Three Tips for Holiday Visits

Today, on Your Caregiving Journey, Sheri Samotin, family transition coach, joined us to share tips long-distance family caregivers can use during holiday visits. You can listen to our show via the player at the end of this post. Sheri shared some great tips, which can apply to all caregiving situations: –An omission in a routine can indicate the need for more help. For instance, did your care recipient attend...

Friday Fun: Give Us the Guffaws

It’s Friday, so let’s share some funnies. What’s a humorous experience that’s happened to you in your caregiving role? It could be something that happened years ago or just yesterday, as long as today it makes you giggle. We’ll giggle with you. Please share in our comments section. (Reminder: What’s bugging you? At 3 p.m. CT on Fridays, we share what’s bugging us. Use this hashtag: #carevent and join...

Happy Anniversary

Today is the 15th Anniversary of the Day I was married to Steven D. Hobson.  We had been together almost 7 years when we were married and already had two children together.  On the day of our marriage our household consisted of 2 adults and 5 children, he had 3 children from a previous marriage. It was not your typical wedding day, by all means.  The house was filled with anger that day, it was an awful day. ...

Call for Entries: Submit Your Short Video to the Neuro Film Festival

According to TheBrainMatters.org, one in six Americans is affected by a brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease, migraine, autism, MS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, ALS, stroke, and more. To help make the case for more brain research to find cures, the website is sponsoring a film festival called Neuro Film Festival. To submit an entry in the festival, simply make a film telling your story, or...

Home

You know you are home when you feel warm (even when it’s cold), safe (no matter what’s happening out in the world) and calm (although calamity may surround you). Home is how you feel, not where you live. Welcome...

What is a Friend?

I have always prided myself on being a good listener.  When people speak to me, I try my hardest to give them my undivided attention, look them in the eye and really hear what they are saying.  I have always been courteous about not interrupting, although, I know that I have, I’m far from perfect, I believe that being a good listener is the greatest quality in being a good friend. We each go through life...

Ask Denise: How Do I Resolve a Huge Mess?

Dear Denise, My mother and dad have been taking care of my disabled brother for almost 9 years. She is 76, he is 81. My mother has several serious health issues, heart, high B.P., and diabetes. She had a T.I.A. two years ago and is on blood thinners. Mom (who was an RN) refuses to hire adequate nurses and aides to take care of my brother and now, herself. She could easily afford it. She just hopes that one night...

Report Released Today Says You’re in Good Company

You may feel lonely in your caregiving role, but a report released today says you’re not alone. “Caregiving in the U.S. 2009,” a survey of persons caring for adults, the elderly and children with special needs, found that 29% of the U.S. adult population, or 65.7 million people, are caregivers, including 31% of all households.  These caregivers provide an average of 20 hours of care per...

My Caregiving Story

Denise asked us to tell our stories during this week. Those who have been with caregiving.com for a long time knows my story, but for those who do not I will try to briefly tell my caregiving story. In April of 2006 my husband, Wayne, went into our family doctor for a routine check-up. It so happened that an intern dr. saw my husband before our regular dr. came into the room. This intern noticed that my...

It’s Older Driver Safety Awareness Week: Take Time for the Talk

In support of Older Driver Safety Awareness Week, AAA encourages advance planning to keep senior drivers safe and mobile as they age Many seniors and their families will at some point struggle with a difficult decision about an older adult’s driving ability. Is it safe for them to continue driving? Are there tools to help them be safer? How do we know when it’s time to hang up the keys? What...

Derek’s Blog Party Post

Hi All, I hope your progressive blog posting partying is going well! In my last entry my mother was still in the hospital expecting to be released the next day. When the next day arrived another ailment or blood work problem would follow and keep us there one more day. Rinse and repeat – 9 days. • She was admitted with a high ammonia level and hepatic encephalopathy. • Once that was pretty much under...

Tamales

When I was growing up, one of my favorite family Holiday traditions was making Tamales.  My dad would usually have vacation during the time us kids were out of school.  He and my mom would make probably 100 dozen tamales. My job in the process was to clean the corn husks.  This job went on for days. If you have never cleaned corn husks, the ones you buy in a bag at the store, you need to try it.  They are dry,...

Holiday Progressive Blog Party Ends Today!

Image by k.l.macke via Flickr It’s a cook-free (and dirty dish-less!) Progressive Party. Throughout the week of December 6, we stop by the blogs of family caregivers, dropping off holiday well-wishes and good cheer. To close out our party with a bang, two of blog party participants will join me today at Noon on Table Talk; listen to our live show here. Because no party is complete without presents,...

Ask Denise: How Do We Coax Grandmother to a Nursing Home?

Dear Denise, The basis of my question is this: How do you coax a very headstrong someone who’s aging, has Alzheimer’s and can no longer take care of themselves into a nursing home? Details below. A couple of years ago my mother was forced to move in with her mother as it was thought my grandma had a terminal disease. This was difficult, especially for my mom, who has never been close to her mother. They...

Tell Us: What’s That One Question?

A few weeks ago, our online support groups mused over this request from me: I wonder: Do you have one question that you seem to ask over and over because you can’t find the right answer? The question may be: Why did this happen to our family? Or, why in the world does my care recipient do that? Or, why in the world does my sibling do that? Members shared that one question for them: “When will my own...

Putting a Lid on the Nog

Anna Stookey, our feel-good expert who joins us monthly on Your Caregiving Journey, is holding a one-hour free teleclass to help us avoid holiday over-eating. Here are the details: Over the Strudel and Through the Nog: The Body Reunion Solution to Avoiding Holiday Overeating 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST on Saturday, December 19th Tune in before you go off to do your holiday shopping! We’ll explore how to: *Steer...

Recovery Funds Advance Alzheimer’s Disease Research

American Recovery and Reinvestment Funds are being used to promote the national research efforts to better understand, diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has targeted promising areas of research in granting the awards, such as new and ongoing studies to identify additional risk factor genes associated with...

Target

The holidays should bring good tidings. Instead, they sometimes can seem to bring a laundry list of chores and hassles, which can hide the true meaning of the holiday season. In preparation for this year’s holidays, target. Meaning, target what you want. Do you want a holiday without a lot of fuss? Would you like to make a big deal about this holiday because you’ll all be together? Or, do you want to...

December Activities on Caregiving.com

We’ve got special activities coming up in December. Santa has his list; we’ve got ours: On Twitter: Gratitude Tuesday: Share a gratitude each Tuesday in December; use this hashtag: #carethanks. We’ll give away an autographed copy of Take Comfort, written by Denise, to one tweeter each Tuesday. What’s bugging you? At 3 p.m. CT on Fridays, we share what’s bugging us. Use this hashtag: #carevent...