Filed under Caregiving …

Dementia Music Therapy: Broadway Songs

Mother Weston’s New York trips were legendary. Each trip included a balance of shopping, museum visits, plays, and Broadway musicals. From the early 1950’s until the mid 1980’s she and father made at least one and sometimes two trips to NYC each year usually for more than a week. Her love of Broadway musicals continued … Continue reading →

Oxygen II

Mother was right. We did not know how to correctly put the oxygen tube nose piece on her head. She was agitated for a reason last night and was probably uncomfortable. Today when we went over to visit, Dolma, her caretaker showed us how to operate the oxygen. Dolma helped Mother put it on and … Continue reading →

Oxygen!

Mother is winded whenever she walks a short distance.  She breathes heavily and her heart races. So hospice has delivered two oxygen containers, one that stays in place and another portable device that can move around with her. The permanent one stays in one place, but has a huge tube that reaches to all of the … Continue reading →

Getting Started With Hospice

Our family member with dementia is now in a hospice program. She continues to live in her apartment and to be helped by the caregivers that she is used to having as a part of her daily life. Mother was clear that she did not want to go back to the hospital for any reason … Continue reading →

Dementia: Loss of Mobility

We see it coming — mother’s loss of mobility. At first she took smaller and smaller steps. Gradually those steps turned into larger shuffling steps. We bought her a cane, but she did not have the focus to understand how to use it. Little by little the big shuffles turned into tiny ones. She has … Continue reading →

Thanksgiving and Dementia — Redux

Our family member with dementia arrived at our Thanksgiving celebration sometime around 2:00 in the afternoon.  Her afternoon caretaker  took Thanksgiving afternoon off, and we planned to be responsible for her care until bedtime.  Things went quite well, however, we now realize that if we are entertaining family and hosting festivities at our house, we … Continue reading →

Senior Adults and Falling

From the November 11, 2009  New York Times in an article by Steve Lohr … “FALLS are so harmful to the elderly and so costly to society that if falling were a disease it  be deemed an epidemic.” Almost every week or so an over 70-year-old acquaintance or friend falls. According to the Centers for … Continue reading →

Holidays

With three senior parents I am thinking a lot about holidays — past and future — how wonderful they can be and how to celebrate without a lot of brouhaha.  I am concentrating on making each holiday, in this case Thanksgiving, special but also as simple as possible.  This year we’ve navigated lots of health … Continue reading →

Stages of Dementia, Part II

Keep in mind that these stages are general guidelines that help people understand dementia’s progression, and that some professionals do  not use them as disease guideposts. I am applying them to the dementia that is occurring in my family. Another family may not have anywhere near the same experience. By the time stage five of … Continue reading →

Stages of Dementia – Part I

When you read about dementia you learn that the disease presents itself in stages. The literature seems to describe six stages, seven if you think of stage one as the “normal” range in which most of us function. I am reconstructing these stages, attempting to understand the progression of the disease in our family. In … Continue reading →

Dementia is a Terminal Illness

As I understand it, dementia describes a set of symptoms — I mentioned some of these in my last post.  Different types of dementia seem to have a slightly different configuration of symptoms and some can be diagnosed while others, like Alzheimer’s can be tentatively diagnosed, but only truly documented after a person dies (by … Continue reading →

How Dementia Creeps into a Life

You don’t recognize dementia for a long time. In fact, why would anyone want to recognize this disease in a much loved parent? In retrospect, the dementia first came into our family several years ago. A stroke made the symptoms worse. We noticed clothes not being hung up, keys being lost, a concern about valuables … Continue reading →

Pay Attention Please, Docs

Until they are pretty old and fairly tuned out, seniors like explanations. Most do not like medical tests even though Medicare pays for lots of them. My parents like their doctors and willingly get the tests if they understand why and what difference a test will make in their lives, but they want to know … Continue reading →

Exercise and Aging

I constantly worry about exercise, and I have observed first hand how much and how fast change occurs when an individual stops exercising. One of our family members moved to our area to be closer to us.  At her old home, even at age 90, she probably walked more than a mile a day. She … Continue reading →

How We Speak to Seniors

I’d love to know how many seniors are truly hard of hearing. I’ll bet the percentage is higher than the general population, but not that high. I ask this question because I’ve discovered that when people speak to seniors — in clinics, at hospitals, in stores, at the library, but especially in medical settings — … Continue reading →

Going to the Emergency Room/Hospital With an Elder Parent

With all of our national health problems and the extreme  burdens on hospital emergency departments, when very old senior citizens visit they require special care.  Their bodies, attention spans, and fearfulness cause extreme disorientation after a short time in an emergency facility. Disorientation occurs quickly.  I’ve now observed this several times now with several parents. … Continue reading →