Managing a hospital visit
For most members of the public, a trip to the hospital is like being thrust into a foreign country without the guidebook! We don’t know the language, are dependent on the healthcare professionals and just hope for the best.
Checking on the neighbours
I have several elderly neighbours that I check up on each day. I’m going away for two months this summer and I’m worried about leaving them. Any suggestions?
An excerpt from Alzheimer’s from the Inside Out
I race up and down the corridors of my mind, frantically seeking to make sense of what’s going on around me. Sometimes this process makes me even more lost, and I become lost about why I am lost!
Allergies: Are you prepared?
More and more people are showing signs of being
Whole and Complete
In the eyes of many others, sometimes even the eyes of care-partners, I am seen as less than a complete someone.
The Sandpiper
She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the…
Five big lessons I’ve learned
?I spent some quiet time with my mother at her nursing home late yesterday. It was shortly after dinner. Some of her fellow residents were watching television. Others were already being readied for bed.
CHRISTINE’S STORY: Spa-ing on Mother’s Day
Mom lives in a long-term-care facility and relishes the chance to “escape” every so often. This year, my sister and I decided to do something special as a Mother’s Day treat.
Memory and cognitive decline: Family challenges
From observations of both my clients and my father, who was diagnosed with Pick’s disease in the early ’90s, I know that dementia and cognitive decline can bring out both the best and the worst in families.
HANK’S STORY: The gift of sound
For the past year or so, my husband and I have noticed that my dad’s hearing has been going downhill. It first started when we were travelling with him and mom. He kept asking us to repeat what we were saying.