Recognizing the need to offload some tasks may be the best way for you to manage your caregiving responsibilities over the long-term.
While many years of medical training made me an effective professional caregiver, I was completely unprepared to assume this role in my personal life. Despite my eight years of medical training, and three years of experience in private practice, I could not actively heal my wife.
Based on my years treating patients who have dealt with the loss of a loved one and my personal experience with my husband's death, I know there are many complicated emotions that one can experience when dealing with late-stage illness and death.
Jane started out as a publicist representing authors. Now, 13 very humorous romance books later, she is an acclaimed writer herself. After reading her guide, I am amazed at how she has kept her sense of humor while being her husband's caregiver for many years.
A week after returning from a snowboarding trip, Emmy-award-winning talk show host Montel William recalls how, 15 years ago, a doctor not only diagnosed Williams with multiple sclerosis (MS) but also advised Williams that he would be confined to a wheelchair within four years.
Remember that as close as you may be to your spouse (or parent), his or her death sentence is not your death sentence. Protect yourself from undue stress by staying strong and remembering that you have a choice in how you choose to react to your loved one's illness.
While there's a fine line between being involved and being overbearing, it's necessary for you, as a family caregiver, to foster open lines of communication -- and this includes questioning decisions concerning your loved one's health.
As a caregiver, you use your heart to provide compassionate comfort and support to a loved one. Now use your head -- if you become ill or too exhausted to continue to care, what will become of your loved one and of you?
SPECIAL FROM Next Avenue By Sherri Snelling A new study shows that those attending to the special needs of a brother or sister need support D...
Over the course of my 20-year marriage, my husband Michael has developed an uncanny knack for having medical crises on national holidays -- crises that inevitably require a trip to the emergency room of whatever hospital is within striking distance.
Mushroom-barley soup, a staple of my childhood, lovingly prepared by Grandma Mollie, was the most delicious soup I'd ever tasted. Grandma Mollie always got it just right, but this time, something was awry.
We can take each of those seven characteristics of "home" and use them to assess living environments for people with dementia, remembering that significant accommodations may need to be made to recreate the home experience that patients yearn for.
Over 20 years, my husband required dozens of surgeries. I started taking notes about Caregiverville because, as Nora Ephron famously said, 'everything is material; someday you will think this is funny.' Not that being a caregiver is a laugh riot. But when there are moments of levity, you either seize them or go mad.
We often mistakenly assume that we can't play a role in the efficiency of our institutions. We can prevent thousands of avoidable hospital readmissions by being proactive and availing ourselves of the resources in our communities.
Physical therapist Joe Gallagher's patient, a former New York Giants football player now in his 80s, was lying on the floor, stretching to regain flexibility after two total knee replacements. Progress was slow and painful, so Joe went to a reliable resource in his PT toolbox: humor.
It is a great service to show up for someone and go with them through the last chapter of their lives. And though at the time, it feels as if your own life got lost somewhere, it eventually turns up again.
One particular aspect that is often affected, but seldom openly discussed, is how memory impairment affects the sexual expression of a person with Alzheimer's disease or related form of memory loss.
Ensuring that your loved one with memory loss participates in as many summer activities as possible is a wonderful way to enrich the lives of everyone involved. Try some of these tips to keep your loved one secure and engaged in all of your summer fun.
Whether you're caring for an aging parent or a neighbor in your apartment building, or helping a home health aide connect with your ill spouse, look to establish common ground to drive forward a successful caregiving relationship.
Some people criticize the decision made by Rep. Gifford's husband, Mark Kelly, to return to work, but every family must decide for themselves the best way to heal.
A nurse told me often that an illness can be harder on the caregiver than it is on the patient, and that caregivers often experience serious ailments during the first couple years of this stressful period.
No matter how withdrawn or irresponsive the person may appear, one should act and speak as if she were completely cognizant.
Family caregivers are truly heroic, but they are regular people with limits. Everyone needs and deserves breaks from stresses in their life.
