The Keys, Please.

Below is a link to an NPR piece (yes, I listen to NPR for news, but I do browse the "other medias" as well) on the pending surge in us older folks out on the streets driving our 20 year old Audi's.  The serious question (one I have touched on in these posts before) is, "when it comes time to give up the keys, who will tell us, the tellees, who have no tellers handy in the family, that time is up?"

Bunni Dybnis, a social worker at the Los Angeles-based geriatric care service LivHome, says this is typically how older drivers decide to give up the car keys: Their child or grandchild intervenes. "I could probably say it's 99.99 percent not the older adult saying, 'I want to stop driving; help me,' " says Dybnis, because giving up driving feels like giving up one's independence.

Here is what I plan to do.  I have already established the HABIT of getting an annual physical exam by my primary care physician.  My next exam is some time in March or April (it is iBuried somewhere in my iPhone iCalendar).  At that exam I intend to ask my PCP to incorporate the following steps into the exam program:  a)  discontinue doing a P.S.A. exam at age 65, and b) if possible, in this state, if he sees any signs of diminished capacity that could affect my ability to drive safely, to prescribe a driving test or class.  Since I also see a neurologist once a year, I will ask her to do b) as well (she has never offered to do a), much to my relief).

Actually, first I will ask them if it is wise to ask them to do this, as I don't want to screw up my medical records and insurance.  But I think this is the second most important thing to do about driving skills.  The first is to develop the HABIT of objectivity concerning driving.  Even now, in my prime, I can look into the rear view mirror and tell myself "That other driver was NOT an asshole.  I was the asshole in this situation.  DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!"

This habit is reinforced by SheWhoMustBeObeyed, who frequently says this, sometimes just the second sentence, even when I am not driving.

The link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/08/162392507/when-should-seniors-hang-up-the-car-keys?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20121014

Michael