Senior Care Memoirs

Is your doctor telling you or your seniors to move more? Does the simple thought of exercise exhaust you? Do you think you're too busy for exercise? Or are you or your senior 'too tired' to exercise?  I'm a 'young' senior, whose metabolism isn't working as well as it used to. So, like you, I need to make some lifestyle changes to help my body burn calories and feel healthier. But I select healthy changes that will follow me into and through my older senior days. Because motion/exercise actually makes us feel less tired, I have found some seniors on YouTube that make exercising fun. Yes, I said fun. If your doctor is persistent about you getting more exercise, ask her if the videos at the following YouTube links are okay for you to use. First, I have found that  K.O.M. (Keep On Moving) has fun senior exercise videos as does Silver Sneakers , the popular program that is popular throughout senior centers across the United States. Most of these videos are reas

Change in behaviors is usually observed as many people grow older . Staying active is one thing many doctors prescribe to their patients to help with motor and cognitive skills. Now that I'm a senior myself, I'm as active as I ever was. I don't let the aches and pains keep me in bed. Instead, they're the reason I get up every morning. Lying in bed and relying on medication to help with arthritis or other health issue isn't the answer. I totally understand how pain can make you want to stay in bed. But I have seen firsthand what this does to a person.  First of all, staying in bed means you aren't in motion. So, mobility issues arise quickly from this. And when one is immobile, aches and pains will dominate that person's body. No amount of medication will help. Moving is the best way to ward off aches and pains from fibromyalgia, arthritis, and other discomforts. So, when those main muscles stop functioning properly because of the lack of mobility, organ prob

Although, you have may have placed your senior in assisted living, in a nursing home, or with in-home care, you're still going to be busy with a lot of stuff in your senior's life. So, this is a very important tip for both you and your senior. Make sure you have time for yourself to rest, unwind, enjoy the things you enjoy doing, and doing the things you need to do in your life. Learn about self love. Believe it or not, self love is not selfish as many of us are taught to believe. Image courtesy of Kelly Sikkema via UnSplash If you don't make this time for yourself, you will become burned out, most likely be sick much of the time, and extremely fatigued. None of this is good for you or your senior. So, even if the senior still puts a lot of demands on you to help even when they're paying for the help you're unable to do, saying, "No," or, "I can do that next week," or, "You're paying the other caregivers to do that," is perfectly f

Government Aid? Medicare (U.S. government funded) and Medicaid  (state government funded) do provide a lot of care to those who need them. However, there are obstacles along the way if your senior has assets (even miniscule assets), a mental illness, or an illness that prevents them from improving quickly enough to provide care for. For instance, my senior was in dire need of skilled nursing along with physical and occupational therapy so this person could regain strength in their legs and learn how to sit properly, get up properly, and pull themselves out of the floor if they should fall before they learned how to do everything else. This was a hard decision for this person to make but decided the help would be helpful sooner than later since the falls had only started happening recently at that time. After spending over a month calling my senior's doctor's office to get them to recommend my senior to a facility, getting copies of all the senior's assets, talking to peop

Time to find a senior care facility? If the time is drawing near for you or the senior in your life to start thinking about living in a nursing home, assisted living, or memory care center, start calling these facilities in your area or the area where you or that senior will want to live.  The location will be based upon who will be the primary caregiver/visitor once the senior is living in their new home. Just as important as location, the staff at the facility you choose should be caring and there should be plenty of activities for your loved one to get involved in. And how much work is going to be involved in moving you or your loved one? You will want to prepare for this so you can get them moved in as quickly and smoothly as possible, else you will be running your legs off to bring something to them every day. The idea of this move is to help them have a better quality of life and not reduce your quality of life at the same time. Image courtesy of Claudia Love via Unsplash A few

Lately, I've experienced some elderly issues with the seniors in my life, so I want to share some tips that may help you as well. When dealing with the elderly, it's very important to help them maintain their dignity and feel respected. We're all growing older day by day, so treat the elderly population as you expect to be treated when you reach their age. They're now as delicate and fragile as the petals of a rose and need more TLC than ever before.  Image courtesy of Valerie Blanchett via Unsplash First of all, I have a difficult time passing an elderly person who is walking in a public setting such as a parking lot or grocery store. I feel that is disrespectable unless they are standing still or sitting. But I will not pass an older person who is walking. I will, instead, walk up a different aisle if I'm in a bigger hurry than they're able walk. Keep an eye out for an elderly person in these public locations also. Be cognitive of anything they appear to need