints or some major points or my minor points, but I think the number one is for you to learn a lot. Learn it with and especially now that the internet provides easy access and and the AI will give you an answer to almost any question, we suggest that you learn as much as you can about the situation, about the condition, about the illness that you are you've been diagnosed with.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah, and ask questions. Ask questions of your doctors, ask questions of your insurance companies, gather as much information as you can. Let whomever the the physician you're dealing with know that you are interested in learning as much as possible so that they will speak to you as an adult that knows something as opposed to someone who is five years old. Because I think when we talk about stereotypes about older people, especially, sometimes people think that because we're older, we are not capable of understanding all of the things, and they try to, dare I say, dumb down how they talk to us. Just let them know. And and and if you know you're doing this for a family member, and maybe there is a family member who doesn't have the capacity to understand all of this stuff, you as a caretaker, you as the son or the daughter or whomever. The good friend. A good friend. Uh, you know, do your research, learn as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

But let me provide one caveat. You're doing research, but you don't have an MD.

unknown 9:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

You don't have a degree, and this is to make you the research is to inform you about some of your options, but it's not about telling the doctor what to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Exactly. They did not go to medical school for years, spending a lot of money to do so, and having experience with these issues, for you to come and tell them, oh no, that's not the right thing to do. What you want is to have be able to engage in an intelligent, informed conversation with your doctor.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Exactly, because you you want to be in a physician. They might prescribe one treatment remedy, and you might say, Well, I know that this other one exists. Would I be suitable? Am I a suitable candidate for that? So, yes, that's why we say, do your homework, learn as much as you can.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

And some of the questions that were listed in the AARP article, uh, some of the suggestions, I should say, you know, that organizations, so say you're diagnosed with, I don't know, prostate cancer, and you don't know anything about prostate cancer. There are organizations specifically dedicated to prostate cancer, so you can, you know, kind of Google that. You can look up information, you can call your insurance company. A lot of times insurance companies have uh special groups that deal with it, so that you can begin to understand what your options may be. And then that leads us, of course, to finding a great doctor. Now, yes, you want a doctor who has experience, yes, you want a doctor with good ratings, you know, and there's Zoc Doc, and there are ratings, all kinds of physician ratings online that you can look up. But you also want a doctor that you feel comfortable with, a doctor who is willing to talk to you and not talk down to you. And in this article, they recommended they they said don't don't ignore, don't be afraid of doctors who might be younger, because those younger doctors may be number one, more up on the latest information. So just just make make sure that you take into account who you select as a doctor. You might want to get recommendations from you know a friend.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

A friend, certainly. If you if you have a friend that you trust, certainly I think listening to them or getting advice from them is is valuable. Uh hope you made a point about younger doctors. And I know we often chuckle when we go and see a new doctor and hope or I will come home and say, I have clothing older than that doctor.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

But I always say that when, you know, when we when we moved 20 years ago, uh we kept our we retained our the doctors that we were seeing um in you know in our old neighborhood. And finally, in just in the past decade, I think, uh, we've switched over. And I said I wanted to find a doctor that was younger than I am because I didn't want to establish a relationship with a doctor and get to know them. And then they get old and they retire.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

And I'm and actually that's what's been happening. Many of our doctors have been retiring. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So I'm specifically looking for younger doctors. Please be at least 20 years younger than I am. And that still doesn't make you young.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Younger.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Younger.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Okay, our third point.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Seek we really oh, that is three. I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, we have like a little list to work off of, and I'm sorry. I apologize. That's okay. Never mind.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Our third one is seek a second opinion. And I always always. And that's something and I never used to do that, but I think that that should be routine. Not that we don't, it's almost it's not that I don't trust you, doc, but it doesn't hurt.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And I d and I think it makes you feel better if, you know, one doctor, you know, I've had two hip replacements and a knee. And I don't think I got a second well, kind of, because I had seen a doctor many years before who told me that I was gonna need these things, and I kind of ignored it for a while. And then finally, when it bothered me so much when I got my first hip replacement, when the doctor told me I needed a hip replacement, I didn't question it because I had already been told that I was gonna need a hip replacement. So it kind of confirmed the first opinion. Also because you couldn't walk up the steps. Thank you. Um but yes, the second opinions are very important, and it doesn't mean and doctors aren't threatened by that. Good doctors aren't threatened by that. And I think it gives you confidence too that okay, this doctor has said this is what I have, this is what I need. And I think it's reassuring to get confirmation from another doctor, totally independent of the first, who's telling you the same thing. And if it conflicts, if the information conflicts, then then that's really a time to have a conversation with your primary doctor so that you can understand what what the differences mean.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, I I think that's a very important one. So seek a second opinion. Our fourth point is keep an ongoing list of questions. I know hope this is a good a big one for you.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yep. Not only the questions, keep a list of the answers.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Right, exactly. How many times have we gone someplace, even with just you and I, and the doctors start rattling off a bunch of stuff, information, and you get home and and hope, or I will ask, so what do they say? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Exactly. And one of the suggestions I offered a friend, first of all, if you can, you know, especially if you're dealing with a serious illness, take someone with you, a child, uh, you know, another relative, a good friend, someone who can listen because sometimes emotionally you might shut down.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

You yeah, yeah. You turned off as soon as well, because especially something that you know is life-threatening, you don't hear any of the other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

After they say cancer, you've sort of turned off.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Right. So when you go to these visits, uh it's it's nice, one, to have just the support of another person there with you as you're going through this. I don't think anybody should have to deal with um very serious illnesses by themselves. And and two, it's an extra set of ears. And one of the suggestions that I made to a friend of mine was to ask the doctor if you know how to operate your cell phone. We know we talked about use of technology in previous episodes. Um, ask the doctor if they would allow you to record the answers to your question so that you can listen to it, you can play it back for other people, and that you have a record of it. But at least if question you know, the list of questions, you know, when you go home and you say, Oh God, I forgot to ask about this, make a list of questions and then notate the answers in some way.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

And that leads us right into the fifth point is having an honest conversation with your family. As you just said, Hope, it's important that you involve your family in this process. Don't be embarrassed because this is not something that you want to handle on your own. You want your family involved, you want your family involved in the dis all of the discussions regarding type of care, where, you know, it's just something that I think that some we often want to keep it to ourselves and only at the last moment, oh, by the way, I have fill in the blank.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Right. And and also a lot of times we think that we're protecting our family from this news. Uh it's not helpful, as Harold said, you don't want to wait till till it things get really critical and then hit you know people close to you with this news. Uh have them come along on the journey with you if you can. You know, and and if and if if you're alone, ask ask for help from a friend. And if you feel isolated, one of the things I remember from the article is find a support group. Okay? Make that your group if you have no one else in your life. If you're you know living alone and you know, close friends may have passed on, you don't really ha have family that you're close to, find a support group dealing with whatever issue you have, and perhaps they, someone there, can help you through this time, but nobody should have to do it alone.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And you've already alluded to our sixth point, which is contact patients and families that have received similar diagnoses. You can use Facebook. Facebook, you put in the the illness, you put in the condition, you put in any, and you I'm certain there is a group with people who are going or currently going through or have gone through the exact same thing that you are. And they can give you that support, that advice. Maybe you might say, Well, what what are my options? You could find out some information from right there.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Yeah. You know, I I think the saddest thing would be to isolate yourself, to to try to make it through on your own. I we we've talked about the epidemic of loneliness among older people. Uh you know, friends have passed away. Uh you may not, as I said earlier, have close family, and you may feel that you're alone, but you don't have to be. There's there's always a way to connect with someone, and hopefully, if you're open to that, it will be helpful to you because relationships do help you on your journey to health again.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

And the last point embrace your life. Your diagnosis is not the end of your life, you still have plenty of living to do.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yes, even if you are given a timeline. And I say that because don't put yourself in the grave before you need to be there. If you get a diagnosis and you know, someone says, Well, you know, there's really not much we can do, and you have X number of months, or maybe you'll survive, you know, a year or two years.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

First get another opinion.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Absolutely, absolutely. And get a third one if you're right.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Uh one, yes, as as Harold said, your diagnosis is not your you know, death certificate. You continue to live after the diagnosis. And hopefully, maybe that's the time that you do some of the things on your bucket list, the things that you put off, and now you want to make sure that you get those things done. Maybe that's the time. Maybe it's the time to reconnect with people that you lost contact with, you know, not necessarily to to to bring them down by sharing this news. Right, right. But but to to just let them know. You know, maybe you're you have to go on an apology tour. Uh, you know, whatever it is, it's not the end of your you you still have time to do something. You still have time to do something. Live, live, live until you can't anymore.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

That's a that's a good uh good way to wrap up this episode. As always, you if you need to reach out to us, you still have time podcast at gmail.com. You can leave us a voicemail message. You will see a speak pipe link in the show notes. You can leave us a text message also in the show notes. Follow us wherever you listen to podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Right. And we do want to hear from you. We say this every time. Uh we are looking for ideas on uh new topics. Uh I mean we have a couple on the list trying to figure out how to do them, but we certainly want to hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Something we I've neglected to say. This was our first episode on health issues. We plan to do some follow-up issues having to do with health. I plan to have an episode dealing specifically with men's health. And uh I want you not just men to be listening to it, but you at the friends, the children, the spouses, the spouses, because we we all there's a problem with men and their health. Yeah. And I think anybody has a man in his life probably knows what I'm talking about. But look out for that episode.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

We're talking to you, all you people who are 65 and haven't had a colonoscopy. Right. Anyway, anyway, that's that that's a way to end the show. That's her that's her rant. So I think that's it. I think that's it for this time. We thank you for listening. We hope that you will join us again.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

And remember, you still have time. See you soon.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Bye bye.