Caregivers Primer

Caregivers: Protecting Your Loved Ones by Protecting Yourself

Flu season is here. 

As a caregiver, one of your main responsibilities is to keep your loved one safe from colds, flu and pneumonia.  That means keeping yourself healthy, protecting yourself outside the home, screening visitors if necessary, and making sure the diseases related to fall and winter don't get into your home and threaten your elders.  No matter the reason for them to need a caregiver, from physical handicaps to emotional ones, seniors are more fragile than the average person, and more susceptible to disease, respiratory infections and other diseases that hit harder because of their age and condition.

To protect them from getting sick, or care for them if they do become ill, you must take care of yourself first. 

FLU and SWINE FLU Shots

This is especially important if the person you care for is over 65, already in poor health, or has some kind of condition that makes giving them an immunization shot dangerous.  Other people may have religious preferences that prevent them from having a shot. Anyone with diabetes, asthma, lung disease or a history of congestive heart failure is at high risk.   So if your are living with or care for someone who is at high risk, get your flu shot.  NOTE:  In our local hospital, employees who cannot take immunization shots wear masks to prevent them from getting infected or passing something on to others. 

We've all heard information on the Swine Flu on TV news shows but the seasonal flu is just as dangerous.  Did you know:

• more than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year for flu complications
• 20,000 of those are children under 5
• 36,000 people die each year from the flu.

Talk to your doctor about the H1N1 Swine flu and decide if you want to get the Swine Flu vaccine as well.

PNEUMONIA shots

Pneumonia shots are suggested for anyone over 65, anyone with a suppressed immune system, anyone with heart or lung disease, diabetes or HIV.  If you are under 65, one shot will be enough.  If you are over 65, and your first pneumonia shot was more than 5 years ago and you were under 65 at the time, you should get a second shot.

Other Precautions

• Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze
• Wash your hands often with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand cleaners
• Avoid contact with anyone you believe is sick
• If children want to visit the person you care for, be sure they aren't sick, be sure there are no reported cases of swine flu in their school, and that they wash up before and after the visit. Many hospitals are not allowing children under 16 to visit patients.
• If you do get sick, limit contact with the person you care for. Get another caregiver, if possible. Remember that, for swine flu especially, you are still contagious up to 2 days after the fever stops.
• If you have a home health agency visiting your loved one, check to see that the person coming to the house has had their immunizations. Watch to be sure they wash their hands or use cleaner before and after treating your loved one.
• If you loved one can have immunizations but is home bound, check with your doctor and home health agency to see if the doctor can write an order for the nurse to administer the flu, swine flu, or pneumonia shots as determined by your doctor.
• When you go to a store, check to see if they have dispensers of germicide towelettes to wipe off the handle area of shopping carts or baskets.  If they don't offer this service, ask the customer service desk how you can make the suggestion to management as a courtesy to customers.  If you have to frequent shops, offices, libraries or other buildings where towelettes or hand cleaner is not available, care a small bottle of hand cleaner with you.
• Commercials by Lysol brand disinfectant spray claim that the spray has been proven to kill H1N1 virus.  True or not, it wouldn't hurt to spray clean surfaces around the house, especially kitchen and bathroom, counters, tables, chair arms, walkers and canes, wheelchair controls and hand wheels, bed frames, and remote controls.  And anywhere else your loved one touches or things they use.

Symptoms of Flu

• Fever (usually high)
• Headache
• Extreme tiredness
• Dry cough
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle aches
• Sore throat
• Vomiting
• Sometimes diarrhea

Be safe.  Take more precautions than you think are necessary because the one you ignore could be the very one that causes the illness.  I got my flu and pneumonia shots, because my mother can't have either.  I limit her visitors to those who are well.  And when I take her to the doctor, I make sure to have hand cleaner with me, her own magazines for her to read, and a mask in my purse if someone else in the waiting room is obviously sick.  She's had a long standing respiratory infection and a 10 day hospital stay last winter with pneumonia.  I won't take another chance with her health.

Take care and be well.....

Caregivers - Problem Knees, Feet, Arms, so When Will Mom Walk Again?

Mom and I joke that her warranty ran out when she turned 80.  Up until then she walked miles a day, rode a bike, bowled in two leagues, and taught line dancing.  All while legally blind.

But after a series of illnesses and injuries to her legs, she has spent far too much of the last seven years with a cane, a walker, and her most despised wheelchair.  For the last week, she's been back in the wheelchair. 

After getting both knees replaced at 86 (see other posts here), she was improving until a supposedly minor scratch on her leg turned into cellulitis and MRSA.  Another week long visit to the hospital, most of it in the ICU.  A scratch ignored by the nurses on that stay turned into an infected blister and another 4 months of weekly visits to the Wound Care clinic, including 2 skin graphs. 

She was finally getting past all that when the heel spurs kicked in and, while her "new" knees are working well, she can't take a step without pain.  That made three weekly visits to the foot and ankle doctor for shots, but she was still struggling along, trying to use her walker to get around, despite the pain. 

All that changed, again, about 10 days ago. 

My dog reached up with his paw to beg attention just as she moved.  It was a slight tear in her fragile skin, not more than a half inch, but it broke the integrity of her skin and triggered a reaction in her immune system.  The next morning she woke with severe pain in both forearms.  Of course, this was a Friday and by the time I needed to call someone, all the doctors' offices were closed at noon for the weekend. 

Since she has so much trouble with infections, we had an antibiotic on hand and I started her on them over the weekend.  Monday morning, I called her doctor.  She was in too much pain to try and leave the house for an appointment, so I asked for a home health nurse to come and evaluate her.  We have an agency we've used several times and they were happy to send out a nurse that knew her well.  They are reporting to the doctor and monitoring her condition in case she gets worse or needs to go to the hospital.  It's cellulitis and MRSA, the same combination she had back in April that put her in the ICU for 4 days so we're fortunate that the doctor has let her stay home this long.

She can't crochet because her hands are so swollen.  And she can't work on the christening blanket for her soon-to-be great-grandson (due Valentine's Day), but I'm trying to keep her spirits up and get her through this crisis.  Another day, another problem, but we'll succeed this time too.

Kathy