care facility transition

     Caregivingly Yours began in 2004 to share our transitional year to the care facility era after 15 years of living with Multiple Sclerosis as a family and spouse caregiving.
     Blogs can be awkward to search and read in retrospect so I have arranged links to those original entries in chronological order, like chapter headings in a diary.


April 2004

Why share?

End of an Era

Point of No Return

Money makes the world go 'round

Parenting

Gamble for help

Keep it close

May 2004 and 'background'

Is MS supposed to ...

from Patti's Mom

Family visiting

Knowledge is power ...

Elder Care Attorney

Age discrimination?

Accidents - what a way to start a day ...

Low Rider

Visitors

Windmills & Dragons

Communication

Visitors and more visitors

MOTHER'S DAY

Medical assistance

Towering paper

Visiting

Ice cream therapy

An 'able bodied' day

Sunday in the park

Medicaid application

Blood in urine?

Nurse Practitioners

Alternative Medicine

Bee Sting Therapy

HOPE fuels the fight

Betaseron

Thursday outing

NEW set of wheels!

Avonex

Prednisone

Cytoxan

Swank Diet

The MS War in Summary

Hedonism VS Sacrifice

Runaway Chair

NYC 5/29/04 PICTURES

Quality of Life

Memorial Day

June 2004

Medical Bills & Insurance

Denial???

Raging against the machine

Increasing spasticity

Nancy Reagan

Sunday visit

A good person

It's peculiar ...

Caregiving & working

Nursing Home Care of Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis

Movie & Dinner

Messy shopping trip

Visiting Hours

Advocacy

Doctor's Appointment

Care Review

Carebot

Luck of the Draw

July 2004

Movie & Pizza

Able bodied day

Visitors always welcome!

4th of July

Simple Time

Challenges

Matinee

Medicaid ... the saga continues

Neurologist

wedding anniversary

Blizzards & Blazing Saddles

“I guess me being here ...

$64,000 question

just a question of when

foggy end of the swamp

Family time

WHY THIS JOURNAL?

Up and down kind of day for visiting

“Amarcord”

you have to try

accident free visit and travel

(from Patti's Mom) ...

August 2004

rose colored glasses

New Studies on MS, Stress and Depression

,,, a couple days in the life

wheel chair ‘road rage’

nothing special

a crack in the chrysalis

MS & Parenting

tough to be 16

from Patti's Mom ...

"We Will Rock You"

Medical power of attorney

Devil’s Playground

'drop in' any time of night and day

boogeyman of 24/7 care

“Ensuring Your Future..."

secret source of sanity

September 2004

Mental Confusion

benchmarks in ‘living with MS’

never have too much Dairy Queen

Visitors

Labor Day

a day in the life

BALANCE

9/11

SATURDAY NIGHTS JUST AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE!

SHOE SHOPPING

CARE PLAN REVIEW

BINGO WITH IVAN

BIRTHDAY

The oak tree and the cypress

Caregiving Formula ?

Retroactive Hell ??

MAZE

Phone Call

Depending Catholic

STRESS is “scheduled”

"WEEDS BENEATH MY SOLE"

Family Night

October 2004

COPY, FILE & SAVE

a harvest in Autumn

Accessibility options can benefit all.

physical therapy

FIRST FROST

SEARCHING for Multiple Sclerosis and Caregiving

Thou Shall Inspect What Thy Expect

at an even greater risk

Guaranteed Health Care for Everyone

snuggly bundled

A Day In The Life

At last it dawned on me ...

flu shot or no flu shot

Rowdy Customers In Wheelchairs

opposite directions?

time to fade out

November 2004

Surviving Christmas

Voting & MS

The Locks Don't Lie

Two out of three ain't bad!

A Sunday of different moods

Dining and driving, Part I

Dining & driving, Part II

MS & Memory

Empowerment

good fatigue

True Grit

Prozac Nation

changing dynamics

level of disability

FIRST snow flurries

Living with MS and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner

Tell the world, organize, find and destroy beaming sources

holiday confusion

a grumpy person?

Macy's Parade 2004

December 2004

Care Plan Review

MS kind of turns you into a cat

This was not in the plans.

Christmas Tree shopping

We are NOT the Cratchit family

Caregivers MUST “create” time

with snow falling outside ...

FAX vs ON HOLD

Christmas Day plans

holiday frustrations

Cluster Headaches

Christmas Card

"... I'll Be Home For Christmas ... "

Physical Therapy

photograph gifts

... note from a friend

January 2005

New Year's Eve

New Year's Day 2005

Parenting side of the coin

a new level of boring

Perception

memory should not be underestimated

involvement with others.

Pennsylvania Farm Show.

Accessibility and convenience are concepts ...

get involved early

a no problem day

on the same page

‘one horse sleigh’ of the neighborhood!

bureaucracy is fueled by paper

caregiver can expedite most medical communication

doesn’t ‘gallows humor’ make the dark less scary?

doing ‘something’ is important to try

get all the pieces get on the board at the same time

a simple drive in a storm

February 2005

unable to connect

We hope this all is of help

Friends are extraordinary medicine

Reflection

... and observation

odds & ends

What MS doesn’t destroy it appears the jackals will try

Tools

leg use vs atrophy

I could only laugh

makes you stop and think

A rose is a rose ... or is it?

Care Plan Review

Towel bars to grab bars

Sunday outing and snow

Caregiving devours time ...

Doctor's appointments

Slipping and sliding

Short Story Writing

March 2005

March roars in like a snow lion

why shovel

best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men

“how boring my life would be without you in it.”

memory problems vs reality can cause nothing more than a gruff response

YEAR IN SUMMARY: Part 1 of 5 Was the transition expensive?

YEAR IN SUMMARY Part 2 of 5: did not need a weatherman to tell her which way the wind was blowing

YEAR IN SUMMARY: Part 3 of 5 MEDICAID

YEAR IN SUMMARY: Part 4 of 5 Insurance

conspiracy theories

The Ides of March

YEAR IN SUMMARY: Part 5 of 5 Was It Worth It?