Lucy Pollock > Quotes

“Dee Mangin is a GP from New Zealand. In a video clip she made in 2017 she talked about a seventy year old woman who had five common condtions: high blood pressure (most people over seventy have that), diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and COPD. Dee explained that if her patient was treated for each of these condition, according to current guidance, she would take nineteen doses of twelve different medications at five different times of day. Dee next observed that this would give rise to at least sixteen possible harmful interactiosn; either the drugs may interact with one another, or a drug that improved one condition may inadvertently worsen something else. She went on to say that what looked like good care, if you considered only single diseases, could result in ‘meaningfully worse care’ for the individual. Pg119”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“In the event of my being in a state in which I do not have capacity to make decisions about my care, and from which the chance of recovery is minimal, I do not wish to have life-sustaining treatment… for example a feeding tube… I would like to receive care directed at the alleviation of suffering…’ pg223”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“I have learned words with which to challenge prejudice without escalating bad behaviour. I have been taught that asking “Did I miss something?” is one way to draw attention to an underhand comment. Even better, it can be a powerful move simply to ask the perpetrator, “Are you OK?” pg236-7”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: A Compassionate Guide to Ageing Well, Caring for Loved Ones and Living Later Life with Confidence

“A long time ago in a physics class we did an experiment where you take a small spring and put it on a hook and measure its length. You hang a little weight on it and watch it stretch. Then you take the weight off and the spring returns to where it was before, ready for the next weight, which is heavier. And you repeat this process, the weight a little heavier each time and the spring stretches further, returning each time to its original length until suddenly it doesn’t. And that is its elastic limit… we all have an elastic limit and many of us find it by reaching it… But we can watch for signs in ourselves that we are approaching that limit – bad behaviour or tears, impulsivity or poor sleep, or being overwhelmed by small things… and when we recognise those signs we need to take some weight off that spring. Pg 226-7”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“If social prescribing means listening to people, understanding their life and then offering something that has value for that person, that will do for me. I have stopped worrying about whether social prescribing works. Of course it does. Pg186”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“There are problems that cannot be fixed by either conventional or social prescribing, and I listen sometimes to the discussions in the complex care meetings about Jason, a recidivist alcoholic, vile to his family and haughtily dismissive of every lifeline that is thrown his way, and about Francine, a reclusive hoarder, her floorboards rotting under her feet, as the conversations meander on about mental capacity and safety and personal choice, and it’s clear that the only way to fix the problems of both these people is to turn the clocks back… and since that is not an option, it would be better that we leave them as they are and maintain a level of contact that is humane but also respectful and realistic. Pg184-5”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“Over half of men aged over eighty-five who have been in hospital overnight will die within twelve months… A move into care is a warning flag too; only around half of those who move into a care home will still be alive a year later… because the things that cause a move into care are also events that suggest that someone’s life may be nearing its end. Pg255”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“Parkinson’s disease in its later stages can torment with its unpredictability. It seizes you then lets you go from hour to hour or later, even from minute to minute… the medicines are partially effective – tablets enhance the supply of dopamine, the key neurotransmitter that is inexplicably depleted in this illness… in a bad trough someone with Parkinson’s may freeze completely. Pg252”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“If I could write a birthday card now, to open on my eightieth birthday, what would I say? “I’d say take a look at the traits you’ve got, the ones you’ve inherited and the ones you’ve grown for yourself. Then work out which ones you want to keep and do something about the rest.” Pg32”
― lucy pollock

“Advance plans were important before the pandemic and they remain important now... When we have a kind, honest conversation with each person or with their family or friends, or, best of all, everyone together, and especially when those conversations take place in better circumstances, with time to explore hopes and fears, then good plans can be made often surprisingly easily and with a sigh of relief.
Yet right now most escalation plans are created in exactly the type of situation they are designed to avoid: in an Emergency Department, or on a dark wet night in a care home or a bungalow with the paramedics’ stretcher waiting in the doorway for a decision, to stay or to go.
Advance care planning, including the creation of kind, articulate Treatment Escalation Plans that reflect the wishes of their owner, should be a right, not a burden, for all older people, and especially for those who have chronic conditions that can suddenly worsen and for those who live in care homes, whose views about treatment are better explored than assumed. Pg208-9”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“Often families must step back, must somehow contain their own fear and concern. We put in as good a safety net as we can afford or muster: carer visits, a lifeline pendant to call for help. After that… we must put boundaries around our worry and guilt, accept risk, and step aside. Pg96”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“Three things for when you’re feeling down: Do something for yourself. Do something for someone else. Go outside. Pg 279”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“…the phenomenon of restlessness as the day comes to its end is called ‘sundowning’ and is familiar to those who live with or care for someone who has dementia. I think it is an atavistic behaviour; birds do it… and you can hear it from a field of sheep too, the crescendo bleating of lambs and ewes in the gathering dusk pg302”
― Lucy Pollock, The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

“How do you know if someone’s got dementia?... I ask the students to think about children. By the time they get to primary school most small children have learned to use a knife and fork, and can dress themselves and use the loo. Most people hang on to these basic abilities for a long while; these ‘primary-school skills’ are lost late. I ask the students to tell me instead what teenagers are learning. What are my own dear children, between fifteen and twenty-one, now getting the hang of? Phoning their friends and planning a social life. Driving and using public transport in strange cities. Deploying a richer, more elaborate vocabulary. Planning neals and cooking… managing their finances. Travelling, and telling us their stories when they return without repeating themselves.
The students can now see what skills may be lost earliest by those who are developing dementia. People who have learned several languages tend to lose them in reverse order… Long-term memory may be preserved, but what happened at lunchtime today is lost. Personalities may change, subtly at first – the placid may become anxious, or the irritable may develop a sunny outlook. Pg172-3”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older