Caring For Yourself
It’s Sunday. (And time for an opinionated ramble …) I heard an older gentleman married a long time to his wife say, “She doesn’t have MS. We have MS.” On the other hand, I’ve also heard and read stories of men who told their wives, “I can’t handle this MS stuff. I’m out of here,” [...]
Use the FDA’s MedWatch for the Latest Drug Safety Information. If a medication you take requires additional warnings, you can learn about it on this web site of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. MedWatch is the FDA’s web site for reporting current medication safety information about drugs and medical products which are regulated by [...]
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It’s Sunday. How will you make it a “day of rest”? What does “rest” mean in your busy world? Does rest mean you had a good night’s sleep? Does it mean you slept long enough to wake up refreshed and without bags under your eyes? We usually think of rest in terms of our physical [...]
Continue reading about A Day of Rest for Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit
You may feel like it sometimes, but being an MS caregiver does not endanger one’s sanity. In fact, as a caregiver, you probably have no more reason to worry about your sanity than any other person. I’ll explain why after I share a summary of a 2001 abstract I’ve just read titled, “Being a Multiple [...]
Continue reading about Does Being an MS Caregiver Cause Mental Health Problems?
A friend told me yesterday he had seen my wife in a local store and “she looked good.” I agreed, “Yes, she does look good!” I embarrassed him a little so he clarified it a bit, “I mean she looks like she’s getting along well.” Of course few see her when she’s not getting along [...]
I remember reading the cartoon book, “Good Grief, Charlie Brown”, when I was a child. The phrase, “good grief,” grabbed my attention. What did it mean? I knew grief was what one experienced when someone died. At the time I didn’t imagine that could be good. One lives long enough and learns that grief really [...]
No thinking adult truly expects life is fair. Most of us grow past that fantasy during adolescence. Even so, there lives deep in our hearts the desire that life be fair. And when it’s not, we ache for what “should” be. Unfortunately, if we focus so much on what “should be” we miss the joy [...]
Continue reading about Discovering the Joy in What Is Beats Aching for What Might have Been
A red indicator light appeared on the instrument panel. It said, “Oil”. I slowed down a little. I knew there was a gas station at the top of the hill and when the warning light lit up I thought, “I can make it to the top of the hill and get oil at the station.” [...]
Calling yourself a caregiver is good for you and makes you a better caregiver. The National Family Caregivers Association commissioned a study from The Caregivers Advisory Panel in 2001 to learn about the impact self-identifying oneself as a caregiver has on caregivers. Information about the study is on the NFCA web site at “NFCA’s 2001 [...]
Continue reading about Why Identify Yourself as an MS Caregiver?
Caring for a person with Multiple Sclerosis is steady work. Because Multiple Sclerosis is a progressive neurological disease in which the effects of neurological damage accumulate over time, the work required of an MS Caregiver when a patient is first diagnosed is usually not as difficult or demanding as that required for an MS patient [...]
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