Important Information for the Elderly: Allergies or a Cold?

With spring just beginning, it’s important for caregivers to learn how to discern between spring allergies and a cold. Why? This is important for a couple of reasons. The first reason is to be able to provide the most appropriate treatment. Additionally, colds can have different and more serious side effects for the elderly. As your elderly loved one makes their way through that box of tissues, take a minute to make sure it’s not a cold.

Here are some ways to determine if they are suffering from allergies or a cold:

1. Does your loved one have a fever?
Yes – Cold
No – Allergies

2. Are they achy?
Yes – Cold
No – Allergies

3. How long have they felt sick?
3-15 Days – Cold
Weeks – Allergies

4. Do they have a bad cough?
No – Allergies
Yes – Cold

5. Are their eyes watery and/or itchy?
Yes – Allergies
No -- Cold

If you believe that your elderly loved one has a cold, some rest, over the counter medication as recommended by their doctor, and time are the best treatment options. If you believe your elderly loved one is suffering from spring time allergies, over the counter allergy medication can help alleviate some of these symptoms, but be sure to always consult with your loved one’s physician before giving them any medications.

Here are some more web resources to help you determine whether or not your loved one is suffering from a cold or seasonal allergies:

WebMD: Is It a Common Cold or Allergies? 

Mayo Clinic: Cold or Allergy: Which Is It? 

ABC: Cold or Allergies: How To Tell

Creating Your Elderly Loved One's Legacy

There is a new trend beginning in the elderly population, and it is focused on leaving a part of the elderly person’s life and wisdom behind after they pass. It’s a hard thing to face, but your elderly loved ones will not be around forever. However, it can be easy to get caught up in the minutia of daily life, and to forget the amount of wisdom and knowledge that your elderly loved ones have. Chances are they’ve lived through war, they’ve seen huge changes in societal values, vast leaps in technologies, and they’ve interacted with hundreds of individuals within their lifetimes. All of this experience translates into a vast amount of wisdom. It’s important to not let all of this wisdom go without attention; so many individuals are creating legacies with their elderly loved ones.

What is a legacy? It is a record of an individual’s memories, experiences, advice, personality, and life. It is their history, and it’s recorded in some form so that their families, friends and future relatives can learn from it.

How can you start a legacy with your elderly loved one? Here are some guidelines for starting the legacy:

First, develop your goals. What do you and your elderly loved one want to achieve by doing this? Is the goal to help guide and advise any future grandchildren? Is it simply to leave an impression about who your elderly loved one is, as an individual?

Secondly, create interview questions and a plan to guide and develop the legacy. One of the most basic things you can do is to write down some questions about their life. What was their first memory? What was it like growing up in that decade? What is their most vivid memory? Here is a list of questions from Answers4Families.org that is a great starting point for developing your own interview with your senior loved one.

Once you’ve developed the questions, you can begin to decide which medium you would like to record this on. For example, you can videotape your elderly loved one answering the questions or telling a story. You can have them handwrite a letter to their families. You can record them and pair it with the writing. There are so many different things you can do, so you can be creative in determining this.

Lastly, decide what they would like to do with the legacy. Would they like to show it to the family now? Would they like to wait until after they pass?

These are just some basic suggestions that are meant to be a starting point for you and your elderly loved one. Here are some web resources to use:

The Legacy Project

Here are a collection of essays and wisdom that the Cornell School of Human Ecology has collected. There is some great wisdom here and a lot of inspiration for your own legacy work!

ParentGiving

Here is some more information about what a legacy is, and how to begin one within your own family.

Answers4Families: Creating a Family Legacy

Here is some more information about what a legacy is.

Some Spring Ideas for the Elderly

With the first day of spring less than a week away, it’s a good time to start thinking about some fun outside activities. Being outdoors is great for your health. According to the Harvard Health Letter, being outside will increase your vitamin D levels, elevate your mood, increase concentration, and, most importantly for the elderly, speed up healing. The Health Letter indicated that in one study, individuals who were exposed to natural light felt less pain and stress following surgery.  Additionally, the benefits of being active are very important to elder health.

For the elderly, some of these activities may have to be modified. However, the health benefits of being outside and the health benefits of being active make these activities a ‘must do’ for seniors.

Here are some ideas:

Take a walk: Take a walk around the neighborhood. If you don’t have any safe sidewalks around your home, you could try walking around a high school track.

Garden: Gardening is a great way to enjoy the nice weather and fit some exercise into your day. It can be very tiring work, but it’s extremely rewarding!

Hike: Find some easy trails around your home, and go for a hike. Be sure to wear appropriate footwear to prevent injuries!

Have a picnic: Pack a light lunch and head to the park!

Yard games: You can pick some easy games with the elderly. Think of low impact games such as shuffle board, horse shoes, or badminton.

Have coffee outside: Find a local café or restaurant, get a cup of coffee or tea, and sit outside in the sun.

Explore your own town: Get outside and pretend to be a tourist in your own town.

Do you have any other ideas? Leave some in the comments section!

Finding Love in an A.L.F.

“I finally got up the nerve after a big meal. I walked over to Kathy… and I said ‘after all this good food, do you think it’s alright if I kiss the cook?” said Dave laughing.

Dave and Kathy met in 2008 in Canfield, an Assisted Living Facility in Beaverton, Oregon. Kathy had just moved from Massachusetts to Oregon to be closer to her daughter and her son-in-law. Dave, originally from California, lived in the apartment upstairs from her. The two quickly became friends. 

“We were just friends. I knew him, and I used to say ‘hi’ to him,” explained Kathy.

In September 2011, Dave made the decision to move to Sacramento, California. His son was dying of cancer, and he wanted to be with him during that time. Kathy never forgot about him. She would call every week to check in on Dave and his son. After his son died, Dave would still receive that weekly call, but this time Kathy would ask about him and how he was managing.

“This is the thing that really hooked me. She called me every week. The first thing she said every time was ‘how are you doing and how is your son?’ Then after a few weeks I got to thinking -- this woman really cares about me and my family,” said Dave.

It was this care that helped Dave decide to move back to the Assisted Living Facility after his son passed away on December 27, 2011. His daughter called the facility and was able to get him an apartment there. This time, he was across the hall from Kathy.

“Kathy made me decide I better get back there and see what’s going on,” he said laughing.

The two easily resumed their friendship, but Kathy had her suspicions about Dave’s motives.

“I said to my daughter, Karen, ‘what am I going to do if he asks me out?’” said Kathy. “She just said ‘so what, Ma? Go!’”
However, Dave took his time and didn’t ask her on a date right away. The two began having meals together because Kathy is an excellent cook.

“He wanted to ask me out to dinner one night, but he didn’t ask me because he was afraid I would say no!” explained Kathy.

One night, Kathy made an amazing scallop dish. This was technically their first date, and Dave built up the nerve to ask for a kiss. The rest is history.

“I didn’t want it to happen, but it happened. That’s the way it goes, right?” said Kathy, jokingly. 

The two recently moved in together, and they live with Cricket, Dave’s cat, who has taken a liking to Kathy. 
“I’m really happy and it couldn’t be better. The only problem is that I feel 30, but I look in the mirror and say ‘who’s that old guy?’” said Dave laughing.

The two spend all of their time together. They go out to eat a lot, and Kathy will make them both delicious meals. They go to the movies regularly, and they just enjoy each other’s company. The pair also travels extensively – traveling to California, Seattle, and Italy within the past year. 

“We have good times. We went to California for a week this summer, and we went to Italy for nine days in September. We’re doing everything together. It’s a lot of fun. I’m enjoying it,” said Kathy.  

Marriage is not in their future, but Dave did buy Kathy a diamond ring while on their vacation in Italy, and the two are hoping to get the two families together sometime. Some of the children have met each other, and they couldn’t be happier for their parents.

And, regarding that first kiss: “I turned my face -- I made him kiss me on my cheek,” said Kathy happily.