Category Archives: Caregiver Health and Wellness

Benefits of Joining a Support Group

August 10, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Support groups are one of the most helpful things I’ve found to keep my sanity. There’s nothing quite like sitting down and talking through your problems with people that deal with the same issues you do each and every day. I vaguely remember what it was like before I joined them, but mostly its a blur. I knew nothing about tube feeding when they placed my son’s nasal gastric (NG) tube in the hospital. If not for our home care nurse coming once a week I would’ve been completely and utterly lost.

A few people have told me I appear to be handling things really well and have my life together. I thought about why, and it’s because of my support network I’m able to stay calm and keep going. Without them my sanity would scatter to the wind within a matter of days.

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Dealing with, What if?

August 3, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This is a fairly typical problem, but takes on a whole different form when applied to the health difficulties of a loved one. When it’s your child, it can be completely overwhelming to think about all the different possible scenarios that could happen. Every procedure has risks. Every time your child goes into the doctor’s office they could get sick (and for many special needs kids, that’s no minor thing).

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Deal with Tomorrow When it Comes

July 20, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Deal with Tomorrow When it Comes

It’s difficult, when your child has medical difficulties, not to worry about what tomorrow brings. Good days take turns with bad ones. On good days you worry a bad day is next. On bad days you worry tomorrow will be worse. When bad days chain together it feels like it’ll never end. Our minds are talented at focusing on the negative. Bringing your thoughts toward the positive can bring a significant improvement to how you feel about your life.

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The Importance of Personal Best

July 13, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Special needs children are like runners. Runners are one of the best groups I know as far as understanding what, “personal best,” really means. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched someone come yelling and cheering with excitement for losing a race. You look at them like they’ve gone mad, until they explained they cut a whole minute off their time. Well then, that’s a big deal! Once they explain you all celebrate together, because you don’t have to be the best to be awesome. You just have to keep getting better. So, what’s my point?

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No Time to Slow Down

July 3, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
No Time to Slow Down

When Mom’s sick, everything keeps going. I know I’m not the first woman to mention this, and I won’t be the last.  It’s not very fun when you don’t have sick days. For the most part, you can always pop a pill and keep going, but the fatigue is overwhelming. Even if all of your symptoms are under control from medication, your body is still fighting something. It takes all of your energy you normally use for getting through your day and routes it somewhere else. You’re left with bleary eyes, sore muscles, and clouded thoughts. All the while, you need to figure out how much water you need to drink to stay hydrated if you knock back five or more cups of coffee on top of your illness.

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5 Ways I Cope with Being Home Most of the Time

June 29, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment
5 Ways I Cope with Being Home Most of the Time

I’m not a loner. I like being around other people. I LOVE being around other people that are interested in what I have to say. I’m that person at work that volunteers to present. I enjoy networking and it’s not something I consider a chore. So, when I started home I wanted to go right back to the workplace. God had other things in mind for me, because I couldn’t go back. My son’s medical needs prevented me from leaving him with your run of the mill child care center.

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A Special Needs Mom’s Never Ending Battle with Feelings of Inadequacy

June 26, 2015 By in Caregiver Health and Wellness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

I spent the first twenty or so years of my life judging my worth by grades. After that, it was job title and salary. It wasn’t until almost thirty that my son was born and his medical difficulties turned everything I knew about how to measure myself upside down. Some Moms compete over who has the sickest child, but that’s just not me. I’m perfectly happy when my son needs less medical intervention than someone else’s. I want him to be able to blend into a crowd and let something define him besides his health. At the end of the day, I’m left with no way to define myself good or bad. It leaves me feeling completely out of my depth. For every new thing I learn, there’s ten more things I need to work on.

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