How to Disinfect Your Home from Coronavirus

Has someone in your family been diagnosed with coronavirus? There are things you can do to disinfect your home if someone has coronavirus. A healthy person, who does not have the virus, should do the disinfecting. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend the following: Wear disposable gloves to clean and disinfect. Clean surfaces using soap and water. Practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces. Those surfaces include: tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, sinks, etc. To disinfect your home, the CDC recommends using diluted household bleach solutions (if appropriate to the surface … Continue reading →

Family Members and Control Issues During Illness

Ideally, when you have a serious illness, family should rally around you and offer unconditional support. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes illness can bring out the worst in people, and I’m not even talking about the person who is actually sick. Tensions can run high when you are facing a serious or possibly life threatening illness. All of a sudden, a sense of control has been removed, both from the person affected by the illness and the family and friends around the person. This affects people in different ways. In my family, it seems that we all want to … Continue reading →

Caring for a Family Member After Surgery

If have a family member or loved one who will be having surgery soon, my heart goes out to you. It can be a stressful time. One of the things that can help is to be prepared at home for the care that your family member will need when he or she is home from the hospital. Here are some practical steps that you can take right now to make it much easier later. Prepared Meals Having prepared meals on hand when caring for a family member after surgery is essential. Please don’t be afraid to relay on other people. … Continue reading →

A Change in CPR

For the past 50 years, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) has primarily meant mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pushing on the chest to keep blood pumping. But, it has always been something that scared me a bit and apparently I am not the only one. I totally understand the importance of it, but statistics show that only 1 out of every 3 people that need CPR actually get it before the ambulance arrives. Why? Because there is a small number of people trained in CPR and even those people are reluctant to use it. Now CPR is getting an update that makes it easier … Continue reading →

Caretakers and the Flu

Who is the caretaker in your family when somebody gets sick? When I was growing up, taking care of sick kids was my mom’s job (although she did share the duties with both of my grandmothers on occasion). With the double flu whammy this winter, you may find your family needing a caretaker. It’s all too easy for the flu (or another illness) to hop from one member of a household to another! Here are some tips to help keep the flu in check if somebody in your family gets sick. First and foremost, try to keep the sick person … Continue reading →

Caretaker Stories: Feeling Guilty

I’ve been composing this post in my head since I read about the Utah State University study on the relationship between caretakers and Alzheimer’s patients. I was one of the primary caretakers for my grandmother — who among other health issues has Alzheimer’s disease — for the better part of three years. It’s hard, frustrating, stressful, exhausting work, and eventually I had to stop. I packed up and moved across the country to have a fresh start in a new place, surrounded by friends. And left my mother doing the majority of my grandmother’s care. When I was still there, … Continue reading →

Relationship between Patient and Caregiver Makes a Difference

A study from Utah State University took a look at the relationship between Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers — and how that relationship can impact the patient’s mental and physical decline. Since 1994, researchers from Utah State University have been following more than five thousand people in order to look at risk factors for dementia. All participants were age 65 or older at the start of the study. Out of the initial five thousand, close to two hundred developed dementia and were being cared for by a spouse or (adult) child. Researchers interviewed the caregivers about their relationship with the patient … Continue reading →

A Place of Refuge: Ronald McDonald House Charities

In service for approximately 35 years now, the Ronald McDonald House Charities offers a place to stay while your child is undergoing medical treatment away from your home. The Ronald McDonald House Charities receives its support from organizations, businesses and individuals who care about others and are sympathetic to their hardships. If the family is able to afford a donation they are asked to donate anywhere from $5 and $25 per night of their stay. This is based on their ability to contribute such a donation, but can be waived if the family is unable to do so. Based on … Continue reading →

Five Tricks for Navigating My Mom’s Dementia-Filled Days

When my mom had her mini-stroke a few weeks back, it negatively impacted her dementia in a major way. She went from exhibiting mostly mild symptoms with a few moderate ones thrown in, to exhibiting mostly moderate symptoms with a few severe ones thrown in. If I was gulping about being a caregiver before, I’m triple gulping about it now. I had hoped some of this was related to the stroke and that in time she’d come back to me. But she’s not shown any improvement. If anything, she gets a little worse each day. This has presented major challenges … Continue reading →

Caretaker Stories: Crying on Christmas

For people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, routines are very useful. Breaking the routine can cause stress and confusion for the patient and the caretakers. The holidays have been especially tough for my grandmother and the rest of the family. Christmas is a big change from the normal routine, from decorations around the house to braving the stores and wrapping the presents. For someone who doesn’t remember what time of year it is, thinking it’s summer and seeing a decorated tree can be a shock. Looking back, I think Christmas 2006 was really the point when I became … Continue reading →