A Caregiver's Inspirational Journey Through Cancer
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc on Jan 13th, 2011
“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Angie, a MM caregiver I met in Little Rock, asked me to write about caregiver fatigue. Instead, I’m going to write about the value of particular vitamins that are […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc, Multiple Myeloma on Jan 12th, 2011
“Information is not knowledge.” – Albert Einstein Boy is that not the truth! I have many people who tell me all the time, how “knowledgeable” I am. I’m not, really. I just have a lot of “information”. I will pass it along to you, but its up to each of us to make sense of […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc, Multiple Myeloma on Jan 11th, 2011
Calmac Original (Powder) 5 oz Calmac™ Original, a worldwide best seller and a long time favorite of our customers, supplies calcium and magnesium in a 3:1 ratio (450 mg calcium and 150 mg magnesium). Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body and is concentrated mostly in bones and teeth. Magnesium is essential […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips on Jan 6th, 2011
“My life is my message.” – Mahatma Ghandi Have you tried to help someone get up and down, when they are in a weakened condition or elderly? Handing your hand is not very stable for them. Here is a simple tip I learned from my mother’s hospice nurse that did the trick. I often see […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Multiple Myeloma on Jan 6th, 2011
“Fatigue is a daily lack of energy; an unusual or excessive whole-body tiredness, not relieved by sleep.” – Chemocare.com Wow. As I started to do a little research on this subject, so it wasn’t just all about what I think, I was struck by all the information and data about how they don’t know what […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Misc on Jan 3rd, 2011
“Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of other people.” – David Joseph Schwartz Shortly after Dave was diagnosed, and I had moved to California, he needed to go on a business trip. It was a driveable distance from our […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Multiple Myeloma on Dec 19th, 2010
“There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.” – Bill McKibben When Dave and I were in Little Rock during the holidays in 2008, he was emotionally and physically struggling. He was sad, some would argue depressed, in pain, insecure, frightened, […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc on Dec 12th, 2010
“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.” – Mark Twain I was chatting with MM Caregiver Buddy, JB, from Illinois today and she mention that her hubby had really dry skin and she felt it was from […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc on Dec 5th, 2010
“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” – Gautama Siddharta (aka Buddha) Sometimes I meet people who are in the same boat or a slightly different healthcare boat. The dilemma they feel in “talking about it” all the time, coupled with the understandable desire to keep their friends and loved ones […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc on Nov 17th, 2010
“I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair.” – Erma Bombeck I had an incredibly lovely conversation on the airplane on my way home, with a woman, similar in age to me, who had experienced a dramatic healthcare crisis with her husband. She too […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Multiple Myeloma on Nov 9th, 2010
“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” ~Mignon McLaughlin Once you have decided that you are going to move forward with a Stem Cell Transplant (SCT), there are naturally a lot of concerns about this process of wiping out your loved one’s immune system, putting […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips, Misc, Multiple Myeloma on Oct 13th, 2010
I have put a link in my “Resources” tab from Don’s Myeloma Hope Blog regarding this. I found I was always hunting for it to pass along to someone who was trying to deal with this common side-effect from chemotherapy treatments. I like this link so much, because he includes many different regimens that are […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Misc on Aug 20th, 2010
“To understand everything is to forgive everything.” – Buddha I hear a lot of complaints from Cancer patients and Caregivers about how “people” don’t understand! Often they are either sad or angry about this revelation in their relationships. It saddens me, of course, with everything they are going through, to have this added point […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Misc on Aug 19th, 2010
“Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic.” – Norman Cousins Pat Killingsworth’s recent column at The Myeloma Beacon (Pat’s Place) discusses the age old debate of mental outlook and “other” things with regards to health and well being and whether it can help a person combat a life threatening disease. 0
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Multiple Myeloma on Aug 19th, 2010
“They restored my faith and my hope by helping me.” – Tyler Jones If you are having trouble with your care, every hospital facility has a Social Worker that is on staff at the hospital. Sometimes they have fancy names, but search them out, ask for them. Even if your not having trouble it is […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips on Aug 13th, 2010
As we all continue to learn old things and new to help our loved one with all sorts of issues, I thought I would share how to make Kefir Spread at home, (Americans: Kee’-fur, emphasis on the first syllable, and Russians: Kah-feer’, emphasis on the second syllable). Probiotics is all the rage for our digestive […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips on Aug 7th, 2010
“No one experiences freedom until they stop pushing against others. The only thing that binds you is the pushing against that which is unwanted.” – Abraham As many of you know or have experienced, there are sometimes tremendous difficulties in dealing with our healthcare system, pharmacies, doctors, nurses, receptionists, insurance companies, even family and friends! […]
Posted in Caregiver Tips on Aug 5th, 2010
One of the more difficult things to address when your loved one is being treated for MM, is food intake. Their taste buds are altered from the chemotherapy, their sense of smell is changed, they’re scared, they’re nauseous, they’re in pain, they’re constipated, they have diarrhea, any and all of these things could be going […]
Posted in Caregiver Thoughts, Caregiver Tips, Misc on Jul 21st, 2010
They don’t eat and only seem to sleep! Dave dropped 40 pounds before he even started treatment! Fear and pain is not a recommended weight loss program, but it certainly worked wonders on Dave! Except that wasn’t planned or desired. Once he started treatment, both on the oral chemotherapy (Thalidomide/Dex) and then eventually the BIG […]
