With more and more of the Baby Boomer Generation providing senior home care for our aging parents, it stands to reason more of us are traveling together as well.

This can be very rewarding, however it can also add some challenges to our trip planning. Here are 12 tips to help:

1. Most hotels offer handicapped suites. Even if your senior parent is fairly spry, they may appreciate the extra room and the extra grab bars that are usually available with those. Not only that, if your elderly parent has hearing problems, some of the disability rooms even offer doorbells and telephones with a choice of ringers or lights to notify you of guests/phone calls.
2. This can also protect them from being inadvertently assigned a room on the upper floor with no elevator available. That happened to me two years ago and I did ok, but it would definitely have been hard on my senior mom.
3. Speaking of stairs, thanks to that incident, I now always ask if there are elevators and, if not, I make sure I request ground floor rooms even if they don’t have accessible rooms, at the same time I make the reservation. (I have to admit, it wasn’t that easy for me to lug the suitcases up and down those stairs!)
4. Check each hotel room over when you are getting your senior parent settled in. Look for anything that could cause a nasty slip and fall accident! Fall protection is always important, and even more so when traveling in strange surroundings.
5. If your senior parent has a disability parking permit, be sure to tuck it in your purse along with any card that may come with it. Even if they don’t use the placard all the time, traveling can be quite exhausting and your elderly parent may be extra glad to have it handy.
6. It’s important for us to realize that a senior parent often doesn’t have as much energy as us and plan for plenty of rest breaks for them. If it’s possible, you might want to consider separate rooms which can give them the option for cat naps while you work or visit with others.
7. If you do get separate rooms, be sure to request adjoining rooms, if those are available, and otherwise rooms that are across from each other or side by side. If you don’t make that request when you schedule the rooms, you might wind up quite a ways apart. An elderly parent who is exhausted can easily become disoriented in new surroundings. They’ll feel better, and so will you, if you’re close to each other.
8. Also, be sure to forewarn anyone you are visiting that your parent may need plenty of rest time. If they don’t need it, that’s wonderful. If they do need it, there’ll be less disappointment and frustration on both sides.
9. We try to always get hotel rooms with a refrigerator and microwave. That way, if your aging parent needs to stay in the room while you go out, or gets sick while traveling, you can stock their room with cup-a-soup, crackers, lunchmeat, bread, condiments, and sodas. Then they can eat foods they like even when you are not there.
10. Even if your senior parent doesn’t normally use a walking cane, it can be useful to pack one if they have it. Arthritis foot pain or knee pain flare-ups, tiredness, or just plain tripping can make it worth its weight in gold!
11. When traveling together regularly, make sure you sign up for the various hotels’ frequent traveler programs and put both rooms on one rewards card, even if you pay for the rooms separately. These are great ways to save money and by combining the trips on one card you’ll earn reward points faster which can lead to free rooms and other discounts. You can then share the expenses and the savings equally.
12. If an aging parent gets ill on the road, it can be a difficult experience for both of you. You probably already keep copies of their health insurance information in your wallet which will help make things a bit easier. If not, now’s a great time to start. You might also want to write down the phone number and address of the urgent care center and hospital closest to your hotel BEFORE you need it.

Traveling is never easy, and often, the older you get, the more challenging it can be. It’s still quite worthwhile but it definitely pays to go out of your way to make things as easy as possible for your elderly parents. They’ll get to enjoy the travel experience but will appreciate your thoughtfulness in making sure they also get plenty of rest and Tender Loving Senior Home Care, even when you are all away from home.

Senior Home Care Givers:

Top 10 Diseases Made Famous by Celebrities – Parkinson’s Disease is #4 and Autism is # 10. @ParkinsonsInfo

An interesting EldercareABC blog carnival.

Boomers and Seniors: News You Can Use 10/27/09 – Transition, Memories & Meaning…

Good info for those who will soon be having cataract surgery! @mike_gamble

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…it’s about learning to dance in the rain! @TeresaBaine

Lack of ZZZZs Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice.    @GlenboAZ

Grandparenting:

Kids elect “awesome” homecoming queen with autism. @SafetyNetSource:

Show off your grandkids in a high-tech tiny keychain fun sort of way. Giveaway – Digital Photo Keychain.  @Janetfaye

Sandwich Generation:

Go get your free Christian holiday book now – The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren. @HomeEverAfter

Encouragement – You are my help and my deliverer; O my God.

Are eggs required for baking? A better option is to grind a tablespoon of flax seed & dissolve it in 3 tablespoons of water. This equals the same consistency and binding power as the eggs and is a lot healthier for our baby boomer generation bodies (not to mention our senior parents’ bodies). @Carebuzz

Mixed news from many quarters on whether the economy is better, worse or the same. The bottom line, though, is that there are still plenty of people I know who are out of work and need some extra help. If you know anyone using food stamps, let them know that many wholesale clubs like Sam’s Club are now taking food stamps. For a large, multi-generational family, that could be a big help!

Democrats Agree to Extend Home-Buyer Tax Credit as part of a package that would also extend unemployment benefits. It could come up for a vote today. If you want to express your opinion on this, either way, you’ll find the congressional contact info at SandwichINK.

Food safety is vital for the Sandwich Generation and their families. Poultry is the #1 source of food poisoning in the U.S. — here’s how to keep your family safe. @parenting

Humorous & interesting article – My Neighbor Rocks – Baby Boomer Generation Meets Guns and Roses.

It’s a rainy, blustery day in Autumn today. How about you? I just came from my church where I picked up duplicate copies of each of my grandkids’ Awanas books to keep at my house. That way I can help them learn their verses each week without having to send the books back and forth. Yes, it’s a little more expensive that way but I love doing it. It saves on the stress load when one of us is taking the kids to Awanas and the other of us has the books! With all the stress in a Sandwich Generation Senior Home Care Giver and Grandparent’s life, we definitely don’t need more. True?

I was thinking about what a blessing all sorts of duplicates can be for us – both for our grandkids AND for our aging parents.

For my grandkids, I’ve routinely keep on hand:

• Diapers, Pull-ups, Good-nites (my all-time favorite night-time pull-up), and Swim Diapers
• Bottles, Sippy Cups, and other special equipment they’ve needed over the years. Also, specialized medical equipment/medications for special needs and/or emergencies, such as feeding bags, allergy kits, etc.
• Formula, favorite foods, non-perishable lunch box items, and easy freezable breakfast items
• Medications – did you know you can ask the pharmacist to split liquid medications into two bottles to make it easy to store some at each house? It’s very handy!

For aging parents with special needs such as those requiring dementia care, walking assistance, etc., many of us in the Sandwich Generation may only be helping part-time to give our parent’s spouse or other full-time caregiver a much-needed break. Some items that can help in that situation include:

• Incontinence pads such as Depends, Poise Pads, etc.
• A walking cane, a transport wheelchair, etc. This can make it easier for the caregiver to bring your senior parent back and forth so they don’t have to load up the car as much.
• Specialized medical equipment for special needs and/or emergencies, such as feeding bags, bedpans, etc.
• Special and/or favorite foods such as Ensure
• Medications

As the commercial likes to say:

Extra supplies for grandkids and/or aging parents  = $xx

Storage = Does take room to store

Stress relief = PRICELESS

As Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents, we can have several challenges in melding the needs of our senior parents and our very young grandkids. One prime example is that we want to allow grandkids to play freely while at the same time keeping safe areas and fall protection for our elderly parents and/or our wobbly toddlers who are just learning to walk.

If you are one of those who are blessed with the gift of keeping things totally immaculate without even trying, you probably won’t have an issue in this area. For those, like me, who are not so blessed, it’s a constant challenge to make sure we keep things picked up so my senior mom OR another grandkid don’t suffer any falls

Some of the things we’ve learned to watch for include:

• Keeping doorways clear for senior parents and shaky toddlers. For some reason, children seem to LOVE to play in doorways. I don’t think twice walking around or over them, but aging parents and tiny toddlers aren’t able to do this safely. Now I routinely remind them not to play there at all.
• Gates are vital for young ones – not to mention puppies – but aging parents might not notice them since they are at knee level. For that matter, they might see the gate, lift their legs over it but not be able to get them up high enough, then trip and suffer falls. Since I, who am usually very spry, just did that tonight, I can testify to how easy that is! 
• Aging eyes don’t see toys as easy as young eyes, and even small toys can cause a shaky senior OR toddler to trip. Marbles are fun for the tween ages, but can cause falls for the older and younger AND pose a choking danger to the wee ones. The same goes for LEGO and other tiny toys. Keeping them picked up is time consuming but easy fall protection.
  
• Dimmed light can be useful to try to get the young’uns to sleep but make it easy for great-grandma to slip and fall.
  
• Rugs – even rubber-backed ones – can cause the very young and the elderly to slip and fall, particularly if they get turned up or rumpled. The rubber-backed ones are vital, but even they need to be regularly monitored to be sure they are flat and safe.
  

These are just a few ways to provide family safety through fall protection. I try to stop and think things through every couple of days, and look around the house for areas that might be a problem.  If you have suggestions of things to watch for, we’d love to hear about them in the comments section below. And, be sure to sign up for the SandwichINK free email for more info and ideas for the Sandwich Generation.

Did you know that some medications may be considered inappropriate for elderly patients? I didn’t! I discovered this while visiting The Care Navigator.  It's definitely vital information for all of us in the Sandwich Generation, caring for the elderly parents and relatives in our families!

After reading her article, I did some research on the Beers Criteria she mentioned and learned more about it to share with you. QSource has an excellent article describing how the Beers List of Medications began and what questions to ask about each medication on it, such as “What is this medicine supposed to do.” In addition, it lists each medication in a PDF document with large print. These range from Xanax Medication to Mineral Oil! I would never have guessed that! CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Centre)  writes that the medications are on this list “because they are either ineffective in the elderly or put seniors at an unnecessarily high risk when safer alternatives are available, as outlined by a widely cited study known as the Beers criteria.” The list that CBC News provides has been modified to only include medications you can get in Canada. Their article also includes a good search tip on how to find the item if it is a generic. It’s well worth reading.

For a well-researched site with the most detail and information about each of the medications, head to The Archives of Internal Medicine. This is the site that is best for serious researching of the medications taken by the aging parents and other relatives we are providing senior home care for – whether in our home, living close, or long distance. As they explained in the results section:

“Table 1 contains 48 individual medications or classes of medications to avoid in older adults and their potential concerns. Table 2 lists 20 diseases or conditions and medications to be avoided in older adults with these conditions. Sixty-six of these potentially inappropriate drugs were considered by the panel to have adverse outcomes of high severity. New conditions and diagnoses that were addressed this time included depression, cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, anorexia, and malnutrition, syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion, and obesity.”

I really appreciated the information they provided in these tables as they listed the drug, explained what the concern was, whether the level of concern is high or low, and what steps, if any, we can take to enable our senior parents to safely take the medication or find safe alternatives. If you’d like a smaller list, in a handy format for popping into a purse or wallet, Duke Clinical Research Institute provides a “summary report”  from The Archives of Internal Medicine’s list. All of this information was very interesting and useful to each of us as senior home care givers!

Of course, as with all other information on this website, we need to print it out and take it to our aging parents’ doctors, along with a list of our parents’ medications. There we can discuss with their doctors the ramifications of any items our parents are taking, from mineral oil to Xanax medication and everything in between, that might be on the Beers List, then follow their doctor’s directions. Some medications may be prescribed or recommended purposefully, in spite of being on this list, because it is the only thing that will do. Other times, however, the doctors may realize that another medication is called for. I will definitely be keeping this article and the lists handy, on my computer and in a printout in my purse, so I can discuss my senior mom's medications more knowledgeably the next time we have to head for a doctor’s visit or the emergency room! That's a big help for all of us in the Sandwich Generation, caring for the elderly parents and relatives in our family!

Kaye

Providing senior home care to our aging parents definitely keeps us busier than the normal member of the Baby Boomer Generation. Helping with grandkids makes the Sandwich Generation one of the busiest times in our lives. I say that in spite of, once upon a time, having had three kids in three schools at one time, not to mention swim lessons and girl scouts as well!

Because it is such a busy time, it is easy to overlook small changes creeping their way in. I was reading an interesting, new-to-me blog by Maddy, a fellow Sandwich Generation grandma.  She wrote about just recently noticing changes in her mother-in-law that she realized had been showing up for the past few weeks. They were so small, and she was so busy, she had not caught on to them at first. Very understandable! And something we all deal with.

One of those small changes can often be an aging parent becoming a bit less steady on their feet. Then again, sometimes there is no warning. One day they are walking fine, the next day they take an unexpected tumble. Either way, the end result is that they are now walking a bit shakier and falling much easier. It’s probably time for them to get a walking cane.

The best place to start is their doctor’s office. Unfortunately, convincing them to get a cane can often be very difficult. The word itself evokes a major negative exclamation point in their mind. Or perhaps the tumble happened at a time when the doctor’s office is closed. They don’t need to go to the emergency room, but they do need something to help them. Then again, you may have had a similar incident as one of my senior friends. After going to the doctor to check out a couple of bruises for a fall, and admitting to a couple of other falls over the past couple of months, his doctor told him he should get a cane, but my friend brushed it off, saying he would later. One way or another, later has arrived, a doctor’s visit is not required, accepted, or needed. So where can we shop?

Walmart, Target, Walgreen’s, and Rite Aid are all good places to begin. Shopping at one of those is probably one of your best ways to save money on the cane and they will have a couple of choices. Not a lot, but it’s often enough. But, what do you do if you can’t find what you want?

Did you know Amazon carries canes? They have a large selection and the prices can be competitive. I priced quad canes recently, and found they were only a couple of dollars more than what I eventually paid at Walmart.

Another option, though finding one is getting harder and harder these days, is a local medical supply store. We used to have a wonderful one close by but they closed about a year ago. When I broke my leg, they were terrific. They carried just about everything I needed to help me, from crutch pads to shower protectors. I didn’t need a walking cane at that time, but I noticed they had a large selection of them available.

Parentgiving.com is an interesting site I’ve visited a few times. They also offer a great selection of walking canes. I’ve not used them yet, but do have them bookmarked for the future.

One last place I found online is Walking-Canes.net. Not only do they carry canes, but they have a large selection of articles about how to select a cane, how to size a cane, the different types of canes, and so much more. Would you believe, they even give tips on how to carve your very own, very unique walking cane!

Well, hopefully this will give us a good starting point on our quest for just the right walking cane to help our beloved aging parents. And with all this interesting info, perhaps they will be more receptive to the idea as well.

Summer time often means travel time. This includes those of us providing senior home care for our aging parents, with and without those parents. I, too, am doing a bit of traveling off and on this summer and am keeping my eyes open for helps and hints to share with all of you.

On one such trip, I learned some important questions to ask every time I make a hotel or motel reservation. “Do you have more than one floor, and if so, do you have at least two working elevators?” I look for two, in case one is broken. Would you believe, I learned this because of a repeat stay at one of my favorite places. It’s a delightful Inn in small town America, very up-to-date and spiffy, and even used as the area’s primary meeting and conference center.

We’d stayed there several times before but always had ground floor rooms. On this particular trip, I was traveling alone, which was good! I got in late and exhausted. After registering, I got my room key, realized it was on the second floor and asked where the elevator was. What a shock to discover they had no elevator! They had no other room that night so I had to lug two suitcases and a heavy box up a flight of stairs, thinking how grateful I was my senior mom was not with me!

Once all my luggage was deposited, I did OK with the stairs since my arthritis was behaving itself nicely. It would have been a different story, though, for an elderly adult. As you can imagine, we now make sure to request downstairs rooms every time we stay there.

On a later trip, I traveled with my grandkids and stayed at a different, family hotel. Most of their sites are all inside with elevators. This happened to be one of their older locations and is set up similar to more traditional apartment buildings. Again, we ended up with an upstairs room requiring using stairs. In addition, this particular set-up was a larger unit with a living room and loft, and included stairs inside the unit as well. We did fine with it. In fact, it was a big help for our particular needs on that trip. If I had been traveling with my senior mom or my arthritis was flaring up, however, it would have been much harder.

I can assure you, I now call the individual location when making reservations, and ask about the room set-ups and stair situation before finalizing my reservation. If you will be traveling with those you provide senior home care to, have a wonderful trip, and be sure to check up on those stairs.