Caregiving

*This article was originally published on 9/3/2017 and was updated on 1/29/2022 When I became a caregiver to my dad, I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to keep all of his medical information in my head. After years of packing my brain with medical facts, I began to feel I

On 2/2/18, I had the pleasure of talking with Tammy Flynn, host of The On-Air Advocate Podcast. We discussed my journey while caring for my dad, who suffered from vascular dementia in addition to diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart disease, and depression. Caring for an ill loved one is a privilege, but it

There’s no place like home, but did you know that your senior parent’s home may be one of the most unsafe places? The National Safety Council (NSC) statistics indicate that about 1.4 million people 65 years of age and older are treated in emergency rooms each year for injuries associated with consumer products. The NSC

Do you remember having “the talk”? I’m referring to the moment when your mom or dad (or both) sat you down and talked to you about the birds and the bees. You know, the sex talk. My parents never gave me “the talk”. Maybe they thought my fifth-grade Sex Education class would be sufficient. Or

I had a difficult time helping to care for my father, primarily because it represented one more ball thrown in the air for me to juggle during a time when I was struggling to achieve balance in my own life. Thankfully, I had the help of my two older sisters. However, in the early, inexperienced

We all want our parents to live as long as possible, but seeing them deteriorate can be heartbreaking. I didn’t have the benefit of watching my mother age, as she passed away at the age of 49 from complications of leukemia. I would have loved to have more time with her as she grew older.

My father had two nursing home stays. I remember sitting with my sisters as we met with the first facility’s director. She discussed what would happen if our dad required an extended stay and how he would be personally responsible for the costs. As she reviewed the daily cost of his stay, I was completely

My mother was diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. She died from complications in June of 1995. I was a new wife, a new mother, and a second-year medical student. Needless to say, the one commodity I did not have in surplus was time. While I could spend quality time with her on occasion, I wasn’t