**Senior Faces Time-Consuming Medical Routine Amid Caregiving Duties**

At 65, Deana Hendrickson finds the demands of navigating the medical system overwhelming. "Every body part has a doctor," she expressed with frustration. Ms. Hendrickson rattled off a comprehensive list of her healthcare providers: a primary care doctor, a cardiologist due to mild heart disease and family history, a lung surgeon, and a pulmonologist overseeing annual scans due to a family history of lung cancer.

Her medical team doesn't stop there. It extends to an ophthalmologist, a gynecologist, a urologist, a podiatrist, and a gastroenterologist. "And I just came back from the dentist," she added. All these appointments and tests require substantial time, with Ms. Hendrickson estimating that she spends about 24 days a year interacting with various healthcare providers.

Most of her healthcare providers are located in Santa Monica, California, where she used to live. Now, visiting these doctors involves an hour's drive from her current residence. Despite being reasonably healthy and active, especially given that she, alongside her husband, provides five-day-a-week care for three grandsons under the age of five, the frequent medical attention makes her feel like a "sick person."

"It's like I'm an older car that always needs more maintenance," Ms. Hendrickson said. "There's so many other things I'd rather be doing."