November 30, 2020 • 17 mins
Helpful tips for your Holiday Gatherings with loved ones dealing with Dementia!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Dementia Real Talk by Karen Thrive, a podcast
to help you navigate life with dementia, presented by Blair Pharmacy.
Whether you're living with dementia or a care partner for
someone with dementia, join us to learn more about what
to expect and practical approaches to adapt your world to thrive.
Now welcome our hosts, Jerry Young and certified dementia practitioner
(00:31):
and trainer Judy Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays. On
a matter for.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
When you long for the sunshine of a friendly games
for the holidays, you can't.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Feed home sweet Well, you can guess what we're going
to talk about. We're going to talk about holidays and
traditions and how to handle awkward situations and what to
do to avoid awkward situations as well as family fights
sometimes as well. So hello everyone, and welcome in. I'm
Jerry Young. Judy Pritchard joins us now and Judy, you know,
(01:19):
this is a hard subject to approach because you don't
want to offend anybody, But at the same time, there's
real things that happen.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Over the holidays, absolutely, and things we would look forward
to and you should look forward to and especially if
you just do a few proactive approaches, hopefully you can
navigate the holidays no matter what your situation is, without
any major problems happening. But even in the best of families,
the holiday holidays can cause some stress and emotional changes,
(01:47):
right absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know in my family, you know, things that were
tradition before just absolutely had to go away. Its just
that simple. I mean, there's times to change adition. You know,
if you carved the turkey at eleven o'clock or whatever,
you know, or at one o'clock, you know, it may
have to change this year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, you know. One of the big things that we
always love to do is holidays is we would travel
to Pennsylvania, that's where I'm from, and we would pack
up the kids and pack up the car and we'd
drive up there. And we tried to make the car
trip fun by playing games, and we had the little
video recorders so that we could play their favorite movies.
(02:28):
And the kids actually looked forward to the trip too.
So it's all about that planning ahead. But once we
got there, it would never fail no matter. We would
have such a wonderful time and see all of our
family and friends, and by the time we got back
in the car to come back home, we were exhausted,
absolutely mentally and physically.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And that's why we're going to talk about this because
you can imagine if it's that hard on you with
small kids, and then you look at someone whether they're
in young on set mentia or in later stages, it
does affect them. And to be honest with you, the
more you're into the stages of the disease, the worse
that it is. So you have to look and you
have to if one thing we're going to harp on
(03:12):
today is communication and tell people ahead of time. You know,
here's what we're here's the difference, Here's what to expect
this year.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah. Absolutely, So as excited as you may be to
see your family and see your friends, and some of
this travel may be limited. Maybe they're coming to your
home and so vice versa, as excited as you are
for them to come see you. If this is the
first time you're really gathering together and you have a
new diagnosis, particularly if you're younger and it's really unexpected,
(03:42):
it may be causing a lot of anxiety about seeing
the family members, and so you know, we really want
to talk about that ahead of time and decide sit
down together with you if you're diagnosed and your loved one,
your most immediate care partner, and let's just talk about
those feelings. How are you feeling about the family coming in,
how are you feeling about going to the family's house,
(04:05):
and how do you want to handle the conversations. It's
something to really think about.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Sure, and also on the other side of the corn,
people that are coming in, to have a talk with
them ahead of time as far as what they should expect,
and that you may have to excuse yourself. You may
take your loved one out for a walk or or
drive when the three year old and the seven year
old and the eight year old are all open in
presents or something at Christmas time and it's total chaos
(04:33):
because it's chaos for everyone. And talking about cognitive overload, absolutely,
I mean that takes it to a whole new level.
During that you know, it may just be five minutes
of it, but that can be unnerving and something that
can affect you for days to come.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Absolutely, So one of the very first things to
talk about in the beginning is just that the beginning
who's coming. First of all, what are they bring? Any
pets or animals?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Aunt Martha's gonna bring her cat?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yes, exactly, and who knows what? So are they all
aware of your diagnosis? Do you want them to be
all aware of your diagnosis? Because we don't want to
make it to where it's the whole center theme. The
theme is family and being connected, but we also want
to prevent any awkwardness or uncomfortableness for you, the person
(05:24):
living with dementia, and on both sides. So if they
don't know, perhaps have that conversation on if you're comfortable
with them knowing ahead of time, and have those conversations
individually with the family members that are coming or the
friends that are coming ahead of time of here's where
we are, here's what we've been diagnosed with, and here's
what it means, and here's how you may see it
(05:47):
coming out In me. I may have times where I'm
in the middle of a conversation that completely lose my
train of thought. We're going to call that a dementia blip. Okay,
I've had a dementia blip. So the more we can
help and equip our family members and friends on this
may happen, and here's how to here's how you can
best help me. If that happens, the better it'll be
(06:09):
for everyone going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Right, I'm going to talk to the people that are
coming in, Okay, the family members, the cousins, the aunts
and uncles. Okay, listen, don't don't go up to the
person with dementia and say, hey, you know who I am.
Do not challenge them, is the best way to put it. Uh,
you know, don't don't try to put them in a
situation where they have to remember something and they haven't
(06:32):
seen you in a year. You know, you may show
up once a year to eat the free turkey and dressing, Okay,
and that's that's why you're there. And so you know
that that one person and it's happened in my life
and that's why I'm so passionate about it. You know,
the cousin that shows up, that that gets up in
your mom's face and says, hey, you know who I am.
(06:53):
You know that that can cause way more damage than
you realize. So to if you're going into that situation,
should be very mindful of the situation you're going into
and to be helpful and not hurtful to never challenge anybody.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it's not that you go in with the intent
of challenging. That's correct and we know that and everyone
knows that. But the awareness, I think is what is
important for you to know of. So be aware that
dementia causes people not to be able to recall information
on the minute. So if they're being questioned about something,
(07:28):
that can feel like a challenge, which puts extra pressure
on their thought processes and extra pressure on their thinking ability,
and it may cause that dementia blok to happen, which
will cause someone that's aware and still in the earlier
stages of dementia to become embarrassed and they're going to
shrink away or get agitated. So the better way to
(07:50):
handle that communication is, hey, let's talk about you know,
back in high school when we were playing Tarrant High School,
and do you remember that great win that we had
and you were in the quarterback and I was the
receiver and you threw that pass and go through and
provide the information for them and then bring your resurfacing
those memories that will help help spark the conversation. And
(08:13):
that's what you want to listen, that's right and be flexible.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know, absolutely, you know, everything doesn't have to be
in the tradition of exactly how we do things. This
year things have changed, yeah, and you've got to be
flexible and change with them.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We talk all the time about how routine and establishing
a routine is so critically important when you're living with
dementia and when you travel, especially if you're going to
a family member's home. Even if you've been there many
many times, or it may be your childhood home that
you grew up in, it still is going to be
different than what these routine as you establish in your
(08:48):
everyday living situation. So be aware, help your family members,
be aware that this is a change for you. And
then any tools that you have at your home now
that are helping you, whether it's labeling of baskets where
particular important items must go, or your routine of trying
to get so many hours of sleep, or if you
(09:11):
use a white noise machine, take a white noise machine
with you, anything that you can bring with you, bring
it with you. As much as you can recreate the
routine and the tools that you have to help you
live independently at home. As much as you can bring
that with you. Bring it. It will do nothing but
help you along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And you know, my parents used to always, you know,
buy their own presents for the grandkids and the great
grandkids as yours went on. You know, that's it's hard
to remember, you know. I mean my parents even had trouble.
My dad did for sure, even remembering his own great
grandkids first names, much less what they need to buy
(09:51):
for Christmas. So you know, understand that things are different,
Understand where they're coming from, and how you can help.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
If you can work into everyone. Maybe a first gift
is a cute Christmas ornament tag that everyone wears that
has the name their names on it. That is a
great way to avoid that that little bit of uncomfortableness
if a name is forgotten. Have something that goes along
(10:19):
with the holiday. Not like we've talked about before in
labeling bright bold color, contrasting to the word bright bright letters,
big letters that just have the first name. Have that
have that as part of the normal attire for this holiday,
festive event. That doesn't look like it's standing out or
you're doing something that's specific to dementia, but it's something
(10:41):
to make everyone feel a part of the family have
that as part of the first day gifts. You give
that to everybody as they come in, and everybody knows
to wear that each day. And in the conversation you've
had beforehand where you're letting your family members know where
your disease process is, the kinds of things that you
need to help, that can be part of that conversation
(11:03):
and then they can that will just be a normal
thing that we do at the family's home, and that
will help avoid those situations because names are very difficult,
especially think about kids and how much they can change
in a year. That's hard for any older family member
to remember. But if you can help facilitate that memory
(11:24):
by making those name tags, it helps avoid that whole situation.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Make sure they're involved in the activities, whether it's cutting
the cake or wrapping the presence or you know whatever.
Get them involved and you know where they're involved in
the activities, and it helps stimulate their their.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Not their memories and they're whatever the situation is. What
you don't want to do is do everything for them.
So don't don't be in that mindset of oh, you're
here visiting, I don't want you to. I don't want
to put you to work. I don't want you to
do anything. No, involve them. There's everybody wants to feel
like they're involved and they have a purpose. Get them
(12:03):
involved in the situation. If you're going out to throw
the football, bring them along. Have them got there and
throw the football with you. Whatever this situation is, whatever
the activity is, get them involved, has something specific for
them to do. Ask them to help, point blank. Ask
them to help. They want to. Everybody wants to feel
wanted and then but also be flexible. So don't pack
(12:24):
your routines. What's so full of things and places to
go and people? You got to see that it is
in itself just exhausting even to look. Have you ever
been in that situation where you're itinerary? Just you can
look at it and get exhausted.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Absolutely every Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We used to do the same thing when we have
to go to these restaurants, We have to go to
these things. We have to see these fifteen people even
though we haven't talked to them all year, so prioritize them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I know that we're talking about different stages of dementia
throughout and we're mostly harping on Christmas because that's when
everybody gets together, more so Thanksgiving Christ. But you know,
if you're going to travel, I want to go back
to that a little bit and how to plan things
like medicine list and things like that which would be
helpful to make sure that you take the extra time
(13:12):
to plan that.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, you know everything from if you have to travel,
whether it's near or far, have the plan trip, the
trip planned out, have a map, have an itinerary as
far as where you're going to go, the directions, make
sure it's programmed into your GPS, the address of where
you're going. Even in the earliest stages, the subtle changes
(13:35):
of routine, the exhaustion that's going to kick in from
just doing all the things packed in that you want
to get packed in. It could impact you differently now
that you have dementia and it could cause your exhaustion
levels to be skyrocketed. So be proactive, go above and
beyond to make yourself put these measures in place to
keep yourself safe. Make sure everyone that you have your
(13:58):
your phones linked so if you're on an iPhone that
you have to find my iPhone or one of those
apps where your care partner, your loved one can find you.
If you happen to take the dog out for a
walk and you forget where you are in the neighborhood
because the neighborhood's probably changed since you lived there. If
you're going back to your childhood home, things like that,
(14:19):
to just be proactive. But like you said, your medications.
If you have a tool that you use to help
sort your medications, bring it along. Make sure you have
them all sorted out in your pill organizer so you
can keep on your schedules and keep on your routines.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And if you're hosting the get together and Aunt Martha
has been coming for the last ten years and all
of a sudden, Aunt Martha is the one that has dementia,
be aware of that. Know that your routine may have
to change, that you have to be more flexible to
accommodate her. It may not be just your mom are
going to mom's house. This could be just someone that
(14:53):
comes into your home whose situation has changed over the
last few years. And you may have to be the
one that just step up and say we're changing tradition
this year and call people ahead of time and tell
them that so that they know why you're not carving
the turkey at one o'clock exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You may just need to be a little more flexible
on things, and you may have to just have the
awareness again of why I may have to step out
of the room if everyone's opening gifts at the same
time and we have the Christmas music on or the
Christmas movie on and foods getting passed around, and to
someone living with dementia, that can be very cognitively overstimulating
(15:33):
and it could just create a lot of anxiety, a
lot of angst, and just feeling overwhelmed in stress. It's
okay for them to walk outside. It's okay for them
to have an area to escape, or if you can
set it up in a room where they can be
in the back side of the room, or if they
want to if they want to step out, it's okay.
Don't call attention to it. Just make sure they're okay
(15:55):
and keep partying on. They'll come back in when they're ready.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Absolutely, Thanks Judy, It's been a lot of information there,
But basically the bottom line is is to plan a
little bit, be flexible, and understand that traditions are traditions
and they sometimes can get broken.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Absolutely, and don't forget on the way back to when
you do get back to your normal routine, the exhaustion
could have a lag factor. It could come in many
days down the road, so keep in mind that may happen.
And if you're living with dementia or you're the primary
care partner, give each other a break. You've been through
a big, wonderful trip hopefully, and give yourselves time to recover.
(16:36):
And it's going to take a little bit longer, but overall,
enjoy your holidays. Stay safe, everyone thrive.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Onm Thanks for listening, and be sure to follow us
on Facebook at Karen Thrive and visit our website www
dot karenthrive dot org. Subscribe to this podcast to your
favorite podcasting platform. This podcast is produced by your podcast
(17:03):
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(17:25):
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Speaker 2 (17:42):
The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform.
It is not a substitute for professional care by a
doctor or other qualified medical professionals.
Welcome to Dementia Real Talk by Karen Thrive, a podcast
to help you navigate life with dementia, presented by Blair Pharmacy.
Whether you're living with dementia or a care partner for
someone with dementia, join us to learn more about what
to expect and practical approaches to adapt your world to thrive.
Now welcome our hosts, Jerry Young and certified dementia practitioner
(00:31):
and trainer Judy Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays. On
a matter for.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
When you long for the sunshine of a friendly games
for the holidays, you can't.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Feed home sweet Well, you can guess what we're going
to talk about. We're going to talk about holidays and
traditions and how to handle awkward situations and what to
do to avoid awkward situations as well as family fights
sometimes as well. So hello everyone, and welcome in. I'm
Jerry Young. Judy Pritchard joins us now and Judy, you know,
(01:19):
this is a hard subject to approach because you don't
want to offend anybody, But at the same time, there's
real things that happen.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Over the holidays, absolutely, and things we would look forward
to and you should look forward to and especially if
you just do a few proactive approaches, hopefully you can
navigate the holidays no matter what your situation is, without
any major problems happening. But even in the best of families,
the holiday holidays can cause some stress and emotional changes,
(01:47):
right absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know in my family, you know, things that were
tradition before just absolutely had to go away. Its just
that simple. I mean, there's times to change adition. You know,
if you carved the turkey at eleven o'clock or whatever,
you know, or at one o'clock, you know, it may
have to change this year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, you know. One of the big things that we
always love to do is holidays is we would travel
to Pennsylvania, that's where I'm from, and we would pack
up the kids and pack up the car and we'd
drive up there. And we tried to make the car
trip fun by playing games, and we had the little
video recorders so that we could play their favorite movies.
(02:28):
And the kids actually looked forward to the trip too.
So it's all about that planning ahead. But once we
got there, it would never fail no matter. We would
have such a wonderful time and see all of our
family and friends, and by the time we got back
in the car to come back home, we were exhausted,
absolutely mentally and physically.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And that's why we're going to talk about this because
you can imagine if it's that hard on you with
small kids, and then you look at someone whether they're
in young on set mentia or in later stages, it
does affect them. And to be honest with you, the
more you're into the stages of the disease, the worse
that it is. So you have to look and you
have to if one thing we're going to harp on
(03:12):
today is communication and tell people ahead of time. You know,
here's what we're here's the difference, Here's what to expect
this year.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah. Absolutely, So as excited as you may be to
see your family and see your friends, and some of
this travel may be limited. Maybe they're coming to your
home and so vice versa, as excited as you are
for them to come see you. If this is the
first time you're really gathering together and you have a
new diagnosis, particularly if you're younger and it's really unexpected,
(03:42):
it may be causing a lot of anxiety about seeing
the family members, and so you know, we really want
to talk about that ahead of time and decide sit
down together with you if you're diagnosed and your loved one,
your most immediate care partner, and let's just talk about
those feelings. How are you feeling about the family coming in,
how are you feeling about going to the family's house,
(04:05):
and how do you want to handle the conversations. It's
something to really think about.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Sure, and also on the other side of the corn,
people that are coming in, to have a talk with
them ahead of time as far as what they should expect,
and that you may have to excuse yourself. You may
take your loved one out for a walk or or
drive when the three year old and the seven year
old and the eight year old are all open in
presents or something at Christmas time and it's total chaos
(04:33):
because it's chaos for everyone. And talking about cognitive overload, absolutely,
I mean that takes it to a whole new level.
During that you know, it may just be five minutes
of it, but that can be unnerving and something that
can affect you for days to come.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Absolutely, So one of the very first things to
talk about in the beginning is just that the beginning
who's coming. First of all, what are they bring? Any
pets or animals?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Aunt Martha's gonna bring her cat?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yes, exactly, and who knows what? So are they all
aware of your diagnosis? Do you want them to be
all aware of your diagnosis? Because we don't want to
make it to where it's the whole center theme. The
theme is family and being connected, but we also want
to prevent any awkwardness or uncomfortableness for you, the person
(05:24):
living with dementia, and on both sides. So if they
don't know, perhaps have that conversation on if you're comfortable
with them knowing ahead of time, and have those conversations
individually with the family members that are coming or the
friends that are coming ahead of time of here's where
we are, here's what we've been diagnosed with, and here's
what it means, and here's how you may see it
(05:47):
coming out In me. I may have times where I'm
in the middle of a conversation that completely lose my
train of thought. We're going to call that a dementia blip. Okay,
I've had a dementia blip. So the more we can
help and equip our family members and friends on this
may happen, and here's how to here's how you can
best help me. If that happens, the better it'll be
(06:09):
for everyone going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Right, I'm going to talk to the people that are
coming in, Okay, the family members, the cousins, the aunts
and uncles. Okay, listen, don't don't go up to the
person with dementia and say, hey, you know who I am.
Do not challenge them, is the best way to put it. Uh,
you know, don't don't try to put them in a
situation where they have to remember something and they haven't
(06:32):
seen you in a year. You know, you may show
up once a year to eat the free turkey and dressing, Okay,
and that's that's why you're there. And so you know
that that one person and it's happened in my life
and that's why I'm so passionate about it. You know,
the cousin that shows up, that that gets up in
your mom's face and says, hey, you know who I am.
(06:53):
You know that that can cause way more damage than
you realize. So to if you're going into that situation,
should be very mindful of the situation you're going into
and to be helpful and not hurtful to never challenge anybody.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it's not that you go in with the intent
of challenging. That's correct and we know that and everyone
knows that. But the awareness, I think is what is
important for you to know of. So be aware that
dementia causes people not to be able to recall information
on the minute. So if they're being questioned about something,
(07:28):
that can feel like a challenge, which puts extra pressure
on their thought processes and extra pressure on their thinking ability,
and it may cause that dementia blok to happen, which
will cause someone that's aware and still in the earlier
stages of dementia to become embarrassed and they're going to
shrink away or get agitated. So the better way to
(07:50):
handle that communication is, hey, let's talk about you know,
back in high school when we were playing Tarrant High School,
and do you remember that great win that we had
and you were in the quarterback and I was the
receiver and you threw that pass and go through and
provide the information for them and then bring your resurfacing
those memories that will help help spark the conversation. And
(08:13):
that's what you want to listen, that's right and be flexible.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know, absolutely, you know, everything doesn't have to be
in the tradition of exactly how we do things. This
year things have changed, yeah, and you've got to be
flexible and change with them.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We talk all the time about how routine and establishing
a routine is so critically important when you're living with
dementia and when you travel, especially if you're going to
a family member's home. Even if you've been there many
many times, or it may be your childhood home that
you grew up in, it still is going to be
different than what these routine as you establish in your
(08:48):
everyday living situation. So be aware, help your family members,
be aware that this is a change for you. And
then any tools that you have at your home now
that are helping you, whether it's labeling of baskets where
particular important items must go, or your routine of trying
to get so many hours of sleep, or if you
(09:11):
use a white noise machine, take a white noise machine
with you, anything that you can bring with you, bring
it with you. As much as you can recreate the
routine and the tools that you have to help you
live independently at home. As much as you can bring
that with you. Bring it. It will do nothing but
help you along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And you know, my parents used to always, you know,
buy their own presents for the grandkids and the great
grandkids as yours went on. You know, that's it's hard
to remember, you know. I mean my parents even had trouble.
My dad did for sure, even remembering his own great
grandkids first names, much less what they need to buy
(09:51):
for Christmas. So you know, understand that things are different,
Understand where they're coming from, and how you can help.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
If you can work into everyone. Maybe a first gift
is a cute Christmas ornament tag that everyone wears that
has the name their names on it. That is a
great way to avoid that that little bit of uncomfortableness
if a name is forgotten. Have something that goes along
(10:19):
with the holiday. Not like we've talked about before in
labeling bright bold color, contrasting to the word bright bright letters,
big letters that just have the first name. Have that
have that as part of the normal attire for this holiday,
festive event. That doesn't look like it's standing out or
you're doing something that's specific to dementia, but it's something
(10:41):
to make everyone feel a part of the family have
that as part of the first day gifts. You give
that to everybody as they come in, and everybody knows
to wear that each day. And in the conversation you've
had beforehand where you're letting your family members know where
your disease process is, the kinds of things that you
need to help, that can be part of that conversation
(11:03):
and then they can that will just be a normal
thing that we do at the family's home, and that
will help avoid those situations because names are very difficult,
especially think about kids and how much they can change
in a year. That's hard for any older family member
to remember. But if you can help facilitate that memory
(11:24):
by making those name tags, it helps avoid that whole situation.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Make sure they're involved in the activities, whether it's cutting
the cake or wrapping the presence or you know whatever.
Get them involved and you know where they're involved in
the activities, and it helps stimulate their their.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Not their memories and they're whatever the situation is. What
you don't want to do is do everything for them.
So don't don't be in that mindset of oh, you're
here visiting, I don't want you to. I don't want
to put you to work. I don't want you to
do anything. No, involve them. There's everybody wants to feel
like they're involved and they have a purpose. Get them
(12:03):
involved in the situation. If you're going out to throw
the football, bring them along. Have them got there and
throw the football with you. Whatever this situation is, whatever
the activity is, get them involved, has something specific for
them to do. Ask them to help, point blank. Ask
them to help. They want to. Everybody wants to feel
wanted and then but also be flexible. So don't pack
(12:24):
your routines. What's so full of things and places to
go and people? You got to see that it is
in itself just exhausting even to look. Have you ever
been in that situation where you're itinerary? Just you can
look at it and get exhausted.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Absolutely every Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We used to do the same thing when we have
to go to these restaurants, We have to go to
these things. We have to see these fifteen people even
though we haven't talked to them all year, so prioritize them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I know that we're talking about different stages of dementia
throughout and we're mostly harping on Christmas because that's when
everybody gets together, more so Thanksgiving Christ. But you know,
if you're going to travel, I want to go back
to that a little bit and how to plan things
like medicine list and things like that which would be
helpful to make sure that you take the extra time
(13:12):
to plan that.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, you know everything from if you have to travel,
whether it's near or far, have the plan trip, the
trip planned out, have a map, have an itinerary as
far as where you're going to go, the directions, make
sure it's programmed into your GPS, the address of where
you're going. Even in the earliest stages, the subtle changes
(13:35):
of routine, the exhaustion that's going to kick in from
just doing all the things packed in that you want
to get packed in. It could impact you differently now
that you have dementia and it could cause your exhaustion
levels to be skyrocketed. So be proactive, go above and
beyond to make yourself put these measures in place to
keep yourself safe. Make sure everyone that you have your
(13:58):
your phones linked so if you're on an iPhone that
you have to find my iPhone or one of those
apps where your care partner, your loved one can find you.
If you happen to take the dog out for a
walk and you forget where you are in the neighborhood
because the neighborhood's probably changed since you lived there. If
you're going back to your childhood home, things like that,
(14:19):
to just be proactive. But like you said, your medications.
If you have a tool that you use to help
sort your medications, bring it along. Make sure you have
them all sorted out in your pill organizer so you
can keep on your schedules and keep on your routines.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And if you're hosting the get together and Aunt Martha
has been coming for the last ten years and all
of a sudden, Aunt Martha is the one that has dementia,
be aware of that. Know that your routine may have
to change, that you have to be more flexible to
accommodate her. It may not be just your mom are
going to mom's house. This could be just someone that
(14:53):
comes into your home whose situation has changed over the
last few years. And you may have to be the
one that just step up and say we're changing tradition
this year and call people ahead of time and tell
them that so that they know why you're not carving
the turkey at one o'clock exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You may just need to be a little more flexible
on things, and you may have to just have the
awareness again of why I may have to step out
of the room if everyone's opening gifts at the same
time and we have the Christmas music on or the
Christmas movie on and foods getting passed around, and to
someone living with dementia, that can be very cognitively overstimulating
(15:33):
and it could just create a lot of anxiety, a
lot of angst, and just feeling overwhelmed in stress. It's
okay for them to walk outside. It's okay for them
to have an area to escape, or if you can
set it up in a room where they can be
in the back side of the room, or if they
want to if they want to step out, it's okay.
Don't call attention to it. Just make sure they're okay
(15:55):
and keep partying on. They'll come back in when they're ready.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Absolutely, Thanks Judy, It's been a lot of information there,
But basically the bottom line is is to plan a
little bit, be flexible, and understand that traditions are traditions
and they sometimes can get broken.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Absolutely, and don't forget on the way back to when
you do get back to your normal routine, the exhaustion
could have a lag factor. It could come in many
days down the road, so keep in mind that may happen.
And if you're living with dementia or you're the primary
care partner, give each other a break. You've been through
a big, wonderful trip hopefully, and give yourselves time to recover.
(16:36):
And it's going to take a little bit longer, but overall,
enjoy your holidays. Stay safe, everyone thrive.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Onm Thanks for listening, and be sure to follow us
on Facebook at Karen Thrive and visit our website www
dot karenthrive dot org. Subscribe to this podcast to your
favorite podcasting platform. This podcast is produced by your podcast
(17:03):
now dot com. Let us produce a podcast for you.
When caring for your family, your local pharmacy should be
an important part of your team. Blair Pharmacy in Alabaster
is a family owned full service pharmacy giving its clients personalized,
accurate service. They offer services like Nedpack, Flavor RX and
free delivery. Kim and Daniel Blair are members of the
(17:25):
community and are here for you and your family. They
offer everyday items you would find in the big box stores,
but also support local vendors by offering unique, handcrafted items.
Blair Pharmacy a full service pharmacy caring for each of
our patients individual needs. Www dot Blair dash Pharmacy dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform.
It is not a substitute for professional care by a
doctor or other qualified medical professionals.
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