Tell Us: What’s the Most Bizarre Part of Your Caregiving Experience?

Spending so much time with your care recipient may unearth behaviors or situations or habits that are, well, just bizarre. The behaviors may be related to a disease process; the habits, to a way of life. Either way, you keep these to yourself because, well, who you would believe you? But, the keeping in can keep you feeling shame about a situation undeserving of it. It also keeps you from knowing that most...

Lost It — Over Snow :-o

Hello guyz, I hope your New Year has started out as relaxing and healthy as possible.  Me, it was cool but I’m writing to need to vent.  As you might’ve heard, here around Boston we’ve had 2-3 days of on and off snowstorms, totaling where I live to about 10″. Through a longtime friend who is also a parental caregiver like me, I was put in contact with a local guy in my mom’s...

January Activities on Caregiving.com

We’ve got special activities in January: On Twitter: Gratitude Thursday: Share a gratitude each Thursday in January; use this hashtag: #carethanks. We’ll give away an autographed copy of Take Comfort, written by Denise, to one tweeter each Thursday. What’s bugging you? At 3 p.m. CT on Fridays, we share what’s bugging us. Use this hashtag: #carevent Our chat will take place in TweetChat. On...

Ask Denise: How Do I Convince My Husband to Travel?

Dear Denise, My husband is caring for his parents who have 24-hour care in a nursing home.  My problem is that my husband does not feel comfortable traveling to get away and limit his stress. His communicates that he must be available to his folks “if anything happens.” He also feels that when one of them dies he must be available to tell the other how to cope with the situation. How do I provide support to...

Happy New Year 2010

The holidays have come and gone, the Christmas decorations are down, except for the lights on the outside of the house, the bag of trashed wrapping paper went out with recycle this morning, there are  just no physical signs left that Christmas was here. The memories of Christmas are great.  The fun actually started mid-week of the week of Christmas.  I had blogged earlier in the month about making Tamales and...

In 2010, 10 Ways to Resolve to Allow

On Table Talk today, I offered ideas for your New Year’s Resolutions. Why not, I suggested, base your resolutions on “allowing”? (You can listen to our show via the player at the bottom of this post.) So, in 2010, resolve to allow: 1. Vulnerability. You are incredibly strong. Be strong not only in your stoicism but in your vulnerability when it hurts. Because it does, and will, hurt. 2. A...

Share with Us

In this section, we ask you to give us a giggle, participate in our show and tell, take a challenge. Be sure to stop by and share in these areas: Annual Family Caregiver Survey: Once a year (lately, it’s been in May), we ask what caregiving is like for you. This year, you can share your experiences in our survey until May 21.  You can read our 2009 survey results here. Caregiving Guffaws: On Fridays, we...

Features

Read our feature stories, including profiles of our Caregiver of the Year winners. Caregiver of the Year award winners: Read the stories of our winners of our annual contest. Consider: These article offers insights that (we hope) make you say,...

More Help

In this area, we offer tips, techniques and tools to help. Hands-On Care: Articles to help manage your caree’s personal care. In The News: News about developments and issues that impact you. Journaling 101: Exercises to keep your journal-writing flowing. Product Reviews: Family caregivers review books, products and services. (Want to have a product reviewed? See here for details.) Support Groups: We...

Our Blogs

On Caregiving.com, family caregivers share their days through their own blogs: Bette cares for her mom About Bette: “I live in Pennsylvania with my husband and 3 young children. My mother came to live with us 7 years ago, when our youngest was 9 months old. My mother had a stroke in 2002. The stroke left her with a right side weakness.  Presently she struggles with mobility, and word find. She has vascular...

A New Year

It seems hard to believe that it is January first of another year! Another decade is upon us. One wonders what this next year and new decade will bring. I am glad that I can trust that I am safely in my God’s hands. That does not mean, however, that my life as a caregiver is not without stress. We have made an offer on a condo. We will close on Feb 1rst. We will not occupy, however, until a few weeks...

Must I Nag?

Oh, you want your care recipient to take the initiative, to be more proactive in treatments and therapies. But, oh, it can seem like pulling teeth. And, then, it just feels like nagging. Becky Lowry, RN, My Health Care Manager, joined us yesterday on Your Caregiving Journey to answer the question, “Do I have to nag my care recipient?” (You can listen to the show via the player at the bottom of the...