Daisy shuffled into the dining room for lunch, as she had so many times before. She knew her way , and she knew they would feed her when she sat down in her chair by the window. Daisy could have sat anywhere, but her tottering steps always took her to her favourite chair. Like magic, […]

It had been a rough week. The dog was sick, and although he seemed to be improving, he was lethargic and subdued, and that was scaring me. My husband was in Argentina, and not due home for another week. I was making decisions about the dog’s care and the mounting costs through texts with him.

The plaque fell off the door. In the midst of crisis, sometimes the most insignificant occurrence will jump to your consciousness and flash the words, “Warning, warning.” The day I came home and found the plaque on the ground was one of those times. My heart froze and a tiny voice in the back of

Today I went for an ultrasound and x-rays of my left knee, which has been giving me grief since last August. I have a “knee/ligament/leg/who knows what” issue, and the doctor decided to find out why my hobble hasn’t gone away. He threw in pictures of my right knee and my back for good measure.

Meet Janice. She has a family; two teenagers and a twelve-year old, a husband who travels, so is not home for the day-to-day running of the house, and a mother who helps out with the kids. Mom is a young eighty who walks every day, reads the paper, is conversant in politics and plays a

I am amazed at the number of conversations I have in a day, where I have no idea what we are talking about. Huh? When you are talking with someone with dementia, the conversation can take all kinds of twists and turns. It may go down dark alleys where you don’t recognize anything. You may

I’ve been binge-watching old “The West Wing” shows lately, a series which ran from 1999-2006. I don’t have a TV, so it’s all new to me. This political drama gives us a fictional peek into the white house, the president and his top aides. I find it fascinating. The episode that I can’t stop thinking

When you begin your journey as a care partner, there is so much to learn. This is especially true if your loved one is suffering from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. You are full of questions. “What will happen? How fast?”“What can I expect?”“How do I handle________?”“What does it mean when____?” Because it is

Care comes in all different forms. Professional care partners, such as personal support workers, give one level of care, and they are needed for the hands-on care for people who can’t perform the activities of daily living on their own. Not everyone who needs care is unable to brush their own teeth or dress themselves. Today,

In it’s most extreme form, fear: cripples consumes limits empties life of it’s quality and joy takes diminishes Fear makes your world small and confusing. For the care partner, especially one new to the job. or facing a change, fear  can lead to wrong information and wrong choices. When you are afraid, you tend to