Caregiving – the rewards are great but so are the stresses. So, what will your older loved one do if you get sick or experience an added family emergency? You’d better have a back-up plan and people who do have your back. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Caregiving has all the features […]

Two weeks ago, my daddy was on death’s door. Momma said “You have to face it, Karen. Your daddy isn’t going to be here much longer.” Needless to say, I cried for days. I begged him to see the doctor. I worried about my momma who was worn out and stressed. I called all the […]

“It’s a well-documented human rights violation—and yet it persists in the 16,000 or so nursing homes throughout the U.S.,” says Hannah Flamm, author of a report, “How Nursing Homes in the United States Overmedicate People With Dementia.” The report was undertaken for Human Rights Watch, an international research and advocacy organization that expanded its focus to […]

Updated July 2025 Website data breaches, defined as “cybersecurity mishaps” in which sensitive information is accessed and retrieved without the consent or authority of the owner, have been much in the news of late. Records maintained at the common consumer sites of Target, Uber, Netflix, and Yahoo were all invaded. Perhaps the most potentially embarrassing […]

Many elders experience readmits to the hospital. They want to be home or their doctor thinks they’re well enough. Urinary tract infections, also known as UTI’s are a huge reason elders have to go to the hospital in the first place and be readmitted after the infection rages on. Dehydration is another huge factor in […]

One of the most common reasons for an elderly person’s hospital visit is the mean old Urinary Tract Infection, also known as an UTI. In elders there are very few symptoms except for generally feeling awful. They are also hard to get rid of for older people. My mother had one for a month and […]

My friend Jack said it all happened in five minutes. He went upstairs to look for something in a file cabinet, and when he came back down, his wife was gone. Carol, 77, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years earlier, but the two of them seemed to be coping fairly well together at home. […]

Not all people afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease seem to need to wander, but according to the Alzheimer’s Association six out of ten of them will do so at some point. And most of those wanderers will do it repeatedly before family members or caregivers recognize the behavior as the problem it poses. Those who wander […]

Spending time in a garden with an older loved one can be so rewarding! You’ll both come away with new memories and perhaps eventually some good things to eat! There’s still a real chill in the air even though it’s February and I live in the Sacramento Valley. It’s been months since I’ve been able […]

This is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve got to let go of my daddy. He’s lived through the Great Depression. He’s survived tuberculosis, appendicitis, bladder cancer, raising me and also lived to see 10 great grandchildren. But it looks like he’s done. Every day is a rollercoaster of emotions. My momma […]