No Bed Sores or Discomfort for Us! ~ A Product Review

Caring for the Elderly brings you to all kinds of new ideas to make life comfortable and cozy, especially when most of the time is spent in bed!

If you have been following my blog posts you know all about how we (my other half and I ) are caring for my mother!  She is in her mid-90's and not in the best of health.  After a fall and a hospital stay, she is pretty much bed-ridden at this point in her life.

That is  not particularly  great for anyone but when you are elderly, it can be even more problematic.  Bed sores from constant pressure on certain body parts are a reality that must be dealt with.  

A while ago Margaret Schindel did a whole series on her new bed and the amazing mattress, you can read some of her review here..  She highly recommends it and what stuck with me was the memory foam layer in the mattress construction. 

We have a hospital bed for our Omi (that's her nickname), that helps us to position her so that she can watch TV, read, or just relax.  It also helps us to take care of her other needs as it raises and lowers so that our backs aren't quite so stressed.  But while those are great features, the mattress left a lot to be desired.

Within a month she was feeling pain in certain areas of her back, so we knew we had to do something to mitigate that pain.  Enter the Memory Foam Mattress Topper!

We decided to go with a 3 inch Gel Memory Foam Topper with a removeable cover.  With elderly people you have to be able to wash the cover often, but we also have mattress protectors for double insurance against leaks and other problems.

We love that this Mattress Topper is affordable and has some really great features as well.  It is made of high density foam that gives great back and general body support while still being breathable. 

Having the body supported fully lets the spine relax in a neutral position and the muscles also relax.  Sleep is enhanced and there is no morning soreness.

The Bamboo Fiber Cover is skin friendly and breathable.  It has adjustable elastic straps and an anti-slip surface so that once placed on the mattress, it will not move easily.

We like that it comes with a 10 year warranty.  The only downside was that when we first got it, we needed to let the topper air out!  It did have that new foam smell to it, but with it being placed out on the balcony for a day, that completely disappeared and we have not smelled it since.

All in all, this topper has been a life saver and Omi is no longer complaining about  soreness anywhere.  So we know that it is doing what it's supposed to do.

In our later years, we all want to be as comfortable as possible and this is a great, affordable and easy fix.  Bed Sores are not something that anyone would want to have and if they are left untreated, they can become infected.  So let's stop them from happening!  We have enough problems without adding ones that don't have to be there.

I hope this helps anyone else in our position, or anyone who has difficulty sleeping.  Try a Memory Foam Topper for your bed and see what kind of a difference it can make for you!

 

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Problems with Aging Parents and How to Cope ~ A Product Review

Having a parent move in with you sounds like the ideal way for an elder person to spend their remaining years.  

I'm here to tell you that it is indeed one way to manage the care and physical needs of someone who can no longer do these things for themselves.  Entering into a long term care facility was not an option in our case, and I'm kind of glad that it isn't.  But I'll be the first one to tell you that it is not the easiest thing to do.

Aging is a process we will all go through if we are healthy.  As the years go by though, those aging processes become much more intense and possibly detrimental to a good relationship that you may have had years earlier.

I will tell you our story as it is unfolding.  My mother will soon be 92 years old.  When she first moved in with us, she was still fairly mobile and able to do many things for herself.  She just needed us to make sure she was taking her meds and eating well balanced meals. Getting her to doctor's appointments and such.  We were happy to be able to help her do all those things.

At almost 92 though, things seem to change a lot quicker in a very short period of time.  

 shoelessRVA_photography/pixabay

Mobility has become a major issue.  She just isn't able to get up as quickly as she did a few months ago.

Incontinence has become a major issue!  She still is able to use the facilities, but sometime she's not able to get to the facilities as quickly as she should.  So what happens next is the problem.

Just the other night she was sitting in her favorite chair watching Jeopardy!  So far so good, but then she thought she should get ready to go to sleep.  When she got up, I think she realized that she had had an accident.  There was a towel on the chair.  

Not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, I got the towel and realized indeed it was very wet and the chair was as well.

Google was a big help in finding a solution to the odor accompanying the accident on the chair.  I found this article to be very helpful and you could use it as well for accidents with pets!  Removing Unpleasant Odors from Couches and Chairs

So after treating the chair with this solution we decided to go one step further in case there are any more accidents just waiting to happen.

A waterproof chair pad was ordered from good and trusty Amazon.  The chair pad has a cloth surface but is lined with a waterproof plastic underneath.  It has an anti-slip and waterproof backing to keep the pad in place on the chair.  If my mother has another accident, it will just be a matter of removing the chair pad and replacing it with a clean one.  It's big enough and yet small enough that you can had launder it in the kitchen or bathroom sink.  Hang it out to dry and it'll be ready for another use in no time at all. Or most of them can be laundered in the washing machines as well.  It is not bulky or odd looking on the chair so I'm sure this will be a good solution to this new problem that we are encountering.  These come in a TWO Pack and in three different colors.

Waterproof Incontinence Chair Pads 2 Pack Non Slip Absorbent Pads, 22" x 21" Wheelchair Reusable Seat Pads Cover, Washable Nursery Pee Pad Seat Protector - Navy

 Choose the color that you like the best or that matches your furniture the best!

I really like that the size is a good fit and that it doesn't move around because of those little grippers on the backside.  This was an easy fix.

We also have incontinenece pads for her to use on a daily basis and there are several different brands and absorbency levels available.  We are using the maximum absorbency for her now and she really likes that they keep her dry and fresh even when little leaks might occur.

Aging is not an easy process and our bodies need all the help they can sometimes get.  Thank goodness there are products available just for this purpose.

Our hope is that we can continue to keep my mother here with us and with the help of these products it should be fairly easy.  

Now we have to work on the memory issues as they too are becoming more frequent.  But more on that at a later date.  

For now this is me signing off and wishing every elder parent finds something here to help them live their best lives everyday!

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding ~ A Book Review

The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding is a book that will give you shivers up your spine and really make you stop and think!  While it is considered a "novel", it has threads of real life tied up in there too!

Anyone looking after ailing parents or relatives will be able to put themselves into this story!  

Joy Fielding manages to make you stop in your tracks and really think about the possibilities that happen when you put your trust into someone to look after your loved ones.  

                                                 Image by Tania Van den Berghen from Pixabay

Those of us who were born in the 1940's, 50's and beyond and are still blessed enough to have our parents here with us, are looking at the needs of the elderly through eyes that are living the reality of having aging parents and loved ones.  It is not easy! 

Right now I am the one responsible for both my mother and my uncle who are 91 and 92 respectively. I am lucky though because both of them are in fairly good health and still manage to live on their own.  I do a lot of running back and forth for them, but that is a minor job (so to speak). I can't imagine how much more difficult it would be should they be so ill as to not be able to live on their own.  I guess that is one reason that this book really hit a homerun with me!

Back to the "Book",  The Housekeeper is a rare find for Jodi!  She is busy with her real estate business which just happens to be booming.  Her father, Vic, whose personality is very controlling and his wife Audrey are her parents.  Audrey is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and her health is quickly  deteriorating.     

Jodi's father decides to stop working (he was the founder of the real estate office) to look after his wife.  While this seems to be a great way to cope with their changing circumstances, it really isn't working out very well.  Audrey needs more help than her husband can provide.  They are well off financially, so it seems that outside help would be a good answer to the growing needs of Jodi's parents.  Her father (in whose eyes Jodi never seems to shine) is NOT happy with this change in his life.  He doesn't want another person in the house, yet, he agrees to give a housekeeper a chance.

Jodi sees the need to look for outside help, even though her father is still adamant that he can cope.  She herself,  is not able to do what needs to be done on a daily basis, so she starts her search for "The Housekeeper".  Her hope is that with someone to do the cooking and cleaning for her parents, her father and mother will be  free to spend their time together and still live a comfortable life in their own home.  Hopefully her dad will come to realize this is a good choice to make.

That's when Elyse shows up for the job!  She herself is a "younger senior", quite lively and willing to do the work that Vic cannot!  

This is where things start to go wrong and yet, Elyse is the answer to Jodi's prayers, or so it seems.  Her children love the "housekeeper" and her dad seems to have a little more bounce in his steps since she arrived. 

What could possibly go wrong?

I'm going to leave the story here only because I know you will want to know what happens next.  

The Housekeeper is a story that had me thinking for days after I finished closing the book.  I know you will find it interesting and I would even call it riveting.  I could not put this book down.

Maybe it's because this is where my life is at right now, or maybe it's because I never thought of the possibilities that could happen, but this book really opened my eyes.

While it's a novel and none of the story is true or real, this story could be a reality and that is the scary part.  This is a thriller, murder/mystery and is due for publication on the 16th of August this year.  It is a timely topic that I'm sure will have many people talking!

Put "The Housekeeper" by Joy Fielding on your Must Read List, I know you won't be disappointed.

Happy Reading!

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Are You in Charge of Someone Else's Health Care?

How to Effectively Be an Advocate for Your Loved Ones

Today many people find themselves in "charge" of a loved one's personal and medical needs. This could be a parent or another relative, or just a really good friend who has no one else to advocate for them. I am in that position on two different fronts. I have my mother and my uncle who are both in their late 80's and finding daily tasks to be more difficult everyday.

While they are in good health generally, there is much that needs to be tracked to keep them that way.

When an emergency hits, then you are in real "trouble", so to speak. And this is why I am here to let you know about a resource that will help you in those stressful times.

What do you do in an emergency?

Just recently I had to call an ambulance for my mother. She could not walk, she was in a lot of pain and she had just been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that came up out of nowhere. To say I was a little stressed was the understatement of the year. The EMT's (emergency medical team) were wonderful. When they arrived though, they had questions that I should have been able to answer at my fingertips. Because of the stress of the moment, there were things that I forgot about, or did not have the answers too! Who knows if that would have made a difference. All I know is that I was very upset with myself for NOT having all the answers to their important questions. Because of this incident, I have been looking into ways to keep track of her symptoms, medications, dates of surgeries, prognosis (es) and such.

She has seen many different doctors for different episodes in her life, and they are all important!

When the answer to a situation is calling an ambulance, then it is much better for you and for your loved ones, if you have all the answers to all the questions right there in front of you.

Do NOT Rely on Your Memory!

I have called an ambulance for my mother on three different occasions and each one was a "medical emergency". Now you would think that having to call an ambulance would solidify that date in your mind. Well I'm here to tell you that it does not. I had to really rack my brains in order to come up with the year(s) that each of these episodes happened. This is not a good scenario when it comes to emergency medicine. They need to know everything about this person's health in the last 20 years. So unless you have a photographic memory, you should have a written record of each of these episodes readily available. To that end, I have found what I think will work really well for my mother and my uncle. It is a Medical Records Journal!  I cannot stress enough, how important this is.

Keep your Journal Up to Date!  It doesn't help if you don't keep the records for all doctor's appointments.  

I like this Medical Records Journal because it has pages that are removable(for things you don't need, like baby immunizations) or places to add pages(like when they had a flu shot or other procedures).   It  has a place for all the different times that she has been to the doctor for regular check ups and extra space for those times when something else has happened to change the direction of her health care. There are pages for specialists that she has seen, medications that they have prescribed and on-going return visits. I wish I had had one of these just a few weeks  ago.  There is even pages for emergency responses so that you can keep track of who and when they were transported to a hospital.  These are all very important things that you as a care-giver should know and have access to.  No more guessing if the heart attack happened in November of 2010 or January 2011. 


                                              

There are pages in this Medical Journal to keep track of all the information regarding the different physicians that have treated her.  There is space for their names, phone numbers, addresses and more.  You may not think that is important, but I'm here to tell you it is!  


There are pages with envelopes attached where lab results, blood work results and more can be inserted.  Pages of information regarding the patient's "medical issues" and ongoing care can be inserted into the proper spaces too.  Things like blood sugar levels, heart rhythms, kidney dialysis
days, and more.  Everything is in a really nice binder with a clasp, so that nothing goes missing.

It is a great resource not only for doctors visits, but for you as well.  I know I listen intently when we are at the doctor's, but I often find myself going over the instructions in my head.  It is much better for you and for the patient, if you have everything written down. When all the emotional upset has cleared, you can revisit exactly what the doctor recommended.  What you hear and what your loved one has heard may be two different things altogether.  Written instructions are the much better alternative.

It is a great responsibility and pleasure to be able to care for a loved one but, it is also stressful.  When they are healthy it's great, but when something out of the ordinary happens, you have to be prepared.

Here's wishing you a Happy Healthy New Year with all your loved ones.

**I am not a doctor, what I have written here comes from my experience. If you are not sure ask your doctor for his/her recommendations.  I am sure they will agree that this is a great resource for you and for your loved ones.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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