This week, an online article caught my eye. It was a report on research into patients with heart disease who had undergone surgery to implant called a Ventricular Assist Device, or LVAD. Turns out that a few weeks after surgery, the patients felt much better, but their caregivers felt worse.
Continue readingTag: caregiver stress
THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Yummy No-Cook Caregiver’s Christmas Dinner
I am a self-confessed foodie. At Christmas, it’s ridiculous – I start baking for the freezer in early November and I try hard not to eat everything before December 25th. Now, with my most intensive caregiving days and years behind me, I can indulge my passion for baking the perfect
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: HELP FOR ALZHEIMER’S CAREGIVERS
I am pleased to host this guest post by Lydia Chan, whose Mom suffers from Alzheimer’s. Lydia writes for Alzheimerscaregiver.net. The data is in, and there’s no doubt that Alzheimer’s caregivers are exhausted. The University of Michigan and AARP recently teamed up to survey the people who are providing full time care to
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR STRESSED OUT CAREGIVERS
This is a reprint of a post from a couple of years ago. I think it’s worth publishing again, because the lessons about stress management from First Nations peoples are so helpful. I’ve just come from our family cottage in the north woods of Quebec. It’s peaceful there – a
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The ER Caregiver Effect
There’s a tourist attraction in my city of Ottawa (Canada) called The Crazy Kitchen. It’s a room in the National Museum of Science of Technology that’s designed to demonstrate the effects of optical illusion on the mind and body. Entering the Crazy Kitchen is like walking through the doors of
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Caregiver Stress Eating Never Satisfies
I remember when Nicholas was young and in the hospital most of the time. Many times, his life hung in the balance. Jim tagged teamed shifts in the hospital when he could, but being the unemployed parent, I did most of the bedside care. And the worrying…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Caregiver Stress Eating Never Satisfies
I remember when Nicholas was young and in the hospital most of the time. Many times, his life hung in the balance. Jim tagged teamed shifts in the hospital when he could, but being the unemployed parent, I did most of the bedside care. And the worrying…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Sick of Caregiving?
I was surprised to see this question as the title of an email I received this morning. “Sick of Caregiving?” isn’t the sort of thing I usually receive. My inbox is normally filled with things like “Latest stats on why caregivers live longer” or “…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: CAREGIVER STRESS – How to Call It and Slay It
Right now I’m in Toronto at the annual conference of the Ontario Association of Children’s Treatment Services. I’m learning valuable lessons for ALL caregivers and of course I had to share them here. Today, Sonia Lupien, the Director the Centre for Studies on Human Stress revealed to me how stress works and how it’s
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: When Giving Up Your Privacy is Part of the Job Description
Caregivers have very little privacy. We leave the bathroom door open so we can hear our loved ones if they call. The clinic calls just as we’ve poured our tea and sat down with the newspaper. A home care worker arrives to give us respite and complains about the dishes
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Survival Skills for Stressed Out Caregivers
I’ve just come from our family cottage in the north woods of Quebec. It’s peaceful there – a place for reflecting and remembering. My Nana built our cottage in the 1920s and my memories are of her making my toast on the woodstove with the sunlight dancing through the wood-framed
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: 6 Ways To Avoid Caregiver Burnout: Guest Post
Here’s a guest post from contributor Stephanie Lynch. If you feel you are close to burning out, read on! And if you are looking for ways to share the care, don’t forget to explore online tools such as TYZE Personal Networks, Lotsa Helping Hands, Google Calendar and even private Facebook
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Caregiver Advocacy: Part 3, The Roundup
Caregiving a job that is made up of hundreds of small tasks. Each task in itself seems perfectly doable. But taken together and over time, caregiving can be isolating and soul destroying. It doesn’t have to be that way. The beginning of putting a broken caregiver’s life back together is
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Care Company: Cindy Laverty, A Caregiver Turned Entrepreneur
There’s an interesting trend in caregiving. Women who have had their lives and careers de-railed suddenly by ‘extreme caregiving’ are taking their lessons learned and crafting them into new careers of helping others on a similar journey. I became interested in this phenomenon and wrote about it in my book,
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