Blogs

These "Seniors in Transition" are the reason I love my work. http://nwglory.com/pages/nunanreunion.html#player

In mid July, my husband and I received an early morning phone call from my sister-in-law that Marie had been admitted to the hospital. She was non-responsive with a severe infection due to diverticulitis (an inflammation process in the intestinal tract). We went out the door to work, only to realize we couldn’t think about anything but Mom. We called (one can’t get “sympathy” discount fares online) United Airlines and my husband took a red-eye flight that night. He went directly to the hospital where for the next couple of days he experienced Marie having hallucinations. Before he got there the hospital had asked his sister to sign a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). She had Marie’s signed Health Care Directive in her hand, but that wasn’t enough. My husband wanted to be there with his sister, so she wasn’t alone signing orders for doctors to withhold life-saving measures for their mother. Within a few hours the third sibling and his wife arrived from out of state. Not realizing how sick she had been, or was, imagine her realizing her children were by her side because they thought she might be passing away.

Six months ago I mentioned here (see “Back in-love.."above..)    I was interested in social networking and starting to blog, but about what can I write? Last week I got it! Me helping my own parents!

Long distance care-giving for my mother, Edna, and mother-in-law, Marie, had been easy and stable. Marie was  in assisted living in upstate NY for 5 years. My mother, Edna, lives in assisted living in Florida. I have siblings (one is my husband’s) living near each of them. (By the way, if you have a sibling living near a dependent parent and you don’t live near too, right now, either email or call them to say “thanks”.) Earlier this summer everything changed. 

Helping someone else’s parent is what I do for a living (more than 10 years). Everything is different when the parent is mine. I’ve always been able to empathize with adult children, but after this summer, I’ll be even better. I hope you’ll learn from my experiences
 

I typically am contacted for the first time by telephone. To date I have referred people, who call me about their elderly loved ones, to my Seniors In Transition  website for credibility. I’m starting to blog now because older adult children, like their young adult children, are doing Social Networking. How about you?If you are starting to blog, what motivated you to forget the fear and learn how?