Recently I had a patient where the husband had major surgery and there were complications which sent him to the hospital several times in the following months. His wife was trying to maintain the home and visit him on a regular basis. As a result of this surgery, he had swallowing problems and he needed a pureed diet and thickened liquids. Although she had prepared meals for many years, the idea of preparing a modified diet for her husband was a real challenge. As we worked on menu ideas, I noticed that the wife was also struggled with the other things she had taken over including paying bills. She was also getting a bit overwhelmed trying to coordinate the various home health care visits.

She had some family in the area and I decided to get them more involved to assist her. It was recommended that they put the pills in a weekly pill container to reduce any possible confusion. Trying to pull together three healthy meals a day and do the shopping was too time-consuming. They had been receiving hot meals delivered to their home and she did not realize she could get a pureed meal for her husband so making that change eliminated the extra work for his main meal of the day. After awhile they noticed problems keeping track of appointments since both of them were taking phone calls but either not remembering to tell the other person. Since the calendar where they kept their appointments was on the wall in their kitchen and they usually answered the phone in the living room, they got a more portable calendar with larger spaces for information, kept it where they spent most of their time and consulted it before scheduling any appointments. This prevented double scheduling as well as missed appointments.

Bill paying was just another thing to get on the “to do” list and became more challenging when the medical bills started coming in. Their son agreed to come over once a week and assist with going through the bills, paying them and organizing their hospital bills, making any necessary calls to the insurance company. He also ran a few errands for them so his mom could take a break.

More often than not, when a person returns from the hospital, it may take a week or so for some of the needs to become obvious. Some of the activities that were handled well before may be just too much with the additional caregiving responsibilities along with more frequent interruptions and little time out to just relax. Offering to lend a helping hand may be just what is needed to provide a little relief for the primary caregiver. Article with additional information: Does Stress And Overload Impact a Caregiver’s Memory?

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. James M. Barrie

Posted in Caregiving, Caring At Home, Health, Stress, Support | No Comments »
Tags: memory, Stress, Support