caregiver

*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

My dad had vascular dementia. It took a LOT of doctor’s appointments to arrive at this conclusion. It was the result of damage to his brain caused by poor blood flow. Unlike a stroke, which is typically sudden and caused by either a blockage or a large bleed within blood vessels of the brain, the

My dad was hospitalized several times while my sisters and I helped to care for him. They were usually brief hospital stays of 2-3 days. No matter how long he stayed or where he was hospitalized, there was always one common element—miscommunication. Inevitably, there would be a mix-up regarding his medications or misinformation about his

When my sisters and I began caring for our dad several years ago, our lives were turned upside down. We took turns checking on him after work, fighting rush hour traffic to get to his home to spend a little quality time with him. We also had to make sure he was eating and taking

After one of my dad’s numerous hospitalizations, he was too weak to return home and was transferred to a nursing home for rehabilitation. The first few weeks went well. My sisters and I checked on him regularly and we were pleased with the care he was receiving. Then, during a routine visit, everything changed. 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

My father was college-educated and had no obvious difficulty understanding medical advice in his earlier years. However, when he began to develop dementia there was a very noticeable change in his intellectual capacity. When I accompanied him to doctor visits, I noticed that not only did he struggle with understanding his instructions, he was also

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