March 2006

Top Killer

Not Son of Sam, car accidents, or cancer. For American women, it’s in your heart.

Did you know heart disease is the leading cause of death among women? Your doctor may not know, either.

One night six years ago, Evelyn McMillan was strolling out of a play with her daughter when suddenly she was overcome with dizziness. “I thought I was just reacting to someone's strong perfume,” McMillan says. “I got into the car, leaned against the door and waited for it to pass.” Luckily, her daughter insisted she go to the emergency room, where doctors found she'd had a mild heart attack. She needed open-heart surgery to remove a small blockage in a tiny artery.

“I'd been having mild chest pains for six or seven months, but thought it was just job-related stress,” says McMillan, 53 at the time, who had been dealing with a difficult classroom environment at the Vacaville, California high school where she teaches. “Heart disease was the last thing on my mind. I didn't have high blood pressure or cholesterol. I was a few pounds overweight, but nothing dramatic and no one in my family had heart disease.”

Undiagnosed—and Dangerous

McMillan's story is not unusual when it comes to women and heart disease: She didn't recognize her symptoms and she was under severe stress for a year before she got sick.

“Physicians often underestimate risk in women,” says Lori Mosca, chair of the American Heart Association's (AHA) panel on Guidelines for Women. A recent survey found only one in five doctors knew that heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death among American women—claiming more than 500,000 lives each year.

What’s more, electrocardiograms are less accurate in women than in men, says Sharonne Hayes, director of the Women's Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Mosca and other top cardiologists are working with AHA and Women Heart (the national support organization for women diagnosed with heart disease) to help women like McMillan recognize and reduce their risk. How much control do we have? Heredity can increase your risk, but “lifestyle is huge,” says Mosca. “It can account for 80 percent of your risk.”

Take Control

•  Create your personal risk profile.    Determine whether you're at low, moderate, or high risk.
•  Know your numbers.    The AHA offers a simple chart for keeping track of cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight. 
•  Work with your doctor. “Be proactive,” Hayes advises.  Make sure your doctor asks about your cholesterol and blood pressure.” If you are at moderate or high risk, ask if you are a candidate for cholesterol-lowering drugs or hypertension medication.
•  Learn the signs of a heart attack.   Not just chest pain—dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and weakness may come first. Your chest may not hurt at all! Check out “Heart Attack/Stroke Warning Signs."
•  Understand the role of emotional wellbeing. Duke University psychiatry Professor Edward Suarez says chronic distress triggers chemical reactions that damage arteries. “Depression may precede heart disease,” adds Joyce Bromberger of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. “If you feel down, tell your doctor and ask to be evaluated.”
•  Work your body. Exercise is a necessary component of any prevention plan.

—Sheree Crute

Short Takes

Don’t Kill Yourself
Exercising To Live Longer

The No Sweat Exercise Book,  by Harvey Simon, MD, 304 pp.

We’ve reviewed a lot of exercise books recently, but exercise is important, and it’s something that nobody will do very consistently until they find a form that’s fun and comfortable for them.

Here’s one for the rather reflective, fairly intellectual person who doesn’t really like huffing and puffing. If you’re a passionate squash player, or you love to dance the night away, you may not need this book. But if you still haven’t made exercise a serious habit, give it a try—especially if you like understanding how your body works and why some activities are a very good idea and others aren’t.

Jocks, actually, can get a lot out of it, too.

Harvey Simon teaches at the Harvard Medical School, and this book is much better than most at explaining how exercise works and the current state of knowledge about how to do yourself the most good without, well, destroying yourself in the process.

Among the many interesting pieces of information you’ll pick up: Why shoveling snow is a really bad idea, especially if you’re a man; how sex is like raking leaves; and of course, how to get fit without breaking a sweat.

March 2006

By Thomas Grillo

After 32 years of teaching in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, Catherine Blume looked forward to retirement and spending more time with her family at their second home in the Poconos, a beautiful resort area in the northeast Penn-sylvania mountains that’s just two hours from Blume’s home.

“That’s what we thought, anyway,” says Blume, who retired in 1999 at age 56. “I think we spent two weeks there last summer.”

Blume has discovered that it’s not so easy to get away when dozens of pets and their owners are depending on you. The former fifth-grade teacher helped launch Paws & Tails, a pet-sitting business, with her son. She confesses that she loves the work and doesn’t miss the Poconos.

Blume has lots of company when it comes to working in “retirement.” Since the mid-1980s, the percentage of working retirees in America has been on the rise. In 2001, the most recent data available, 18 percent of people age 65 and over participated in the labor force, up from 15.8 percent in 1985, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The agency predicts that by 2010, the percentage will reach nearly 20 percent.

Among retirees 55 to 64, two-thirds are in the workforce.

A recent study of retirees by Putnam Investments, a Boston-based money management firm, found that one-third of the newly retired returned to work after 18 months.

Working retirees said they went back for the physical and mental stimulation, to stay socially connected, and because they found it personally satisfying.

Michigan  retiree Elizabeth Wurtz, 76, has found fulfillment as a volunteer patient advocate. Though she’s not paid for her work, she has the satisfaction of knowing she’s saving lives.

While working as a guidance counselor in 1984, Wurtz learned that her principal’s wife Amy, a teacher, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The doctor had recommended that the tumor be surgically removed with the likelihood that she would no longer be able to speak.

“I told my principal, ‘You must get a second opinion. Amy’s a teacher and she needs her voice,’” recalls Wurtz. “I suggested that Amy see a neighbor of mine who was the head of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan Health System. They agreed and the doctor used a new laser procedure to dissipate the tumor. I shepherded her through the procedure and recuperation and she taught for many years with her speech intact.”

Wurtz comes from a family of physicians. Today, she spends about 20 hours a week caring for patients. She accompanies seniors on medical appointments and talks to physicians on behalf of her patients.

“I do it because I’m successful at it,” Wurtz says. “I have the smarts, I’m not intimidated by doctors, and I have the contacts to do it well.’’

John Yevuta may just be a lifesaver of a different kind by serving up a frosty cold one or a mochaccino. After teaching for 32 years in New Martinsville, West Virginia, Yevuta retired in 2004 at age 55. The former teacher looked forward to retirement and more time playing golf. But it hasn’t turned out that way. He and a former student opened the Baristas Café & Pub in downtown New Martinsville.

“We often talked about the fact that this town needed a nice pub where folks could sit down and have a beer,” he says. “Our goal was to create a non-smoking place that we’d like to go to and help revitalize Main Street at the same time.”

While still teaching sixth grade, Yevuta invested $5,000 in the hopes that the café would succeed. At the time, people told him a non-smoking café and pub would never make it.

“All the naysayers said a non-smoking bar wouldn’t fly, but we figured we didn’t want to work in a smoking atmosphere,” he says. “We don’t make a lot of money but we eat and drink well.”

Yevuta acknowledged that having a small business while teaching is exhausting and he doesn’t recommend it.

“I was burning the candle at both ends. I bartended at night and taught during the day,” he admits. “But while I enjoyed my career as a teacher, what I like about bartending is that people want to be here–that’s more than I can say about some of my former students.”

Since he opened the pub and café, Yevuta has invested another $5,000 in a local fitness center and $9,000 for a bike shop that his son manages. And Yevuta says he won’t stop there. He plans to renovate the upstairs of the bike store and fitness shop into a B&B (bed and breakfast).

Still, Yevuta says he’s not getting rich as a small businessman.

“I’m earning a fraction of what I made as a teacher. The café and pub are doing well, but the bike shop and fitness center have yet to turn a profit. It’s about a lifestyle, not cash,” he says. “If we wanted to make more money we would have opened up on a heavily traveled route. Instead, we decided to try our hand at renovating Main Street.”

As for golf, Yevuta says it’s not even a thought anymore. While teaching, he played daily. Last summer he played twice.

The transition to work in retirement was easy for John and Donna Mollan, who taught for 30 years in Vancouver, Washington. John retired in 1999 at age 51 and Donna retired in 2000 at 52.

While they were teaching, the couple spent summers traveling around the globe in a travel-study program through the Antioch University Heritage Institute. They taught classes about the culture, language, and history of destinations including Mexico, Alaska, and the Lewis and Clark expedition camp in Astoria, Oregon.

“We always said we should continue to do this when we retired,” says Donna. So they did.

“We discovered there’s a need for people to lecture on cruise ships,” Donna explains. So far, she says the most breathtaking excursion has been a 16-day voyage from Los Angeles to Mexico, then through the Panama Canal to Costa Rica, Aruba, and up to Miami.

They offered lectures at sea about pirates, the history of the canal, survival Spanish for the travelers, and the geography and ecology of the countries they visited.

Now, the Mollans are hard at work creating a presentation for a March trip to New Zealand, South America, and the South Pacific islands including Easter Island and the Galapagos.

Vacationers on cruise ships want to pursue intellectual interests, Donna says, but sadly there are too few opportunities. Many travelers tell them that it’s great that they can learn something instead of just play shuffleboard.

The best part?  “Once we do our lecture we’re free to travel and be tourists,” she says. “We can go on shore and see all these great places we could never afford on a retired teacher’s income.”

Lela Schlitz was a 40-year-old career-changer when she became a primary grade teacher in San Bernardino, California in 1981. Her last few years of teaching were stressful. “I left teaching feeling very burned out from a lack of support from administrators,” she says. “I gave my heart to the job and I loved teaching, but I didn’t look forward to going to school and, as much as I cared about the kids, I felt I wasn’t giving enough.

“By the end of my last year, I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

When Schlitz retired in 2002 at age 60, her husband Harry was operating a touring dog sled team.

A decade before, the couple had invested $5,000 and purchased five dogs. They took them to a nearby ski resort on Lake Arrowhead and gave people dog sled rides for cash.

“We went to Lake Arrowhead on weekends and slogged through the snow on a sled in winter and a golf cart in summer,” she says. “It was exhausting. As mushers we push more than we ride.”

A turning point came when she gave a fellow teacher a dog sled ride. The teacher told Schlitz that her class was reading Stone Fox and asked the couple to bring the dogs and the sled to her school. The much-loved classic book tells the story of a boy determined to win a dog sled race to save his grandfather’s farm. 

“That’s when we realized we could tie this in with literature,” she says. “We use Stone Fox in the elementary classes and Call of the Wild among high schoolers.”

A few years ago, the couple left their California home and bought 20 acres in Montana. They made connections with schools, nursing homes, preschool centers, and libraries, and named their business “Montana Mountain Mushers.”

In schools, they conduct hourlong assemblies. The children pet the dogs after learning the best way to approach an animal, and they get a glimpse into the lives of these working dogs.

“There’s an undeniable connection between dogs and children and dogs and seniors,” she says. “When seniors see the dogs, they reminisce about their own pets. It brings back wonderful memories about their childhood.”

Today, Schlitz says she is having the time of her life teaching without the stress of classroom work.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would have mushed a dog sled,” she says. “But I found something that I can put my heart and soul into.”

As for Elizabeth Wurtz, her new role of patient advocate has given her many happy experiences, and none more satisfying than the time a 50-year-old woman in a wheelchair arrived at her door. The patient had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years earlier. But her symptoms didn’t look like MS to Wurtz, so she arranged for a new evaluation at an Ann Arbor clinic.

The clinic doctors decided she had a back ailment that needed extensive physical therapy, but no MS.

The therapy was rigorous, but “she came to me in a wheelchair, and now she’s swimming and horseback-riding with her children,” says Wurtz.

That patient was her daughter.

March 2006

Two Ways to Do Good and Feel Good

I had a wonderful experience last spring, and although I know many of you have had similar moments, I still want to share mine.

It happened at the Arizona Education Association delegate assembly, when one of my fourth grade students from 20 years ago stood up to speak.

I hadn’t seen him since he left my class, and now I didn’t even come up to his chin. Sam Mendivil got up and asked the delegates to support my candidacy for NEA-Retired president. Then he turned to me and said, “I never got to tell you how much you meant to me. You’re the reason I’m a teacher today.”

Well, as you can imagine, suddenly I couldn’t see through my tears.

And I realize I’m not unusual. Most teachers have radically changed the lives of more than one student. And the lucky ones, like me, get to hear about it. That’s the nature of our work, touching children’s lives.

My excuse for telling this story is that I want to urge us all to keep working for children after we retire from the classroom. They still need us, and helping them is still the most satisfying way to live.

Which doesn’t mean don’t travel, don’t garden, don’t relax. But do keep your hand in the effort to give our next generation a strong start.

Two ways to do that:

One. Public schools depend on public support, which means a government willing to invest in education, and the only way to get that kind of government is political action. Your NEA-Retired chapter can help you connect with candidates who deserve and need your support. The time and money you give may turn some child’s life around.

Two. Think back to your first year in front of a class and how much you wanted an experienced and safe shoulder to lean on. Now you’re the one with the shoulder. NEA-Retired sponsors a growing number of mentoring programs for student members and beginning teachers who need you.

You’ll never regret it.

—Barbara Matteson
matteson@dakotacom.net

March 2006

Final Answer?

It was January 2005, and the Hawaii state finals of the Science Bowl high school quiz competition had reached the last round. NEA-Retired member Ed Ginoza watched tensely as the five-member team he coached, from Maui High School, attempted to wrest the state title from the defending champions of Iolani School. The final question was asked.

“I didn’t know the answer,” Ginoza laughs. “Fortunately, the kids did, and we won the title.”

Ginoza taught science at Maui High for 31 years. Since his retirement in 2000, he has volunteered to coach the Science Bowl team. With his coaching, Maui has won three of four state Science Bowl titles. “They don’t win because of me,” he says. “It’s the kids. They study on their own time. The work they put in is unbelievable.” In 2005, the Maui team placed seventh in the national Science Bowl finals.

Ginoza meets his team members twice a week during lunch. Typically, each member specializes in one branch of science. “The level of mastery these students attain is remarkable,” says Ginoza. “The questions require college-level scholarship. Former students from my teams are now at Stanford, Harvard, and MIT. Two have been Presidential Scholars.”

“I get to know them much better than I ever could in a class,” he says. “I’ve made some lasting friendships. One who became a Presidential Scholar cited me as his ‘most influential teacher.’ I can’t tell you how moved I was.”

—Matt Simon

Man of Iron

NEA-Retired member Rudy Lozano has collected more than 100 trophies and medals as an amateur power lifter—the vast majority after his 50th birthday. For five straight years, the former Orange, California math teacher has set bench press records for his age group. And he thought he’d given the sport up in his 20s.

“I was 115 pounds when I graduated from high school,” says Lozano. “I took up weight-lifting to build muscle, and in my 20s I became active in power lifting. But it was time to start a career, so I stopped.” Then 12 years ago, while still teaching, he returned to the weight room. “If your doctor says it’s safe for you to exercise, you can get into the best shape of your life after 60,” he says. “I am. But not many years ago I was badly out of shape. It took me six months of light exercise to get ready to start lifting again.”

Before he retired, Lozano encouraged his students to pursue weight training drug-free. “Fitness training lengthens your life—unless you use steroids,” he says. “Steroids create life-threatening conditions. Drug-free is the only way to go. Every day I spend at the gym, I lengthen my life by a day. I tell my wife I can probably compete until I’m 90.”

Now 66, Lozano will attempt to break 400 pounds on the bench press in competition. Will he do it? “At my last practice, I did two presses in the high 300s. Then I had my training partner add a lot more weight, to well over 400 pounds. I smoked it!”

That’s power-lifting lingo for—well, for “smoked it!”

—Matt Simon

March 2006

George Jackson

Background

I’ve been a bookkeeper for the Farmington School District in Michigan for 23 years. I’m currently the state ESP caucus president, and serve on the MEA board. I’ve been a delegate to the NEA RA for 13 years.

What got you active as a Pre-Retired member?

My parents taught me early on that if I don’t get involved, I have no right to complain. I believe that, which is why I’m working as a local president now. But there’s always a new issue coming up that has to be addressed if we want to maintain and strengthen public education. In my state, public education budgets are always an issue. We’ve had to fight proposals for school vouchers recently. I’m devoted to public education, so I’ll keep taking my parents’ advice and stay involved after I retire.

Pearlie Matthews

Background

I taught first and second grade for 34 years in the Tuscaloosa City Schools. I was an active school rep., and I’m currently vice president of my local Retired Association and a district director for AEA-Retired.

How are you enjoying retirement?

I love it. I’m very active in the Elks and my church, and I stay active in education. I teach GED courses for a local community college, and right now, I’m working with AEA-Retired to try to get a fair raise for teachers. This takes a great deal of lobbying, and it won’t happen if we don’t work. School employees and retirees can’t take anything for granted. They should always know what their benefits are, what’s at stake, what they can do to help—and then get involved.

Arleen Yoshimura

Background

I was a high school business teacher for 26 years—10 of them at my alma mater, Hilo High School. I was an active local Association rep., and I currently write a column for our local Association-Retired newsletter.

What do you like most about retirement?

Giving back. I took early retirement, and I didn’t plan very well for it. I did it all wrong. I could have taken steps to maximize my benefits. I’ve learned a lot since, and I want to pass it on to other school employees. I received an NEA grant to start a group called the Pre-Retirement Cadre. We do a lot to impress upon active teachers how important it is to plan their retirement far in advance. I also like my leisure activities. I wrote a cookbook with recipes from family and friends. And my husband and I were able to take my 90-year-old mother-in-law to Las Vegas. Right now, I’m planning a vacation to Brussels with my niece and I can’t wait.

March 2006

Medicare Part D

Joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

These days, our federal government seems to be more passionate about promoting private business interests than giving you drug coverage. How else to explain the incredibly complicated system it has created for you to figure out?

Until the law changes, though, the only alternative to diving in is to do without drug coverage, which can be very dangerous.

So here’s how a strategy for making drug coverage decisions.

Anyone in Medicare can get the drug coverage, known as Medicare Part D. You are in Medicare if you are enrolled either in Medicare Part A (which covers hospital and some home health care as well as skilled nursing facility care) or Part B (doctor visits and other outpatient care).

To get Medicare drug coverage, you must enroll in one of the private insurance plans that Medicare has approved. Some operate nationally, others only in certain regions of the country. 

There are a lot of variations among the plans in the drug coverage they offer. By law, each plan must be at least as good as the standard Medicare coverage guidelines in overall value.

But there will be differences in the premiums and co-payments these private plans charge, which drugs they cover, what prices they charge for drugs, and which pharmacies are covered by their networks. 

There are several ways to get information and enroll in a plan available in your area:

• Call Medicare at 1-800-633-4227.
• Go to www.medicare.gov.
• Or call the plan of your choice directly by phoning the number provided on the plan sponsor’s marketing brochure posted onwww.medicare.gov ,

How to choose among the many plans?

• Start by making a list of the drugs you use.
• Then see which plans offer those drugs in your area.
• Next, look at the copayments and premiums.
• Finally, make sure there’s a nearby pharmacy that offers the best plan for you.

Those currently eligible can enroll at any time through May 15, 2006.

After May 15, most people who are already in Medicare will not have another opportunity to enroll until November, and will be penalized for signing up late. There will be exceptions—for example, if you move out of your plan’s service area, or if you lose “creditable” drug coverage from another source through no fault of your own.

(Your drug coverage is “creditable” if the company that offers it certifies, in a letter to you, that this coverage meets the Medicare minimum standards.)

People who are not yet eligible for Medicare, but who become eligible in or after March 2006, can enroll in a drug coverage plan during an initial enrollment period that extends for seven months—three months before and three months after the month they become eligible for Medicare. Younger individuals receiving disability insurance benefits may also enroll three months before and three months after they become entitled to Medicare.

Medicare will start covering your drugs at the beginning of the month after you enrolled in a Medicare drug plan. For example, if you sign up between April 1 and April 30, 2006, your coverage will start May 1.

—Doug Terwilliger, NEA Member Benefits

C or D?

Don’t Confuse Medicare Advantage (Part C) with Medicare Part D

Two kinds of Medicare plans offer drug coverage:

• Medicare Part D: These plans offer only prescription drug coverage. This may suit people who wish to stay in (or change to) the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program (Parts A and B) for their other health coverage.
• Medicare Part C: A Medicare Advantage Plan that offers comprehensive coverage for medical care plus coverage for prescription drugs. This type may suit people who prefer managed care that covers drugs and other medical expenses.

Yet more complications: There are several kinds of Medicare Advantage plans: Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), Point of Service (POS) plan, private fee-for-service (PFFS).  Most are variations of man-aged care. In some, you can only use doctors from the plan’s network. In others, you can also choose doctors from outside the network, but you’ll likely pay more to do so.

Starting January 1, 2006, all Medicare Advantage Plans (except private fee-for-service plans) must offer at least one option that includes prescription drug coverage.

If you select a private fee-for-service plan that does not include drug coverage, you can still get drug coverage separately from a stand-alone Medicare Part D drug plan.