Adeste In-Home Care - Colorado

In-Home Care in Colorado

Hypertension and Caregiving – You and The One You’re Caring For May Be Impacted

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In 2017, the American Heart Association changed its guidelines for high blood pressure and heart health. Under these new guidelines, if you 120-129 systolic blood pressure, it’s now labeled as elevated blood pressure. A reading of 130-139 systolic or 80-89 diastolic is now considered stage one hypertension.

What do these new guidelines mean? In general, they will impact a broader population. More people will now require monitoring their blood pressure levels, and will possibly be in need of medication. With this reclassification, about 1 in 3 US adults has high blood pressure.

And that can have a significant impact on you and the person you are providing care for.

With these new guidelines, that means more adults are considered at risk for developing serious heart problems. The earlier you start watching your blood pressure numbers, the sooner you can make lifestyle changes that can impact your life.

Before the revisions, it was recommended a person start testing their blood pressure frequently around their 50th birthdays. But with the stresses in our lives, testing earlier can only increase your chances of catching things early and making changes that will impact your life for the better.

High blood pressure is treatable. By making changes to your diet, your exercise levels, and your stress levels, you can keep your blood pressure in check. If you start to see numbers frequently rise above the 120/80 threshold, it’s time to see a doctor.

The American Heart Association also recommends that you don’t wait for a doctors visit to check your blood pressure. Instead, make it a regular habit and check your numbers yourself. Keep a running log of your numbers. Better yet, invest in technology and create a log via your favorite app.

Wearable technology can make checking your numbers a snap. Tools like QardioArm and Apple Watch enable you to take your readings anywhere easily, any time. And because it’s light and portable, you can easily tuck it into your bag or your suitcase.

In the near future, it might even be possible your Apple Watch will be your blood pressure monitor. Just touch the screen with your finger, and your numbers are detected.

All of this means better tracking for you and your loved one. And staying healthy means a better life for the both of you.

Things You Might Not Know About Alzheimer’s Disease

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Alzheimer’s isn’t something any of us plans on having. It sneaks up on a person, and presents itself when we least expect it.

Knowing the truth can start you and your loved ones down the path of doing all you can to stay ahead of the disease. Learning more has the opportunity to change the face of Alzheimer’s forever. And what we really know is that if you or a member of your family has ever been diagnosed, finding a solution is the goal.

Alzheimer’s Isn’t a Normal Part of Aging

As we age, we all start joking about memory issues. Ever asked: Where are my keys?

But Alzheimer’s isn’t normal aging. Alzheimer’s stretches beyond just memory issues. While it primarily impacts memory, it also appears in other ways, such as a loss in communication skills, concentration issues, and decreased problem solving. You’ll often find poor judgment increases as Alzheimer’s worsens. You may also notice mood swings and a change in personality.

While it can take time to realize it’s not just normal memory problems, the average person will live four to eight years once the disease has been diagnosed, with some living as long as 20 years with known symptoms.

Some Are At Higher Risk

Women make up about two-thirds of Americans currently living with the disease. African Americans are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, while Hispanics are one and a half times as possible.

You Can Reduce Your Risk

While there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, you can reduce your risk. Adopting healthy lifestyle choices not only helps prevent heart disease and cancers, but it can also help you manage your risk for developing Alzheimer’s. Your brain is equally as important to your health as your heart and your lungs. Make sure you’re adding brain-healthy choices to your lifestyle too.

If you or your loved one has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, get support. Reach out and discover all you can about this disease. Ask for help. No one should go it alone.

Why A Pet May Bring Joy To Your Aging Parents Lives

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Pets bring a lot of benefits to our lives. Animals depend on you and provide companionship. They also help improve health, which can be especially beneficial as we age. Pets can:

  • Lower depression and anxiety
  • Reduce stress
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Improve mood
  • Boost activity levels and social interactions
  • Encourage a person to stick with a routine

Ultimately, pets provide purpose, and for an aging adult, it can be their reason for living.

We all need that feeling of being wanted, being needed. Pets can provide that, which is especially important if your aging parent lives alone. If you can’t visit them as regularly as you’d like, a pet can provide them with the love and support they need in their daily lives.

But having a pet only compounds the problems as problems arise. For some, a pet is equivalent to a child. Separating them can be as devastating as a loss. While aging parents have special needs, aging parents with pets up the ante on what it takes to thrive.

Create A Plan

Start by analyzing the situation, and updating your strategy on an as needed basis. Is your mom or dad able to care for the pet without any trouble? What’s needed to ensure both stay healthy? Does the pet need daily walks? How about cleaning up after them? Can your parents make it to the store to buy supplies? How about affording vet bills, haircuts, and other maintenance items? What your parents can’t do, you’ll have to rely on friends, neighbors, family, or services to do.

Find Services That Make Housecalls

The good news is a lot of pet services make housecalls. Find a vet who visits the home. Or a groomer who is on wheels. You can find people willing to walk dogs in a variety of places – how about a neighbor’s child who is a budding entrepreneur?

Invest In Pet Health Insurance

If your parent is on a budget, adding a pet can be a costly endeavor. Pet insurance might be an excellent choice to ensure yearly check ups and visits with health providers is affordable.

Choose Pets Wisely

Sure, puppies and kitties are cute, but they are also a lot of work. If you’re looking to adopt, talk with local rescue leagues who often have programs especially for seniors. They can find older, lovable pets that need a second chance. These pets can be especially loving, and perfect for your mom or dad.

What tips do you have for bringing a pet into your parents’ lives?

What To Do When Mom and Dad Won’t Listen

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The sandwich generation can be difficult at best.

On the one hand, you work hard each day giving your kids your all. You guide them as best as you can.

On the other, your mom and dad increasingly need your help. You make suggestions on ways to improve their quality of life. But they’re adults, and they won’t listen to you. They do things their way, and little you say influences them.

So stress builds. Accidents happen. And you deal with the consequences.

Sound familiar?

You see that they need a little extra help around the home. You notice the little things they miss. And while they really aren’t at risk for serious complications from their choices, you know their lives would greatly benefit if they accepted a little help.

Are there ways to make them listen?

Evaluate the issue

Before you push forward, decide just how crucial the argument is. Does it impact their safety or well-being? Or is it irritating but not that important? If it doesn’t impact their overall health, let them have their way and move on.

Put the blame somewhere else

There are lots of ways to make someone else the bad guy. For example, if you don’t want your mom smoking around your kids, explain to her how it impacts her grandkids health. If you’re the one making suggestions all the time, it can be easier to motivate them when the outcome effects someone else.

Accept their decisions

You may be able to see how much their lives could improve if they accepted a little help, but in the end, your mom and dad are adults. They have the right to do things their way. No matter what decision they make, accept it. Sometimes the only way to prove a point is to let them do what they need to do, and fail if necessary.

Let it go

Sometimes caregiving is like watching a train wreck – you can see it coming but can’t do anything about it. Your parents are going to do what they want to do, and you’ll be left with the clean-up. Accept it, and let it go. You can’t control their actions. And in most cases, you’ll be a part of the clean-up. Don’t beat yourself up about the process. If you need an outside source to share your feelings with, find a support group that will let you confide your worries and help you get through the situation with the least amount of stress as possible.

Exercise Routines You Should Include If You’ve Been Diagnosed With Parkinson’s

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Parkinson’s impacts people in different ways. But the symptoms do tend to get worse over time.

Symptoms include:

Tremors – shaking movements that are most noticeable when a person is at rest
Bradykinesia – this slows down coordination of movement between your hands and arms, and makes walking and standing more difficult
Rigidity – stiffness in the arms and legs
Instability – losing your balance

The adage of “use it or lose it” may apply. More and more evidence suggests that with a diagnosis, your exercise routines should change and increase right along with it. Exercise can help improve movement and muscle control. It can also improve cardiovascular and respiratory function.

But if you’ve had an exercise routine before, keep in mind that things will change. Exercise is essential, but it should include moving in the right way. Include:

Resistance training – this helps increase motor function
Aerobic training – this increases physical fitness, strength and functional performance
Flexibility training – this helps reduce and prevent contractures

While traditional forms of exercise like weight lifting are a great part of a routine, mix it up and look for new training programs too.

Rock Steady Boxing, for example, uses exercise adapted from boxing drills to improve agility, speed, muscular endurance, accuracy, hand-eye coordination, footwork, and overall strength.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t exercise the way you have before. Start slow. Don’t overexert your muscles or it could take days for recovery.

Also, never exercise alone. An exercise specialist can assess and help with a regimented routine that benefits where you’re at today. They can also work with you throughout the stages, to ensure all your needs are met.

What exercise routines have you found beneficial to help improve your lifestyle?

How To Live Longer With Heart Failure

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Diagnosis of a chronic condition is often difficult to hear. You start doing your research. You focus on the worst. And fear becomes a new daily norm.

Congestive heart failure doesn’t mean your heart isn’t working. It means your heart no longer pumps enough blood throughout your system, the way it once did. Think of diagnosis as a wakeup call. It’s a way of telling you to change your habits to stop the condition from worsening.

When you’re diagnosed with heart failure, the blood moving away from your heart slows down. Because the blood returning operates in a more normal manner, the blood in your veins begins to block up, causing congestion throughout your body. This can cause problems in a variety of ways, from swelling in your legs, to fluid buildup in your lungs.

According to a fact sheet put out by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about one-half of all people diagnosed with heart failure will die within the first five years. The people that live longer after diagnosis are the ones that look for ways to manage the condition and make lifestyle changes to prevent it from worsening.

Once you’ve been diagnosed with heart failure, it’s important to realize that it is a chronic condition. It will get worse over time. However, you can manage it to the point it slows down the progression, and the symptoms reduce right along with it.

Millions of people are living active lives with heart failure. While you shouldn’t change everything about your lifestyle immediately, small changes over time can reward you with big improvements not only with the way you feel, but your outlook on life too.

The biggest change should be to get up and exercise. The American Heart Association recommends doing at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity at least five days a week. You should never feel breathless. Always check with your doctor before starting up a new routine. And then find something that’s fun for you to do. Look for a gym that offers wellness programs that cater to slower movement classes, something you can work up to over time.

You should also work to change your diet. Again, work with your doctor to decide the right steps for you. They may include lowering salt, reducing fat intake, reducing the amount of meat, adding more fruits and vegetables. You should also drink more water, and decrease your alcohol intake.

Other lifestyle changes should include:

  • Stop smoking
  • Getting adequate sleep
  • Reducing stress
  • Avoid sugar

For some, medication may also be a part of the routine. Be sure to discuss how any new medicines will work in conjunction with prescriptions you are already on. Watch for any changes in your health, and be diligent in working with your doctor towards reducing the amount of medicine you take each day.

Is It Time To Take Over Your Mom’s Budget?

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Sometimes managing your own budget can seem overwhelming at best. House. Kids. Savings. Retirement. There is a lot to learn and understand just to make the right choices for you and your family.

Then something happens that makes you take a greater interest in your mom’s budget too. That adds even more questions to your already busy life. Is there enough money for medical expenses? What about paying for future care? It’s enough to overwhelm anybody.

A lot of the overwhelm comes from not being prepared. A few simple steps can help conquer your fears and make it easier to help your mom.

Locate accounts

Your first step is getting a complete list of everything your mom has in her name. The more complete this list is, the less likely you’ll have something slip through the cracks. Start by going through her files – look for statements, bills, and other paperwork that can alert you to activity. Look for checking accounts, savings accounts, retirement accounts, pension programs. You’ll also want to locate home mortgages, and other real estate holdings. Find all insurance policies, including supplemental health insurance, life insurance, home policies, long-term care insurance, and annuities. You should also discuss other legal matters, such as if they have safety deposit boxes, wills, power of attorneys, stock, etc.

Power of attorney

If you don’t already have power of attorney, now is the time to get it. It’s a much easier process if your mom willingly enters into the agreement with you. Work with an attorney who understands the process. He or she can advise you on matters you may not have considered before.

Gain access to all accounts

Once you have power of attorney, call or visit with representatives you’ll be frequenting the most. Sometimes banks and other financial institutions have their own forms to fill out to give you access. If you can do that with your mom, it will make this process easier too.

Update all accounts and information

This is a perfect time to ensure your mom was on top of all account information. When was the last time she updated her will? Is the right information listed? For instance, if your dad has passed away but is still listed as an account holder or as a beneficiary, now is the time to adjust documentation to ensure you don’t have more trouble in the future.

Think about the future

By starting early, it also gives you a chance to speak with your mom on her wishes and desires. If she has specific requirements, why not create a new will? Or look at funding different accounts to make sure her desires are met? It’s much easier making plans with her rather than fighting for access when situations turn worse.

This also gives you a chance to look at her investment strategies. Are there other opportunities she might not be aware of? Is she taking on too much risk for her age?

Make suggestions gently; it is still up to her. But if you both become more comfortable taking on additional responsibilities early in the process, it can make all the difference long term.

Why It’s Important To Establish A Caregiving Routine

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Have you ever noticed that much of your life exists on routine?

When you’re a kid, routine is everything. You get up in time for school, do homework at a certain time, have a bedtime to ensure you get enough sleep.

Then when you move out on your own, you establish another routine. Up in the morning to get to work, in bed at a certain time to ensure you get enough rest.

It only seems natural that when you move into caregiving mode, that you’d also develop a routine. But when your loved one is frail or ill, it can seem like it’s 24 hours of chaos where it’s anything but routine.

If you’re loved one has cognitive issues, they may struggle with daily tasks. You might start living by doing whatever is necessary, whenever it is required. But people with dementia often struggle more when they don’t have structure in their lives. They don’t act without being told. Without focus, the who, what, and where become confusing. They may act out more without the structure.

What should you do?

Move forward with new expectations

One of the most challenging tasks as a caregiver is to adjust your expectations. You’re used to your loved one the way they used to be. Part of you wants to preserve that and fall back on it whenever you can. Yet your loved one may never return to that position.

Do what you can do each day. Have enough structure to keep you on task, but be willing to let things go if you sense friction. Your routine might be to get up at a certain time of the day, and to eat meals together at certain times. Go with the flow if they’re just not capable of it, and need something different depending on the day.

Stick with the familiar

Your loved one probably becomes more agitated when they experience new things. Now isn’t the time to introduce new activities. Instead, focus on what your loved one loves and has expressed interest in in the past.

You should also give even more time to individual projects. Especially as your loved one’s condition changes, it may no longer be easy to finish things in specific amounts of time. Don’t fill every minute of the day, especially with back to back activities. This will help keep your stress levels down too.

Routines are important at every stage of life. And part of that is testing what works and what doesn’t, and leaving plenty of time for adjustments. Frustration almost always comes from setting expectations too high. If you keep your own anxiety in check, you’ll be more likely to create a peaceful life for the both of you.

5 Things You Should Do Before Becoming Your Parent’s Caregiver

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Is caregiving for your parents expected in your family? For many, it is.

It’s a natural progression where eventually, as an adult child, your parents need you. They fall. They wind up in the hospital with a chronic condition. Or you suddenly notice they need some help when you spend some time in their home.

And for even more, no matter how much it’s “expected,” it still comes as quite a shock when you find yourself investing hours each week to keep them safe. How do you prepare for something like caregiving?

If you’re reading this, you’re already moving in the right direction.

1. Be Proactive

It’s almost impossible to work together and come up with solutions when you’re in crisis mode. It’s much easier to have adult conversations when everything is relatively okay.

Call a family meeting, especially if there is going to be more than you involved in the caregiving process. Get all of your siblings involved.

This shouldn’t be about what you’re taking away from your parents. Instead, make the initial conversation about how your parents can stay as independent as possible.

2. Develop a plan

As you move through their wishes, also spend some time mapping about a plan. You can dive into whatever is comfortable for your family. However, the more you touch on, the easier it will be to refer back to when you need it.

This is where you can get their opinions on things like where they want to live, what to do in a health crisis, where important documents are, what types of insurance do they have, and where financial information is located. You can move through “best case/worst case” scenarios to read your parents’ wishes. They may be more apt to talk when they aren’t facing these situations.

3. Get legal advice

Hopefully, your plan will push them into taking action. If they haven’t updated their wills in a while, use this as a nudge to get it done. If they haven’t created living wills, work with an attorney to fill one out.

4. Respect their wishes

This is one of the most challenging parts about moving into a caregiving role: this is about them, not about you. It’s difficult to watch parents move into this next stage of life. It’s important to honor them by respecting what they truly desire. You may want to try everything to keep them near you, but if you have a plan in place and understand their desires, it’s equally important to ensure you do things the way they wish them to be done.

5. Build your support team

While you’re starting your caregiving role by discovering all you can to help your parents, find resources for yourself too. This is a difficult journey for everyone. The best way to move through the process is if you take good care of you also. That means finding the tools and resources you need to help your mind, body, and soul throughout the process.

What questions do you have as you move into the caregiving role?

Putting Music Therapy Into Your Caregiver Toolbox

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Think back to your youth; what do you remember most? In many cases, your memory is attached to a song.

Music is a part of our lives. Our mother’s sing to us as tiny infants in their arms. We learn rhyming songs to help us learn common, everyday chores. If I say A-B-C-D-E-F-G, you probably start humming the rest of the song.

Why the brain and body processes music the way it does remains a mystery. We’re only starting to discover how important music is in our lives. But we do know that as long as people have been on this planet, music has been an important part of the way we live. Music allows us to storytell in an animated way. And while you may have trouble remembering everything you studied for a test the night before, chances are you can recall the words to your favorite music from decades earlier.

Maybe it’s because speech uses smaller parts of our brain than music. Scientists know that music fires off almost every part of our brain, stimulating responses from everyone who hears it. Even if you haven’t heard a song in years, you’re likely to associate it with an event in your past, triggering emotion based on that time in your life.

That’s the basis behind music therapy. In numerous clinical trials, therapists have great results when they play music to help patients with chronic conditions. Adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s show remarkable differences when introduced to music therapy, when compared to those who don’t.

Even with these chronic conditions, not all parts of the brain are impacted. The hippocampus, which controls memory and emotional impact, remains intact. When music is played, it often triggers long term memories, and can cause people that haven’t spoken in years to suddenly break out in song.

Research has also shown that making music is different than listening. Actively taking part in a song activates even more in the brain, and helps with balance and movement in cognitive and limbic areas. That’s why music therapy often starts with listening to old, familiar tunes, but quickly moves into production to get the body involved.

While music therapy isn’t a miracle cure, it can be good for both the caregiver and the one they’re caring for. Instead of witnessing loss after loss, they can suddenly experience something that brings their loved one joy. They can possibly sing or even dance together, helping them remember the good times once again.

Have you ever tried music therapy?