What happens when you find out your diagnosis from a patient portal, instead of your doctor? For more than a year, my mom suffered from a persistent, baffling cough. Two negative bronchoscopy procedures and several imaging scans later, her doctors still couldn’t figure out why she was coughing. Her pulmonologist scheduled an exploratory biopsy. A […]
How caregivers can support their loved one through addiction. Celeste Kranick won’t forget the moment when a close relative, for whom she had acted as caregiver, opened up about why he couldn’t stop using drugs. During a car ride, he expressed frustration about his situation, and Kranick reminded him that he knew what to do. […]Read More
The Care Plan helps people navigate healthcare systems not set up for LGBTQ+ or racially diverse caregivers. After her wife was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in 2011, Marsha Wetzel spent the next two years taking care of Judy, her partner of 30 years, until Judy entered hospice care. Within weeks of Judy’s death, her […]Read More
Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition gives caregivers a voice, connects them with resources Balancing a career with caregiving put Amy Brennan in a precarious position. In 2016, the Chicago resident took five months off work with partial pay, through the Family Medical Leave Act. Her mother was in the final stages of cancer, and Brennan needed […]Read More
Keep your loved ones with dementia safe through this holiday’s winter storms. While the snow, wind, and colder temps coming this week are a major inconvenience for most of us, for individuals with dementia, they can be life-threatening. The fact that the winter storm’s arrival coincides with the holidays is creating a quandary for families […]Read More
How to gently redirect the conversation when someone has dementia “Where do you live?” “Did you eat lunch?” “How are the kids?” If your loved one has dementia, you likely hear these sorts of questions, repeated over and over in an endless loop. People with dementia commonly repeat behaviors, known as perseveration — the medical […]Read More
Telling children their grandmother is suffering from dementia is not only scary for the children, but also difficult for the adult delivering the message. That message must be sensitive and age appropriate, experts say, with details on what children can expect to witness and how they should respond to it. “It’s good to be honest […]Read More
Feeling vulnerable comes with getting older, but it doesn’t have to define this time of life Dwayne Dobschuetz calls it “the game-changer” — the broken hip, stroke, or loss of a driver’s license that suddenly damages a senior’s independence. The Northwestern Medicine geriatrics nurse, 75 years old himself, says catastrophic events are often behind dramatic […]Read More
What advice would you give to someone new to caregiving? “Make sure that you have empathy for the patient that you’re actually taking care of. I think about every single patient that I’m taking care of as my grandmother, my grandfather, my mom or my dad, my sister or my brother. I treat them with […]Read More
Supporting a loved one with cancer through the holidays Everything that makes the holidays so special — family time, parties, gifts — can also make this time of year extra taxing for people with cancer. The diagnosis itself, in addition to treatment, can change how the person responds to and thinks about the world around […]Read More
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