Caregivers in Ukraine
I just saw a news article of those fleeing the shelling in Ukraine. They drive and when they run out of gas, they walk. I read stories of people pushing their elderly loved ones in wheelchairs through mud in freezing temperatures. Agh!!! Pray for them.
You are Not Alone
Look at this map. It's the last year. You are not alone. There are caregivers all the world over, and some in some pretty rough places right now. You may be hidden. You may feel like you are in your own world. You may feel lonely. But you are definitely not...
Verbal Processing – It’s Different!!!
So many people don't understand dementia and I have to remember I only understand because I've lived in the world of dementia almost a decade. But with dementia, the ability to verbally process is GREATLY diminished. You need to talk in calm, short sentences and...
Pusher Syndrome
The LBD journey is one of "syndromes" that you've never heard of. Syndromes such as Capgras syndrome, "falling-tree" syndrome, "show-time" syndrome, and so much more. Pusher syndrome is one of those. Pusher syndrome is defined differently by different...
Shut-In Together
With both my loved one's legs out of commission at this point, it means getting in and out of the car isn't happening. "Use a slide board" the uninitiated will say. But that requires a level of cognition and participation on the part of the person sliding. With the...
This Was Hard to Read But It Clarified My Thinking
Yesterday I saw a news article in the front page of our local news about a homeless man. He was an older gentleman and his story piqued my interest. He had once had a job, a house, a car and pretty much all that he needed. But then he had a stroke. It put him in a...
I Don’t Look Forward to It
I think of her death-yet-to-come every day. Not that I want to, it's just that it's a reality. I don't look forward to it.
Six Years Ago Today
Six years ago today my mom broke her hip for the first time. She had been having signs and symptoms of LBD for the previous 2 years, but getting a major surgery changed everything. The LBD exploded in addition to hip surgery, infection, problems with the hardware,...
A Messy Day
She is home now. If you were to say that you thought you changed your loved ones briefs more time than us, I would be hard pressed to believe you. It was a messy day almost every hour. But with a fresh broken hip (the other one broke a few years previous) and an...
The Other Hip Broke
A few years ago she shattered her one hip and 6 surgeries later, we were able to save the leg. Truly a miracle. It doesn't have strength to it but it is still there. Then this past weekend she fell and broke her other hip. Surgery went well but as anyone with LBD,...
How to Facilitate Sleep for your Loved One
It is no small task to know how to facilitate sleep for your loved one. What works for you might not work for someone else. But you keep trying. Why? Because when your loved one sleeps, you sleep. It is as much about preserving your sanity as it is about caring...
How to Fit your Walker/Cane Fit to your Loved One
Walker fit (or fitting a cane) to a person is your loved one's musculoskeletal health. Do you see the picture above? It's nice. Has a handsome young man with a smiling, older gentleman. But if the nice young guy doesn't do his research, he's going to cause his dad...
5 Places for a Wheelchair Accessible Vacation
A wheelchair accessible vacation is doable but offers unique challenges. Just because a venue totes "wheelchair accessible" doesn't exactly mean that it is comfortably so for our loved one. Consider a movie theater where wheelchair accessible means being placed at...
Is a Wheelchair Vacation Possible?
After a 4300 mile road trip, I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed possible to have a wheelchair vacation. But to have a good vacation there are some helpful pieces of mobility equipment that can make it easier. 1) A Beach Wheelchair--I had never heard of...
5 Ways to Help with Sundowning
Help with Sundowing Sundowning is hard--both for the loved one and the caregiver. It's the jitters on steroids and sometimes it's strong and sometimes it's not. But as the sun goes over the horizon it is like our loved one turns into a nervous mess. It typically...
THE Characteristic you MUST nurture as a Caregiver
There's one thing you must fight for. There is one thing you need almost more than anything else (second only to forgiveness). There's one thing YOU need and your loved one needs. And that is... hope. The world of caregiving is filled typically with despair. Despair...
DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent
Quick and Easy Recipe for DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent Wow! Do you go through a lot of laundry detergent too? It seems like when you are caring for someone, the laundering needs are very high. As well as the cost of laundry detergent. Looking to reduce our costs...
Tall-Ette Extra Wide Toilet Seat Review
A nasty hip fracture and quad weakness made it difficult for my loved one to use the bathroom. In comes the infamous seat riser. I have seen these around, am familiar with them and known about them but never had to experience them. Family members are...
Translation
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu