How Much Physical Stress Are You Placing on Yourself as a Caregiver?

There’s a lot more to being a caregiver than just spending time with your elderly family member, unfortunately. Much of what you’re going to find yourself doing can be physically draining, which limits the extent of how much you might be able to help on your own.

Elder Care in Reston VA: Caregiver Stress

Moving and Lifting Your Senior

Whether your senior has mobility issues or is fully bedridden, you may be more involved in moving and lifting her than you expected you would be. If you’re not sure how to lift and maneuver properly, you can seriously injure yourself.

Taking Over Tasks for Your Aging Adult

Some of the tasks that your elderly family member may have been able to handle on her own, such as bathing, cooking, and other personal care tasks can become too much for her. You may have assumed these tasks gradually or all of a sudden as a result of illness.

Managing Household Tasks

Laundry and cleaning don’t go away simply because your senior family member is not feeling as up to tackling them as she once did. In fact, these tasks can become even more daunting for you, especially if you live elsewhere and have to handle your own household tasks when you get home.

Handling Errands and Transportation

But it’s not just within your senior’s home that you’re likely to be expending far more energy than you realize. You may find that you’re running to the pharmacy a few times a month or taking your senior to doctor’s appointments regularly. Depending on how many doctors she sees, you may feel as if you two never get out of the car.

Neglecting Your Own Self-Care

With all of these tasks for your aging adult falling to you, the last thing you might be thinking about taking care of is you. The problem with that is that you can’t keep running on empty for long. You have to replenish yourself in order to handle all of the different things you handle. That means taking time away from caregiving and just being for a little while.

The answer to these problems is to get help so that you’re not shouldering these burdens alone. Talk to family members about how they can pitch in and set up a plan. Hire elderly care providers to take some of this on. They’ve got the experience to help you in ways that you haven’t had time to fully narrow down yet.

Are you or a loved-one considering hiring elder care in Reston, VA?  Please call the caring staff at Medical Professionals On Call today.
Contact: 703-273-8818

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Michelle DeFilippis

I graduated with a BS degree and had been selling medical equipment to hospitals, clinics and technicians. More recently, a family member was diagnosed with dementia and we, as a family, realized we were not prepared t care for her. We were thrown into that whirlpool of hospital stays, 24/7 live-in care, skilled care, caring for mom ourselves and finally, now daily home care. This was such a stressful time that I started thinking there had to be other people, other families as overwhelmed and unprepared as we were.

Medical Professionals On Call has such a caring, professional staff who are available to step in with whatever level of care necessary for loved ones and to relieve you of that stress.

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