CAREGIVER DIARIES: RESTRICTIONS

When your presence is temporary, decisions that will have permanent implications aren't yours to make. You can mean well, and still be as wrong as ketchup on a grapefruit. 

Sometimes, under the guise of being helpful people do incredible harm. You're not making someone happy by facilitating something that will hurt them.

Perhaps a medication you're taking helps you with your particular ailment. That commercial you were watching may have been convincing, but before you recommend something to, buy it for, or administer it to someone else--particularly a senior citizen--you should ask somebody. Don't just decide independently what will or won't hurt someone, no matter what the dose or amount, especially when "MD" is nowhere behind your name. That goes for foods, too. 

Someone who has been prescribed medications for hypertension, for example, might happily eat what you prepared just to appease you, but when you and your Tupperware are gone, and their stomach is upset, they're throwing up like an active volcano, or their blood pressure spikes, they, and others--medical professionals and caregivers--will have to deal with the repercussions, NOT you.

 

Just because someone says they want something doesn't mean you have to be their supplier.

ALWAYS check to see what medications someone is taking. Drug interactions and disregarding dietary restrictions are not joking matters, and ARE a big deal. 

If you care, you'll exercise wisdom.

You may have spent all afternoon baking your specialty cake for them, but what matters more? Your need for your effort to be recognized, or the diabetes of the recipient of the cake?

So what, if everyone finds out how much your pill relieved Jim Bob's arthritis, or how much Jim Bob enjoyed eating your smothered pork chops if they're finding out while sitting at Jim Bob's funeral?

Help. Don't hurt. And for heaven's sake, don't launch some ridiculous competition with people who are already on the job. 

The different, or unique thing that you want to bring to the table, may very well set your offering apart, but it may not be what's needed or prescribed. 

It's wonderful when people want to do something, but sometimes it's best to ask first whether what you want to do is helpful, or wise.