Course Correction
Hi, my name is Kathy. I am the host of knowledge for caregivers. I have been a geriatric nurse for 12 years. My goal in this show is to give you bite-size pieces and practical tips that you can use with your elderly loved ones or to become a stronger caregiver. If you have been listening to me for the past three years, I've had a format of speaking for about 10 to maybe 12 or 13 minutes about topics that relate to caregiving, especially for seniors. But if you've been listening to me, you also know I haven't produced a podcast since August of 2023. One of the big reasons is that I was getting headaches that were getting worse and worse. I'm an active middle-aged person who is getting older. So I've had groups that I belong to. I work, I volunteer, and I have my family. Then, I was finding it harder and harder to do things. The headaches were wearing me out. I felt like I was beginning to be this Hamster running on a wheel, just trying to get to the next thing and doing the next thing.
On top of that, my husband is also having some health problems, and we're getting to the age where we have more doctor appointments. As a nurse, I like to go to all his appointments with him. It just kind of helps with communication. When he returns, he says, “I don't remember what the doctor said.” So we've just found that that recipe works for us.
One of the things that I wanted to talk about in this first episode is that I am revamping; it will be shorter, and I will include videos. But I want to talk about retrenching so when I didn't feel good, I had to really step back from so many things. I stepped back from my podcast; I wasn't attending some podcast groups. I had to step back from other volunteer activities and really decide, hey, what's really important to me? Well, what was really important to me was my physical health. I started going to physical therapy. If you've ever been to physical therapy, they give you lots of homework and exercises. Once I felt better, and once I wasn't doing so much, I was able to really sit down and say, hey, what's most important to me is my physical help and my husband's help. I wanted to follow my dreams, which is part of this podcast. Sometimes, I know that I see family caregivers just getting up to doing the next thing, doing the next thing, and doing the next thing. And sometimes you need to stop. Think about what's going on. What do you need help with? Where can you back off and really evaluate what's the most important thing I know for me right now? It's getting my exercises done, eating healthy, making sure I'm emotionally healthy, and ensuring my husband's healthy. Maybe you need to make sure that you're doing that for yourself. Because if the caregiver is not healthy, the person they care for will also not be healthy. I am so passionate that you are on this caregiving journey with me. I hope that this will be helpful to you. If you want to contact me, you can at Kathysconsulting.com. Kathy's is spelled K athy s, and I would love it if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel or download the podcast or the podcast of your choice, or you can go read the blog. Thank you for listening to me, and see you next time.