Live In The Real World

November 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

We have to live in the real world, don’t we? Yes, usually, most of us do.

But the best piece of advice I ever got  when my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, was ‘live in his reality’.

Think about it. Asking the same question, pressuring you about a pair of socks might sound ridiculous but not to the patient.

Patience, empathy, and the real world gets in the way, but you have to figure it out for yourself.

My husband is now fine. We were one of the few lucky ones, they reversed the diagnosis seven years later.

I never forgot that advice, and I’m passing it along to you. Think about it and use it when you have to.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

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National Caregivers Month

November 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It is National Caregivers Month in November. So what are you going to do locally? If you ever stood in the caregivers shoes, you’d know it’s a lonely, depressing, nothing to look forward to, and your friends usually leave one by one.

My book Behind The Mask is my secret journal I wrote during the time I was a caregiver. I smiled on the outside and wrote out all my thoughts, emotions in the journal.

All it takes is to be a friend to a caregiver. You know there is one in your neighborhood. Or where you work or go to school, play golf, Mah Jongg, anywhere the same people get together is a community.

Send an email, be a friend, do not judge, ask questions, make them feel comfortable and let them vent. Usually they have no one to talk to. As for support groups, they are great…for some people. My husband wouldn’t go, he said that he didn’t want to see what was coming down the road for him.

All I’m asking is put yourself in their shoes. Then Adopt A Caregiver.

Keep love and kisses in your life Helene

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Ninth Generation

November 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wow, I just realized that this new great grand daughter will be the ninth generation. One of my cousins once did a beginning family tree, and he sent me a copy. I looked it over and realized that if I wanted to I could go back nine generations. To me, that’s amazing. I’ve never done anything to do with family trees, but maybe someday I will. What a great background to leave for future generations.

Maybe it should go along with my memoirs. Stories and pictures of my grand parents. I knew all four of them.

There are so many things I want to write, and then I get lazy and don’t do any of it.

One thing I am doing, is getting back to exercising. I need it badly. My Fibromyalgia is bad.  My muscles are so tight. Starting again is pretty hard. I did about seven minutes today and it was hard and I was hurting. I know it will get better as I keep going, and I need to do that.

Don’t we all need some exercise? Knitting isn’t enough. I’m smiling.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

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My Get Up And Go Has Gone

November 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Tired, tough day, no. Just feeling blah. Everything is a struggle. Fibromyalgia is alive and well, and it is making me feel awful. I am hurting. Everywhere.

Tomorrow is another day. I’m looking forward to waking up and feeling great.

I’m going for a much needed haircut, and out to dinner with my daughter.

At least I’m knitting. Otherwise I’d probably be even more miserable.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver.

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Your Past Is Not Your Future

November 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

We are all shaped by our past. Our parents, schools, friends, all played a part in who we are. We all have our burdens, our bullies, things we didn’t know how to cope with. How you choose to remember is up to you.

But, you do have choices and the person you are today is by your choice. Don’t waste it. Life is precious. Time is what we all have in common. How we use that time is up to us. Only you can make your life the best it can be.

November is National Caregivers Month. Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

Visist www.adoptacaregiver.org

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Support Caregivers

November 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

November is National Caregivers Month. Support your community. Find a caregiver and offer to email or call them. Offer to arrange a lunch for them. Offer your shoulder to cry on, to help carry the load of the world that’s on their shoulders. Encourage them to tell their story. Either in written form, or on line. There are many sites for caregivers to tell their stories.

It only takes a couple of minutes to form a friendship with an email. Particularly in your own neighborhood. Someone knows a caregiver.

Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

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It Takes One Person, One Idea

November 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Yes, one person can make a difference, one idea can change the world as we see it.

When my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1993, I thought my world came to an end. I wrote in a secret journal, I tried to smile. We had to keep it a secret and that was the hardest part.

When they changed the diagnosis in 2000, our world opened up and we smiled again. I showed my husband my journal and he said publish it. So I did last year. Behind The Mask was the catalyst for my idea for Adopt A Caregiver.

All it takes is an email to someone in your own community who is a caregiver. They would be so grateful for a friend, someone who listened, who let the vent, who didn’t judge. After all, you can’t judge if you haven’t stood in their shoes!

Behind The Mask is standing in one person’s shoes.

Adopt A Caregiver. It’s the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

visit www.adoptacaregiver.org

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