Sam Bauman: Senior moments with no guideposts to follow

If you’re slipping into seniorhood and grieving about a lack of advice on how to do it, don’t fret, there is an answer. It’s called “Old Age,” written by magazine columnist Michael Kinsley (Tim Duggan Books, $18). It’s witty and at 160 pages small enough to fit into a jacket pocket or a nice purse. And it’s a happy read if not really offering tips on surviving old age.

This is not the usual treatise on aging, the “be healthy and happy” advice. This is what the author describes as the beginning of a wave of such books as the Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) begin moving into “old age” and want to write about it.

Kinsley is well known in publishing worlds as a writer for The New Republic, Harper’s and founder of Slate.

His entry into aging began when he contracted at age 43 Parkinson’s disease, with all the disabilities it engenders. For eight years he tried to conceal his condition.

“Anyone who develops a chronic disease in mid-career dreads being written off — or being thought of prematurely in the past tense,” Kinsley writes.

Kinsley mastered denial, but he found himself the object of intense scrutiny and unwanted sympathy.

“Like the woman at a dinner party who offered to cut my meat, despite the fact that I made it through the first course unaided,” he writes.

“The book is supposed to be funny, as well, on a subject which does not lend itself to humor,” he says.

And funny it is. He writes clearly and concisely, not all in the way one writing on such a subject would do. And he doesn’t let his Parkinson’s disease get in the way of his advice or observations.

Still, the book refuses to wallow in such as self-pity or stories of overcoming a victim status. He is very wryly honest about coping with illness or the likely hope of terminal prospects looming.

He laughs at Boomer Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, a spender of millions of dollars in a quest for eternal life, who has said, “Death never made much sense to me.”

Kinsley wryly notes, “Actually, the question is not whether death makes any sense to Larry Ellison but whether Larry Ellison makes any sense to death. And I’m afraid he does.”

If it seems unlikely that a book on aging could be death and illness to be a joy to read, give Kinsley a go. Since much of the book was originally published in The New Yorker or the Atlantic, there are repeats of information but they are short and easily ignored.

And speaking of magazines, inquiring readers may want to check out between “You and Me” by Mary Norris. She’s a longtime copy editor for The New Yorker and has edited some of the biggest writers for the book. The New Yorker is famed for its fastidious style and unique spelling and grammar.

Although copy editors are becoming a threatened species these days the job was once the key to newspapers, three or four editors sitting at a horseshoe-shaped desk toiling over copy and passing the amended copy to the man or woman in “the slot” with a headline attached.

When I started at the Appeal, there was a sort of copy desk, but it is long gone. The subtitle for the book is “Confessions of a Comma Queen,” and I look forward to reading it (hint to the Carson Library).

Prostate cancer recurrence

Although you may be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the removal of a possible prostate cancer, new blood tests show the cancer is on the rise, according to the Mayo Health Letter. About 30 percent of those who have had an initial prostate cancer removed with have a rise in the PSA levels at some time.

PSA levels can be difficult to measure. But at what level does a rise mean more surgery or radiation? If you have been treated for prostate cancer, declines in PSA readings can indicate effective treatment. Rises can indicate a return of cancer tissue.

Treatment is only indicated only when there is enough evidence that the cancer has returned. Even with changes in PSA levels treatment is not needed at once and the may never be needed.

A new test developed by Mayo called Decipher looks a the genomic character of the removed tissue. The test rates the likelihood of a more aggressive cancer and indicates whether an aggressive treatment is merited or to continue observation.

More information on rotate cancer returning can be found in the Mayo Newsletter of May 2016.

Sam Bauman writes about senior affairs, among other things, for the Nevada Appeal.