Caregiving.com

Stories, Support, Solutions
  1. ejourneys

    Theories

    by
    10
    | ejourneys' blog
    May 18, 2012
    My partner’s thinking pattern today is the main reason I use a handle here and keep her identity a secret. It’s why I talk or write openly about caregiving in some places but not in others. There is some overlap here and there, but for the most part my caregiving...
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  2. ejourneys

    Visibility

    by
    5
    | ejourneys' blog
    May 11, 2012
    I’ve been on another “flyer run” while doing my errands. Two of the assistants (one legal, one financial) to whom I gave Caregiving.com flyers said they’ll make and distribute copies. I told them they could also download a .pdf file from here. Both said they have clients who could benefit...
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  3. ejourneys

    Quality of Life: A Conversation

    by
    9
    | ejourneys' blog
    May 5, 2012
    My partner’s follow-up MRI is the week after next. It will tell us whether her brain damage has increased. In preparation for whatever the news might be, I’ve been reviewing the literature on MS meds (Rebif and Copaxone). I watch the people on the DVD. I listen to them speak,...
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  4. ejourneys

    Self-Care

    by
    4
    | ejourneys' blog
    May 1, 2012
    My partner’s bicycle has been on a bicycle stand in the kitchen since last May. She wants to change its rear tire to a non-nubbly one, because a non-nubbly tire wouldn’t make as much noise on the wind trainer. She figured she would train indoors. Then, at some point, she...
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  5. ejourneys

    Three Therapies

    by
    6
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 27, 2012
    My partner had her regular therapy session on Thursday, followed by some extraordinary “bird therapy” at the park. This time, her regular session was extraordinary, too. Therapy 1 First, we could report on some “emotion talk” that I saw as a milestone. A few nights earlier my partner had clarified...
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  6. ejourneys

    Nothing Is Wasted

    by
    4
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 21, 2012
    My Caregiving.com reusable shopping bags arrived yesterday. Bette, you did a fabulous job with these (thank you!). One bag is now home to my partner’s medical records: I’d been carrying her records in the BookTV bag shown in the photo and was pleasantly surprised at how well all the paperwork...
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  7. ejourneys

    Wear Patterns

    by
    5
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 13, 2012
    Earlier this week, my partner asked me, “Did you notice Dr. N’s scuffed shoes?” Or worn shoes. I forget exactly how she put it. I hadn’t paid all that much attention to his shoes when we met with him the one time in December. I had paid more attention to...
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  8. ejourneys

    Choosing a New Metric

    by
    8
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 6, 2012
    I was going to reply to comments for my last entry in another comment, but I realized I needed to write a fresh post. This is my personal, somewhat rambling take on things, so I’m interested in hearing what others think. Trish wondered “what it is about caregiving that makes...
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  9. ejourneys

    Making It Real

    by
    6
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 3, 2012
    “One of the biggest obstacles in caregiving is recognizing that you ARE caregiving!” That’s the first line in the caregiver page at SAGE. It’s also the story of my life from about 1998 (my partner was still working, and would until 2001, but I could see she was having difficulties)...
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  10. ejourneys

    Embracing the Cabin

    by
    4
    | ejourneys' blog
    April 1, 2012
    Yesterday I participated in the last author event on my schedule, with nothing further planned. I announced to program participants and my fellow panelists that I am backing away to re-balance my energies, at least for now. I had begun to cut back on my events and volunteer activities after...
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  11. ejourneys

    Time Clock/Photography Therapy

    by
    4
    | ejourneys' blog
    March 24, 2012
    Before I started writing this, my partner told me she would try to get some sleep, and I pressed my “Print Screen” key. This is part of a new technique we’re trying out, and so far it’s working pretty well. She has no set sleep schedule. Her sleep disturbances go...
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  12. ejourneys

    Living Outside the Box

    by
    7
    | ejourneys' blog
    March 23, 2012
    During the last #carechat, Trish tweeted, “It’s that self-chatter the ‘shoulds’ that cause us issues.” That made me nod at my computer like a bobble-head doll. The past few years especially — once my partner and I started asking for help in earnest — have done a lot toward making...
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  13. ejourneys

    The Emotional Subway Straddle

    by
    3
    | ejourneys' blog
    March 17, 2012
    My partner’s been experiencing an emotional roller coaster. It’s meant a lot of unexpected shifts — and I’ve been trying to do my emotional equivalent of what I call the Subway Straddle. I grew up on the NYC subway. I was very proud of the way I could stand without...
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  14. ejourneys

    In Her (Self-) Image

    by
    6
    | ejourneys' blog
    March 3, 2012
    My partner had her therapy appointment on Thursday. Afterward, we had dinner in town. My partner usually orders regular coffee, but this time she had ordered decaf. I’ve recently switched back from decaf to regular coffee, so I made an innocent comment that we had switched places. Last night she...
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  15. ejourneys

    Gifts of Story

    by
    5
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 28, 2012
    “The additional medical records you sent are still insufficient.” I’m looking at today’s email from the disability lawyer’s — our third disability lawyer’s — office. It doesn’t surprise me. “The records from the Neurologists are good, but are still not enough to prove disability during the relevant period…Actual treatment records...
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  16. ejourneys

    Surfacing

    by
    3
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 20, 2012
    I’m starting to re-emerge from the past several days, and am trying to make some sense of them. They include a plumbing mishap, some surprisingly uneventful yard work, multiple simultaneous freelance jobs, and an emotional roller-coaster. Let me explain. Last year I’d had some volunteer trees taken down that were...
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  17. ejourneys

    Transcendence

    by
    6
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 12, 2012
    Last night I broke from an editing job (I work at home) to check my email, and found a “needs moderation” comment from a purported Doctor Barbara, who wrote this in response to my “Two Realities” entry: “You really make it seem really easy along with your presentation however I...
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  18. ejourneys

    Two Realities

    by
    3
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 11, 2012
    A year or so ago, before I was maxed out of my own therapy, I had told my therapist that I felt as though I held dual citizenship. There was my native world — what I think of as the typical world, what many call the “real world.” And there...
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  19. ejourneys

    On Her Schedule

    by
    4
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 9, 2012
    Last fall, my partner called me to come take a picture. She had captured a small snake in the room she uses as her office. To get there, I navigated the narrow walkway between piles of her hoarded paper, boxes of books on the floor, scattered folders, and food wrappers...
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  20. ejourneys

    By Way of Introduction: Our Journey

    by
    11
    | ejourneys' blog
    February 6, 2012
    (Editor’s Note: Today we welcome a new blogger, ejourneys, who cares for her partner.) Last night I attended my first #carechat — and have just figured out how to blog here. Thank you all for being there! I had mentioned in the chat that my partner and I have fallen...
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