Words Matter. One of the biggest and best caregiving lessons I’ve learned over the last five years is words matter. Starting a discussion with “You must”, “You should” get’s me nowhere with my mother. The concept is so central to how mom and I interact, that I devote an entire chapter on having hard conversations in my book "Your Caregiver Relationship Contract.” But the … [Read more...]
Medical Marijuana: Quality of Life at the End of Life.
Finally, Access in New Jersey Has Eased. For individuals on hospice, medical marijuana may be the only drug that brings relief from pain while giving quality of life at the end-of-life. This was the experience of Jake Honig, a little boy who died at the age of seven after living with brain cancer for five years. During those years, Jake went through two surgeries, 61 rounds … [Read more...]
So Much of Caregiving Has Great Joy and Sorrow. How Do We Live In the Dissonance?
I am struggling right now to reconcile deep grief with great joy. In this struggle, I don’t know how to feel. Often, I just feel numb. In the last six weeks, I’ve been to four wakes and two funerals. It started with the death of my uncle, Dad’s brother, who lived in Florida. He was ill so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Nevertheless, no one in the family was able to make it … [Read more...]
What to Know about Aging in Place: Home Health Care vs. Home Care
Let me introduce you to the work of Dr. Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH Dr. Kernisan is the founder of "Better Health While Aging", where you will find practical information for family caregivers. She writes in-depth medical articles like 8 Things to Have the Doctor Check After an Aging Person Falls and Hospital Delirium: What to Know & Do. In addition, Dr. Kernisan's podcast is … [Read more...]
When Decisions to Help Our Aging Parents Are Made in Good Faith. And They Backfire.
How to protect ourselves from the cost of healthcare as we age really does require legal advice. People that I know made a decision to live in community as a multi-family household so they could help their parents. They made this decision in good faith with the best of intentions. Between the time they made the decision, started legal paperwork on the house they will modify … [Read more...]