{"id":209985,"date":"2024-02-21T10:34:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T15:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=209985"},"modified":"2024-02-21T10:34:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T15:34:09","slug":"71-going-on-32-patient-tells-of-successful-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/02\/71-going-on-32-patient-tells-of-successful-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"71 Going on 32: Patient Tells of \u2018Successful Aging\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether they go into geriatrics or another specialty, many of Dr. Jaclyn Jaeger<\/a>\u2019s students likely will, to varying degrees, provide care to older adults.<\/p>\n

And when they do, they\u2019ll have some pearls of wisdom to take with them.<\/p>\n

Jaeger, an assistant professor in the UConn School of Medicine<\/a> and geriatrician in the UConn Center on Aging<\/a>, closed her second-year geriatrics curriculum by introducing \u201cone of the healthiest, best examples of successful aging of all my patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Marguerite Rose came forward, stood with Jaeger in the center of the academic rotunda, and explained how the term \u201csenior\u201d can be misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a number in our head that is our age, that\u2019s not what our age is, and my \u2018head age\u2019 is 32,\u201d Rose told the students. \u201cI\u2019ll be 72 next month, and to me that isn\u2019t quite senior. I think 80s is when you can call yourself senior, and 90s is\u2026 older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose, of West Hartford, shared how she was recruited to run in the Boston Marathon to raise money for Boston Children\u2019s Hospital. She started training but stopped when she started experiencing lower back discomfort.<\/p>\n

\"Marguerite
Marguerite Rose (left) is a patient of Dr. Jacyln Jaeger, UConn Health geriatrician. It happens that the sculptures pictured with them were made by Robert Rose, who, like his wife, sees Jaeger in the UConn Center on Aging. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI decided, because I want to live long and keep running, that I\u2019m going to let this back rest for this season,\u201d Rose says. \u201cWhether I\u2019ll do marathons again, I don\u2019t know, but 13 miles, half marathon, is definitely in my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she took up distance running in her 30s and has stuck with it since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many people in my world that are runners in their 80s, and it\u2019s just pretty amazing, but they\u2019ve been doing it for a very long time; and you still can, but you have to realize, sometimes the body will take over,\u201d Rose says. \u201cI can usually do pretty well in my age division now, but every now and then there\u2019s someone a couple years older than me that stalks me, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Where\u2019d she come from? It was my race!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, 30 years after her first full marathon, Rose says running keeps her active, healthy and happy, and she plans to \u201ccarry on until my body changes my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaeger asked her what advice she\u2019d give to the future physicians before her about approaching the care of an older person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to have a good doctor that supports you, that, for me, I like to visit and I feel comfortable and I\u2019m not hesitant to contact the office with a question,\u201d Rose says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to respect them and make them feel very important upon first meeting you so that they will tell you the whole story. There are probably patients that don\u2019t tell you everything because they\u2019re uncomfortable, but if you reach a different level with them, they\u2019ll respond better to all treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students in the audience soon will enter the phase of their training that includes opportunities to interact with patients, geriatric and others, in hospital and office settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week in the curriculum is an elegant representation of the clinical complexity that students will encounter throughout their clerkships and careers,\u201d Jaeger says. \u201cIt also showcases the heterogeneity of the aging process and emphasizes successful, healthy aging concepts. What a way to end the pre-clinical years!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advises UConn medical students on caring for older adults<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":209963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2283,2231,1868,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-209985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 08:50:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209991,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209985\/revisions\/209991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/209963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209985"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=209985"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=209985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}