Hard to Believe Nicole Starts 11th Grade Today…

I can’t believe that the summer is over ( and I can’t believe that my baby girl is going into 11th grade. I wanted to start school last week but with going to Gainesville, having a couple other appointments and volunteering at VBS I thought it was too much for Nicole. I don’t have the teacher materials from Abeka for Chemistry and US History so she won’t be starting those classes. She will...

Mixed Feelings…

I am struggling with some feelings let over from Gainesville. Nicole has been having a lot of stomach pain for at least the last six months. She has always had stomach pain but it has gotten worse. I think some of it last week was due to the fact she was taking two iron pills a day and she couldn’t tolerate it so we have backed down to one a day which she seems fine with this. I brought up her stomach pain to...

Denied

So it’s official. Hubby received his official decision from the Veterans Association regarding Aide and Attendance and the word is that although he does need 24 hr care he does not qualify for it since his condition is not part of his service connected disability. I was aware this would be the road block. SO… Onward we go just like we have in the past. And that’s okay. I did learn one thing in...

A Very Special Poem

A very special person emailed this to me yesterday after a conversation with her on the phone. She said it reminded her of Nicole. I think it is so beautiful. GOD’S PERFECTION I saw a beautiful bird today, it lay there in the snow sadly she was wounded, and I felt such sorrow It appeared that her wing, had been crushed by a strong power vulnerably laying still, predators wait to devour There was a feeling...

Voice Your Suggestions on How to Fight Alzheimer’s

What do you think can be done in order to cure Alzheimer’s? What can be done to help family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s? You can share your thoughts and ideas on August 4 at 8 p.m. ET, when the Alzheimer’s Association will host its first ever Tele-Town Hall. The purpose of the tele-town hall is to gather feedback on which issues the U.S. government should address in the National...

Life’s Constant Revolving Door

Every time I start to feel better about things, something always seems to happen. Mom has been doing a lot better.  She has been getting out more, smiling and participating in activities she has not done in a long time. Last night I received a phone call from Mom, who was hysterical screaming she couldn’t breathe. I could hardly understand what she was saying. I called the nursing home and they said that...

Things Are Going a Bit Better Here

A few things have improved around here this week. 1) We have a new nurse case manager with Hospice. She is amazing and supportive. She’s helped me with the fine line of keeping Mom comfortable, but also able to respond. Mom is drinking small amounts this morning (no fluids since Monday until today), but is also lucid and comfortable. I feel like we’ve found that “happy medium.” I feel...

Follow up to Gainesville…

Boy, was it a long day. We left at 7:20 a.m. for our 10:30 a.m. appointment. You never know around here what the traffic is going to be like. I forgot money for tolls on the East/West so we had to get off on Lee Rd. and Rick ran in to 7/11 to use ATM which cost $3.00. ( Back on the road …. we stopped somewhere along the way at a rest stop for me to use the little girl’s room. Nicole slept on and off in...

Healing Your Pain

This afternoon on Your Caregiving Journey, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, our happiness expert, joined me to discuss how our emotional pain (like stress) can manifest into our physical pain (like migraines). You can listen to our show via the player at the bottom of the post. Elizabeth shared ideas on help to manage the stress so that you can heal your physical pain. She spoke of a client who developed a headache at 5...

Your Money Footprint

This morning on Your Caregiving Journey, Ellen Rogin, our wealthness expert, joined me for a discussion on how we leave a footprint of our money beliefs. You can listen to our show via the player at the bottom of the post. We began our discussion with Ellen describing a meditation she’s done while walking (heads-up Happiness Project participants, another idea for walking!!). Her meditation led her to a...

Do We Need a POA for Love?

About 10 years ago, Dick, who cared for his wife with Alzheimer’s until her death, moderated the men’s online support group for me on Caregiving.com. He was close to 90 and fun, witty and caring. He was a catch. Genie thought so, too. She met Dick in a support group for persons caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s. Her husband resided in an assisted living facility. So, Dick, now widowed,...

Good News and Better News

Here’s a news flash for you: Life doesn’t hand you one situation or problem at a time!  Can you imagine how easy it would be if things worked that way?  What would we do with our time if that happened?  Many, many caregivers are either serial caregivers or caring for more than one person at a time.  (According to the caregiving survey done by Denise more than 26% of the respondents were currently caring for...

Perspective

We had a very nice time away on our vacation. It was a change of scenery definitely needed. It was the first time we went away and weren’t sure what each day would entail. Our first night we camped on Assateague Island in Maryland. We probably won’t choose to camp again. (: The true campers have big lights on their heads – we definitely are not true campers. It was beautiful though; to the...

Don’t Even Know Where to Begin…

Not even sure where to start this post, so I guess I’ll just dive in. On Monday, we went to see the Infectious Disease doctor in the big city. We’ve been waiting for this appointment for 3 months now. There wasn’t a doctor that specializes in this locally. We left home at 10:00 AM, and got home at 4:30. Long, long day for Mom, who hadn’t been out of the house since July 2nd (when the C Diff...

Positive…

I am taking Denise’s journaling class. In my opinion, it is fabulous and I really enjoy it as I do love to write. The word she gave me last week was positive which I thought would be hard for me to write about but it wasn’t. I feel the need to share it in case it may help someone else. Here goes: This is something that I am not use to being. I was/am a very negative person. I think the biggest influence...

Because of Caregiving, Have You Gained Compassion?

I’ve so enjoyed speaking with Kristin, who cares for her family friend, Mary on Your Caregiving Journey. You can listen to our most recent conversation via the player at the bottom of this post. Over three shows, we’ve talked about how Kristin has gained compassion in caring for Mary, a person who is incapable of feeling compassion. Kristin describes compassion as an action and a feeling and believes...

Trip to Gainesville …

We will be leaving tomorrow morning for an appointment at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida for Nicole’s quarterly PH specialist appointment. I always get so nervous about this. I would even go as far as to say I dread it. It is just another reminder of how ill Nicole is. Nicole started Tyvaso in Dec. of last year to compliment the Revatio and Letairis. In June I applied to be a peer mentor...

Letting Go and Moving On

Along with moving the other thing we seem to have been doing a lot of over the past year is letting go. We let go of just about everything we had amassed over the past 20 years. Starting with our house (and most of the things in it), my job, our motor home, our store, and our business. This weekend we said good-bye to the last of these things, our Jeep Grand Cherokee. As we went through this we have come to realize...

Paste

Some days, you might wish you could reach for the paste, so you could glue together the pieces of your life. Caregiving can seem to act like a scissors, cutting your life into bits and pieces. Rather than trying to paste together what was, put together a new picture of what is. If you focus so much on what was, believing there’s nothing for you in the what is, then you miss the true of glue of your life...

Losing My Cool Over Research

It’s hot in Chicago, which is why I’m trying to keep my cool. I received an email yesterday with this subject line: “Family Caregivers Get Much-Needed Break from Adult Day Care Services.” Just reading this subject line makes me hot. Because I know what’s coming in the text: Researchers actually spent money to determine that adult day services help family caregivers. Oh, and along the...

Do You Ever Feel Like… ?

Do you ever feel like a little hamster in one of the wheels that just keeps running, running, running but not going anywhere? That’s what I feel like most days. This morning is an example. I have things to do but my mind is so jumbled I don’t know what. I know that I made or started a master list at Nicole’s last dentist appointment last month but I can’t find it. I will be waking Nicole up...

Another Story to Tell . . .

Something tonight other than Robert-centric caregiving.  My wonderful mother-in-law has been in the hospital since Friday where they are trying to figure out why she has fluid (bloody, at that) in her lungs.  They are telling us it is either a malignancy or an infection but it seems the doctors are leaning toward cancer. I’ve been down this road before so I hope not. My own mom died 2 ½ months after a cancer...