Home-healthcare on Squidoo

As a former corporate executive, I was ill-prepared for my husband's heart attack in his 40's. Like the men with whom I worked, I had NO training in health care. Then there was in-home care for my mother with advancing senile dementia, until it was impossible to do safely at home even with 24/7 care. And the challenges of selecting memory support and long term care. . . being patient advocate for one...

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As a former corporate executive, I was ill-prepared for my husband's heart attack in his 40's. Like the men with whom I worked, I had NO training in health care. Then there was in-home care for my mother with advancing senile dementia, until it was impossible to do safely at home even with 24/7 care. And the challenges of selecting memory support and long term care. . . being patient advocate for one who could not speak for herself in hospital stays and rehab, stroking her forehead and singing to her day and night to relieve the fear in the midst of all the pain she could not understand. . . then constant oversight of long term care . . .

Home elder care is tough. The runs to the hospital with Daddy's multiple heart attacks. . . and the one that turned him into a "cardiac cripple" needing in home healthcare 24/7, with me - a single mom putting son through college and trying to support myself - now as primary caregiver. Congestive heart failure set in. Kidneys threatened to shut down. . . Frigid nights on a cot in the emergency room. . . 15-18 prescriptions in different combinations throughout the day, inoculations, the difficulty and sensitivity of bathing and dressing. . . And the heartbreak seeing your loved one suffer.

No one is prepared for this. Not my friend whose "big guy" husband has Huntington's disease and is wheelchair bound. Not my friend whose grandchild has autism. Not my own 5-month caregiving needs after a freakish accident, the helplessness of not being able to do things for myself, of being on the other side of the fence.

It could happen to any one at any time. So imagine my delight to meet Terri, whose story you will read at Home Health Care Books & Videos - to be invited to partner with her in sharing vital information for caregivers of in home healthcare, eldercare, child home care, short-term rehabilitative care and long-term care . . . Guides, videos, resources, "HOW TO" do the myriad tasks and get the needed help, compiled all in one place for you . . . the things we each had to learn the hard way, so you don't have to!